Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. I, Part 5

Author: Rowland, Dunbar, 1864-1937, ed
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Atlanta, Southern Historical Publishing Association
Number of Pages: 1030

USA > Mississippi > Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. I > Part 5

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"Truck farming was begun in Copiah county in 1874. Rev. J. W. McNeill and Mr. Stackhouse were pioneers at Crystal Springs. About 1870, Mr. Cassel, of Canton, began advancements in horti- culture, and in 1872 the Mckay brothers, Dr. H. E., John and W.

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T., began the present extensive strawberry culture." (Mem. of Miss., II, 117.)

In 1877 the growing of fruit in the neighborhood of Crystal Springs had assumed such dimensions that a convention of fruit growers and railroad officials was held at that place for mutual benefit.

Major S. A. Jonas wrote of the New Orleans exposition in 1885 : "Mississippi's splendid exhibit of hay, the largest and most com- prehensive at the exposition, was a revelation to visitors at the North and West, as well as to thousands of her own people. .

· . the specimens presented consisted of fifty-two commercial bales, including timothy, japanese clover, water grass, wild millet, white clover, red clover, burr clover, crab grass, boar grass, bermuda grass, chicken corn, red top, pea-vine, milo maize, velvet grass, rice straw and sassafras, all of the best quality. In addition to the bales, the grasses came from all the counties in sheaves and bun- dles, including a large quantity of red clover from Washington county in the Mississippi bottom, between four and five feet high, and incomparably the finest clover exhibit at the exposition. Among the most prominent exhibitors were Capt. J. W. Howard, of Monroe county, and Mr. Dunbar Hunt, of Jefferson. The former, from his 1,100 acre grass farm in the prairie, which in- cludes 125 acres in red clover, sent eleven varieties of hay in bales, while Mr. Hunt, from his Mississippi river farm, contributed seven bales, and both these gentlemen sent as fine timothy hay as the county can boast." Robt. Brown, of Monroe county, exhibited Japanese clover seed.

In a community built up like that of Mississippi there are two classes, the land owners and the land workers, the latter being known as "labor." In all parts of the United States there are the farmer proper and the hands, but only in the States formerly per- mitting slavery is there such a broad distinction. Says A. B. Hurt, in his report on Mississippi to the department of agriculture, 1883: "Frequent attempts have been made to introduce labor from abroad, especially from the European countries. But little suc- cess has attended these efforts. The difficulty was not one of climate as has been erroneously supposed."

Mr. Hurt continues : "Ever since the emancipation of the slaves, this great question has been anxiously and seriously considered by the planters of Mississippi." Of the negroes: "Left to them- selves, and free from the influences of designing politicians, it is but just to say that they afford perhaps the best class of laborers

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for the large cotton fields, especially in the Yazoo delta. Many planters, indeed, consider negro labor the only kind suited to the existing methods of cotton culture, with which long experience has made them familiar. . ,Of course, there is no difficulty of this kind in the way of native white labor, as more than one- third of the cotton product of the State is the result of white labor."

There are three relations between the landowner and worker: the wages system, the share system and the renting system. "As a general thing the colored people are averse to working for wages, preferring a semi-proprietorship or partnership in the products of their labor. . . The share system, originating soon after the war, is quite extensively adopted throughout the State. It is, how- ever, considered by many objectionable, as under its operation the lands are allowed to deteriorate in value, the laborer caring little for their preservation and for future results. To this system, per- haps more than to anything else, may be attributed the slovenly and unremunerative methods of agriculture sometimes met with in this State. When the share system is adopted the landowner furnishes, besides the land, quarters, wood privileges, farming im- plements, stock and feed, as an offset to the labor of the tenant. At harvest time the crops are divided on the basis agreed upon at the beginning of the year, which is in most cases one-half. Un- der the renting system the farms are rented for a specified amount in money or cotton, the tenants making their own terms for sup- plies and assuming all risk. The rent on the rich bottom lands of the State is sometimes as high as $8 and $10 per acre. The aver- age there is about $6.50 per acre (1883).

According to the census of 1900, Mississippi had 220,803 farms, of which the owners operated 82,021; owners and tenants, 609: managers, 930, and tenants, 137,852. Indiana, for comparison, with about the same number of farms, had 156,000 operated by owners and 63,000 by tenants. In Mississippi, 128,679 farms of all kinds were operated by negroes, and 92,124 by whites. In the South in general, one-half the cotton farms are operated by colored people.

Agriculture under any system was, however, for many years after the war, embarrassed by a wasteful and burdensome credit system. The planter, with cotton selling at high prices, gave him- self up wholly to that product, to the neglect of everything else. "The farmer's smokehouse, corn-crib, haystack and almost his vegetable garden were in the Northwest. The profits of manufac- turing his cotton were realized in the East or in Europe," and the

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farmer mortgaged his crop in advance to middlemen, to pay living expenses. With greater cotton crops the price declined; the soil became impoverished; the burden of debts increased, and the planters persevered, hoping each year for a bigger crop next year. They attempted to survive, paying 89 cents to $1 a bushel for corn, also buying bacon and hay, of course paying unnatural prices un- der such an unnatural system.

Out of the system of farming on credit grew the agricultural lien law, which authorized and regulated the borrowing of money or store credit on a crop that had not yet been planted. The lien law had its origin in an act for the encouragement of agriculture, approved by Governor Humphreys, February 18, 1867. "It made debts incurred for the making of crops a prior lien on the same ; advances of the landowner to the laborer or lessee a lien on the share of the laborer; liens to be enforced by a bill in chancery, with sequestration; mortgages permitted on crops fifteen months in advance; crops not to be levied upon until gathered." Of this law Governor Alcorn said it was a remnant of the credit system, that induced extravagance and extortion alike. "In either aspect, it is an excrescence on the present order of things." The repeal of such laws would release the planter from an old incubus and put agriculture on a footing of solvency and independence. But with various modifications, "this law was preserved in the codes of 1871 and 1880. By 1890 the remedy had been much simplified, to a summary seizure on affidavit and warrant; litigation being trans- ferred to the law courts from chancery." (Mayes.)

In 1883 it was estimated that it would require about one-fifth of the entire cotton crop to cancel the agricultural liens on record, which was greater than the profit that could be expected from the investment in cotton planting. About one-half of these liens were thought to be due to money lenders. In the last few years condi- tions have been greatly changed, by higher prices for cotton, and at the same time a movement has begun for cooperation among cotton growers to hold their cotton for the best prices that the actual conditions of the crop warrant.

According to the census of 1900, the Mississippi acreage im- proved was 3,844,667,, or 31 per cent, which is less than any other agricultural State. The value of land and improvements was put at nearly $60,000,000 ; of buildings, $25,500,000; of implements and machinery, $6,000,000 ; of live stock, $26,000,000. The total, $117,- 733,593, is the lowest of any South Central state, Alabama being

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next. The total value of products was $50,500,000. Paid for labor, $2,500,000.

The great commonwealths of the United States are the hay states, and, although climate interferes with the successful growth of grasses familiar to northern latitudes, Mississippi has possibili- ties in this respect. Best of the grasses in Mississippi appears to be the Bermuda, introduced early in the history of the territory. Though so much an alien as to be unable to produce its seed, it propagates with all sufficient rapidity by runners, and produces, as Wailes wrote in 1854, "an almost incredible quantity of delicate nutritious hay." The Japan clover is a strong rival. It was first noticed in Hinds county about 1878, and several years earlier in other parts of the State, and spreads with marvelous rapidity. As a hay for winter feed, many farmers consider it incomparable. The well-known crab-grass also makes an excellent hay. Besides these, there are possibly over a hundred native grasses, some of which might be capable of great development. Dr. D. L. Phares, of the A. & M. college, is an eminent authority and author of "The Farmer's Book of Grasses." Prof. John A. Myers, State chemist, wrote in 1883: "Just after the close of the war the price of cotton ran so high that it dazed the farming community so completely that they parted with all their stock and went to raising cotton. We venture the assertion, however, that there is scarcely a State in the Union that has superior natural facilities for this pursuit than Mississippi. The question is often asked, Is there any forage in Mississippi for cattle? We answer, Yes, abundance of it; and if the farmers would only let the grasses grow instead of trying to kill them, Mississippi would in a few years become one of the most important grazing States in the Union." (See Fairs, State.)

Agricultural College, a post-village on the Columbus branch of the Mobile & Ohio R. R. about a mile southeast of Starkville. This is the seat of the State Agricultural and Mechanical College (q. v.).

Agricultural and Mechanical College. The act of Congress do- nating public lands to the several States and territories which may provide colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts, approved July 2, 1862, granted to each State an area of land equal to 30,000 acres for each member of its representation in Con- gress under the census of 1860. States were required to express their acceptance within two years, but the time was extended two years later to July 2, 1866, and then extended again until July 2, 1867. In October, 1866, before a special session of the legislature,

4-I

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Governor Humphreys "earnestly recommended" that the grant be accepted and laws passed to take advantage of it. The legisla- ture acted accordingly. But there was some politics involved, the relation of the State to the Union being a political issue. Gover- nor Humphreys plainly intimated that he meant the transaction to show that Mississippi was no longer "an insurrectionary State." He reported in his message of January 24, 1867, that he had re- ceived no reply to his communication to the Land office at Wash- ington, and understood that the issue of scrip to the Southern States had been suspended. The land scrip was issued, covering an area of 210,000 acres, while General Alcorn was governor, in 1871, from the sale of which the receipts were $175,000, which was invested in Mississippi State bonds, of the face value of $190,000, for the benefit of agricultural departments to be added to the Ox- ford and Alcorn universities. Part of the scrip was burned in the great Chicago fire, and reissued by the Land office. $30,000 was advanced for the purchase of Oakland college for the Alcorn uni- versity. These bonds were due January 1, 1896, to the amount of $212,150.

An agricultural department of the University of Mississippi was organized in 1872, to be supported by State appropriations in addi- tion to the Congressional endowment. The faculty of the depart- ment at Oxford was composed of the Chancellor Dr. John N. Wad- dell, Prof. C. W. Sears, Prof. L. C. Garland, Dr. George Little, Dr. E. W. Hilgard and Dr. J. A. Lyon, together with a number of ad- junct professors. But in spite of "a strong and distinguished fac- ulty, an excellent course of study, a farm well and conveniently located, and in every way adapted to the purposes of the Depart- ment of Agriculture, Horticulture and Botany, this school of agri- culture and mechanic arts under the surroundings and environ- ments of the University was not popular or attractive to students, consequently, comparatively few registered for work in that col- lege, and during the six years of its existence in connection with the University, no evidence is found that a single student took the entire course or that a single graduate was turned out. After 1876, for lack of funds to properly equip the farm it was abandoned. (Miss. A. & M. Coll., White.)

A determined effort was made by the farmers, and particularly by the State Grange, toward the establishment of an agricultural college. The Agricultural and Mechanical college was founded by an act of legislature approved February 28, 1878. The board of trustees, appointed under the act, were delayed by the yellow

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fever epidemic, and did not make the location until the following winter, at Starkville, where the citizens donated $9,000. The board purchased 350 acres for $2,450, and work was begun in July, 1879, on the first building, expected to cost $16,000. The expense so far was met by the Starkville donation, and the interest paid by the State on the bonds belonging to the fund. The legislature had appropriated for the new college a sum equal to that theretofore appropriated for Alcorn university, but had appropriated it out of the principal of the fund, which was unavailable, under the terms of the donation by Congress.

In 1884, Governor Lowry reported: "The college has received from the State in the aggregate $205,000." This and the local do- nation, the land fund interest and the sale of $15,000 bonds under an act of 1882, supported the institution for three years. In 1880, Gen. Stephen D. Lee was elected president. His administration lasted until 1899, and the institution owes a very great proportion of its success and prosperity to his remarkable executive ability and powerful influence.

Ex-Governor John M. Stone succeeded General Lee, but died after only eleven months of service. He was followed by J. C. Hardy, A. M., the present head of the institution.

Its trustees have been men of high standing, who have taken great interest in the welfare of the college, some of them having been members of the board for many years. Col. W. B. Montgom- ery, one of the original trustees, remained on the board until 1904. Maj. T. C. Dockery was one of the original members and has served ever since, and Col. H. M. Street was a trustee for more than twenty years. The board in 1905 was Frank L. Hogan, T. C. Dockery, J. C. Bradford, James T. Harrison, T. L. Wain- right, W. C. George, A. T. Dent, James W. Norment, W. A. Dick- son, and the State superintendent.

In organizing the new college, the Michigan agricultural col- lege was studied especially, and a committee of the trustees was sent to Michigan for that purpose. Two of the members of the first faculty were from Michigan, but the best methods of all the agri- cultural colleges have been incorporated into the Mississippi col- lege organization. The number of its students and the value of its property have increased rapidly. The enrollment of students for its first session was 354. Its present enrollment is over 700. In 1883, the college property was valued at $174,857; in 1905 it was appraised at $662,000. In 1882, women were admitted to the col- lege, but there is no provision made for their living at the col-

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lege, and they must find board and rooms in town or in private houses on the college campus. The college is one and a half miles from Starkville, on a branch of the Mobile & Ohio railroad, and has its own railroad station, postoffice and express office. It has a very substantial and attractive group of buildings, prominent among them being the large dormitory, which contains 150 bed- rooms, and is equipped with the best sanitary appliances as well as steam heat, electric light, etc. There is a small dormitory con- taining 39 bedrooms. The college has its own central heating plant, which supplies the buildings with steam heat, its own elec- tric light plant, sewerage system and water works, and owns and operates a steam laundry. The water is pumped from a well 1,000 feet deep, and the slope of the grounds gives fine natural drainage, making the location excellent from the standpoint of health. March 11, 1884, the buildings were damaged by a cyclone, and the legislature appropriated $10,000 for repairs.

The handsome new textile building, erected at a cost of $30,000, is splendidly lighted and arranged and has an equipment valued at $35,000, much of which has been presented by manufacturers, in recognition of the important work being done in this department. There are also the academic building, science hall, chemical labor- atory, dairy building, agricultural hall, and mechanical department buildings. The James Z. George infirmary was named in honor of the distinguished senator who was one of the early trustees.

The experiment station, established under the Hatch Act in 1887, is closely affiliated in its work with that of the agricultural college, but has its own independent organization and endowment. The whole fund granted to Mississippi under this act of Congress was given by the legislature to this station. It has a creamery building, office, fine large barn for storage and general purposes, barn for dairy cattle, barn for beef cattle, sheep barn, and green- houses covering an acre of ground.

According to law, 300 students are given free tuition and then apportioned among the counties of the State according to the num- ber of educable white boys in the county in proportion to the whole number in the State. Other students are welcome, on pay- ment of tuition fee, with the same privileges as the free students. The free students are accommodated first in the college dormitory, where board is furnished at cost, fuel, light, and water being in- cidental expenses, the exact cost being divided among the students. The legislature appropriates money to be paid for student labor, by means of which many students supplement scanty resources,

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and earn enough to complete the full four years' course. The earn- ings of spare hours are credited to the students for board, etc., and they are only paid cash in final settlement. The students do all kinds of work on the campus, farming, gardening, work in the buildings, care of equipments, etc. One of the main objects of the college is to promote practical and industrial education, and to this end manual labor is encouraged in every possible way. Con- siderable practical industrial work is required without pay and the students are taught the dignity of hand work. There is also a practical course offered, by means of which students can work all day and go to school at night, thereby saving enough money to enter the regular course. In 1903 sixteen students took this course, six of them entering the regular course the following year.

For the first ten years the college offered only one course, the agri- cultural. Now there are four main courses, agricultural, engineer- ing, textile, and industrial pedagogy, each having its own director. In the first a student may specialize in agriculture, horticulture, dairying, veterinary science, biology or chemistry ; in the second, in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, civil engineering, rural engineering, geology, or mining; the third includes exception- ally thorough courses in dyeing, weaving, and designing. Labor- atory work, shop work, field work, and other kinds of practical in- dustrial work play a very important part in the different courses. The B. S. degree is conferred upon the completion of any one of the main courses. Graduate work is also encouraged and opportunity offered for its pursuit in any of the departments. A short course in agriculture is offered, consisting of ten weeks in the winter for two years.

At the experiment station much valuable work is being done. An extensive study of soils and water supplies of soils is being carried on, also of field crops, feeding, fertilizers and all of the problems of interest to the farmer. In the horticultural department many varieties of fruits are being raised; new varieties of peaches, plums, small fruits, etc., are constantly being tested. The results of these investigations are published in bulletins, and through these bulletins and the farmers' institutes, the farmers keep in touch with the work that is being done at the college. A yearly institute is held at the college, when speakers of prominence from other parts of the United States give talks on matters of interest to the agri- culturist. It is hoped to have the county farmers' institutes on a permanent basis, so that they will send delegates from the county institutes to the college institute. This work is of the very greatest

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importance, as it gives the farmers the benefit of the best results being accomplished, the world over, in their special branches.

For the support of this institution, Congress donated another section of land in 1894, which was sold for $141,532 by the State, which pays 6 per cent annual interest thereon to the college.

The textile school, urged by Govs. McLaurin and Longino, was established in the administration of the latter.

The State appropriations for the four years, 1900-03, were $338,- 000, more than half of which was expended on the textile building, the infirmary, the scientific, agricultural and horticultural building, and other permanent improvements.

A branch experimental station was established at McNeil, Pearl River county, in 1900, the results of which have been published in bulletins. In 1904 the legislature made a small appropriation for another branch station in the brown-loam region of northwest Mis- sissippi, and another in the Yazoo delta. A donation of land was accepted near Holly Springs for the northwestern station, and the people of Washington county raised a fund of $15,000 and purchased 200 acres at Stoneville, near Greenville, for the Delta station. which was accepted. These stations were begun in 1906.

The practical working boys' course was organized four years ago to meet the needs of boys unable to raise the $40 or $50 nec- essary to enter a regular course. The legislature appropriated $3,000 for quarters for such students in 1904. Negro labor has been discarded entirely in three of the departments, and it is the intention to discard it altogether, so that white boys willing to work their way through may not be shut out. Work is not a specialty, however ; four-fifths of the boys help themselves in this way, and those who are most independent are the most popular. W. C. George, who founded the J. Z. George scholarship, in 1897, with an income of $250 a year, discontinued it as a prize, and the money is loaned to deserving students. Another loan fund has been begun.

The military department is of great value to the State. Through it seven hundred boys are trained in personal cleanliness and physi- cal exercise, and prepared for intelligent military service in case of need. The preparatory department is invaluable. Under the man- agement of Professor Garner, it is especially devoted to the help of the boy without financial endowment. The library now includes over 10,000 volumes.

The department of industrial pedagogy was established in 1903, in response to the suggestion of the State Teachers' Association ; and has furnished superintendents to Okolona, Starkville, Durant,

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McComb City, Gulfport, Greenwood and many of the county and high schools. The summer normal is part of this work, begun in 1905. The department of foreign languages, particularly for in- struction in Spanish and German, was founded in 1904. The school of agriculture has just been enlarged by adding the department of animal industry, to promote the live stock business in the State, and the department of agronomy, particularly for the improvement of corn culture. The department of chemistry, under the direction of Prof. W. F. Hand, is of great importance as bearing on the . analysis of soils, and co-operation with the geological department in the geological survey, also through the fact that the head of the department is State chemist and has charge of the analysis of fer- tilizers. The college also had charge of the quarantine against the boll weevil in the recent years, and the inoculation of cattle against Texas fever.

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Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. I, Part 5

Author: Rowland, Dunbar, 1864-1937, ed Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Atlanta, Southern Historical Publishing Association Number of Pages: 1030

Author: Rowland, Dunbar, 1864-1937, ed
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Atlanta, Southern Historical Publishing Association
Number of Pages: 1030