The Durant news. (Durant, Miss.) 1882-1985, 1950-12-07
THROUGH
HAZEL
EYES
~ Hszsl Brannon Smith

as you like but the difference be-
tween a rich and poor community
always goes back to the soil.
In any section where the land
- put TO proper use the people
enjoy q much higher standard of
living. Thus everyone is happier
On the other hand when the
land is abused and becomes poor
and eroded through continued
mismanagement it will no longer
support human or animal life.
What happens? Families move a.
way because they can no longer
exc out q miserable existence.
Why should this be true?
Why should not every acre of
land be put to the use it is best
adapted to, especially when we
nave at our command expert
technical advice and assistance
from numerous government agen-
cies working for a government
that recognizes the cardinal fact
that everything does 60 back to
the soil. II we as nation are to
continue to support large and
growing population with high
standard of living our soil must
be protected and put to proper
use.
The purpose Of this edition OF
this newspaper is to try to inn
press upon every reader the inn
portance of the soil in our life.
and to interest everyone in
Holmes county especially in saw
ing the soil and protecting the
heritage of today's boys and girls
Our citizens of tomorrow.
An ideal situation in Holmes
county or any other county
would be for every acre to be
put to its best use. Land that is
suitable for cultivation year af-
ter year, should, Of course, be put
in cultivation. There are only IT,
600 acres of such land In Holmes
county, however. out Of our to-
tai acreage Of about 488, 800 acres.
But land that Is best suited for
grasses and legumes rather than
row crops should be put in pas
lures for cattle-and this repre-
sents the largest acreage in the
county, 10000 acres. These l70,-
600 acres should be put in pas
ture every year.
The remainder a total acreage of
about 10000 acres should be in
trees.
There are some $1,000 acres of
land in the county taken up in
towns, roads, streams and lakes,
which accounts for the total 49, |
go acreage.
II Is forestry with which we
are ccncerned. this Week-es-
pecially at this time because the
Holmes county fire control pro-
gram Is now in effect with our
crews going to work on Decem-
Der LIST. If we are to grow trees !
and have timber industry it
is an absolute must to keep fire
out of>the woods.
Fire towers have been erected
on the G. H. Love farm on high |
way II and on Providence plan
tation. In addition a fire tower
in Carroll county is almost on the
Holmes county line and serves
this county and Carroll as does
our Area Forester E. p. Mcmillan.
Radios for these towers have |
not arrived yet nor has all of |
the fire-fighting equipment. The |
Korean war delayed the pro-
gram for at least ninety days. The
remainder of the equipment in
GLIDING the radios is expected to
arrive by January list.
In the meantime the fire crews
are on the job and will be sub
ject to your call and fight fires
with everything at their COM
mand.
The loss from forest fires a
lone in Holmes county last year
ran more than $4,000. This is
a conservative estimate. Just
think what that much extra in
come would mean to large num-
her of Holmes families. 1t would
mean a great deal to business and
professional men Throughout the
county because most of it would
be spent in Holmes county trade
channels,
This year there will be planted
about l,l5Q acres in pine seedlings
in the county--this is about
1,i50,000 trees because 1000
trees are planted per acre. AS
you can see by the figures l
have given before there remain
thousands of acres in Holmes
county that should be planted in
pine seedlings.
In addition to ealisting the
support Of every citizen in the
county to prevent forest fires
this newspaper seeks to interest
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