The New Orleans crescent., 1868-12-06

This letter shall devote 10 the lumber region
OF southern Mississippi, and would call the asten-
ton Of your lumbermen and the public at large to
the locality on the Mexican Gulf and the enor-
nous extent of country in Southern Mississippi
undeyeloped, yet full of resources, watered by the
Pascagoula river and it's tributaries. Eighteen
years before the settlement of New Orleans, and
only few months after the first French settlers
landed at Biloxi, twenty miles westward, Ben.
Vile explored the Pascagoula at least up to the
point where it had been crossed by De Soto about
one hundred and fifty years earlier. BIenville
doubtless listened to the mysterious music"
which is certainly heard at times at the mouth of
the Pascagous. but the cause OF which no one
has satisfactorily explained. He left on record
his imp e;sion OF the splendid live oak groves
along the lower river, the fine shell bluffs and the
somber pine forests stretching back into the
Interior. -...
II the readers Of the Republican will glance at
the map of Mississippi it will show that large
part of that State is drained by the Pascagoula
and its tributaries. Dog River empties into the
Psscagoula about eight miles above the gulf and
reaches up into Alabama between 800 aud 400
miles. About 100 miles above its mouth the Pas
cagoula branches into the Chickasawha and Leaf
rivers, both of which extend some 800 miles into
the interior. Light draft steamboats, have run up
to Enterprise, Miss, distance of 400 miles, IL is
computed that the Pascagoula and its tributaries
furnish 1900 miles of nsvgsble water, which il,
OF course. everywhere available for RATS, and is
lined with inexhaustible forests of pine cypress.
etc. Along these rivers are cane bottoms, of tie
richest soil, easily protected from overflow. re.
claimabe with little labor, and which would pro.
duce enormous crops OF rice, cotton, etc. There
are also some heavily timbered bottom lands and
South in fertility of soil. But by far the greater
portion of this neighborhood is occupied BY the
piney woods, than which no part of the country
has been less understood, more abused or will in
the end prove to be more valuable. Readers at
Chicago should appreciate, as they doubtless will,
these figures of this marvellous lumber region Of
he gulf.
la no other part of the United States can sub.
sistence be obtained at little cost of labor. I'm.
mense herds of cattle would thrive in these natu-
raj parks" of the South requiring little if any pro.
vision for the winter. In the dryer portions sheep
can also be raised to advantage as soon as the
dogs shall have been subjected to st. Bartholo.
new massacre. Every kind of fruit and vegeta-
BILE peculiar to the South, and many raised in the
North, grow to perfection. Where the pine land
has been slightly enriched, the sweet potato,
ground nut and castor bean are remarkably pro-
ductive. l have seen the castor bean growing
wild to the height Of fifteen feet. II yields sew.
eral months in the year, and usually survives the
frosts of Lower Mississippi. With but little labor
these lands can be made to pay more, per acre,
from the castor bean. than can be realized. per
acre, from the best sugar and cotton plantations
In the South. When will the world get enough
castor oil for medicine, for lubrcating OIL and for
the manufacture of soapg The castor bean is a
staple Of commerce, and there is no reason why il
should not be grown extensively in Lower Missis.
sippi.
Providence has placed ready at hand the means
for reclaiming and fer.ilizng these "Piney Wood"
ands in the immense peat bogs deposited along
the Pascsgouls and its tributaries, in the "tremb-
ling prairies" and sea marshes composed entirely
OF decayed vegetable matter washed down from the
bills, as also in the millions upon millions of cubic
yards OF shells (of limestone) in the wonderful
shell banks along the gulf coast One of the finest
OF these shell banks extends several miles up the
mil and ha <<fL L-ol~
rude pottery, numbers of which have been shown
to me, wherever one makes an excavation proves
that the shells must must have been deposited by
the Indians, or perhaps, by an anterior race.
Butt Is TO the resources of this region in lumber,
turpentine, rosin, tar. charcoal and fuel, that
would especially invite the attention Of the public.
As soon as the Pascagoula river can be opened to
commerce by the completion of the ship canal,
during the present month, steamboats, and sailing
vessels will be able to penetrate far into the in
terror of the State. In no other part of the South
can naval stores OF every description be produced
more economically or in greater abundance, and
from no other river in the south will there be such
excellent opportunities for shipment direct TO
New Orleans or to New York. Easy and profit
able employment will then be furnished for q
large population. 1t is impossible but that an im-
neDse impetus will be given to this healthful and
lucrative branch of business.
So obvious and well known are the advantages
of the Pascagoula region for the lumber trade,
that since the war. notwithstanding the depres-
sion of business and the fact that vessels drawing
more than five feet of water could not cross the
bar, thus preventing the shipments of lumber to
distant ports, and limiting them entirely to New
Orleans. more than twenty saw mills have been
erected near the mouth OF the Pascagoula, at q
cost Of half million of dollars, and capable of
furnishing a million feet of lumber per week.
Where the best pine logs can be furnished at IS
per 1000 feet, and choice cargoes of lumber can
be loaded at the mills on vessels drawing between
ten and eleven feet Of water, for shipment direct
to distant or 10 foreign ports at the low rate Of
$l2 per 1000 feet IL is evident there must exist
the best possible facilities for the lumber busi-
ness-facilities and advantages possessed, am
satisfied, By no other port on the Gulf or on the
Atlantic coast, and which cannot long escape the
attention of capitalists and business men.
Here on the Pascagoua river and its tributaries
is an inexbaIstible supply of lumber, enough to
fill demands for century to come, not only of
hard pine lumber, but also of cypress, oak Of va
rious kinds, ash, hickory, sweet gum, poplar.
juniper, cherry, black walnut and some cedar.
Moreover, the hard pine lumber is at least hun
dred per cent. more valuable for many uses than
the soft pine and spruce of the Northern forests
Spars have for twenty years been shipped from
the Pascagoula region to England, France and
Spain. single piece, ninety-two feet long
and foot square at the upper end, is said to
have been the finest spar ever shipped from this
country.