The Lexington advertiser. [volume] (Lexington, Miss.) 1904-1985, 1950-01-19
Adoption OF Holmes County Fire Protection
Subject OF Speech BYE. B. Livingston
At LADA Meeting AT Court House Monday
Representative Crowd
Of IS Attended Meet

Il am one who has thoroughly
awakened to the fact that if we
expect TO stay in Mississippi, and
expect our children to stay here,
we've got to change u ways
said E. B. Livingston, Jackson, OF
the State Forestry commission.
guest speaker at the Lexington
Agricultural Development as
ISOLATION meeting Monday night
at the Lexington court house.
The adoption of fire protection
for Holmes county was discussed
at the meeting and the LADA is
spearheading the drive to pro-
cure such protection in the coun-
ty. Much interest has been
aroused in favor of the plan as
was evidenced by a turnout at
1.-The meeting of eighty-five per-
sons representing every form OF
city and rural business and agri-;
cultural activity.
A committee of IA men was
chosen to make a study of the fire
icontrol organizations in neighbor-
ing counties and to make a re-
port Of their findings. Committee
members are R. M. Branch, Good
man; Hoover Maxwell, Plckenss
. w. j. Waits, Goodman, J. E. Chs
olm, Lexington; H. c. Waterer,
Tchula: A. J. Stevens, West; e
L. Downer, Lexington; E. W.
Hooker, Lexington; Rex Buchan-
: an. Durant; Henry Watson, Lex
e ington; R. w. Almond, Goodman
0 John R. Killebrew, Goodman
Frank Eakin, Thornton; and 3
i w. HUMPHREYS, Ebenezer.
T. M. Williams, LADA presl-
e, dent, presided at the meeting and
'e introduced Mr.. Livingston.
y mississippi ranks 48th as Tar
= as individual income is concern
ed" said Mr.. Livingston, yet Mis-
3 sissippi ranks seventh IN fe1tliitS
= of the soil. No state has a oeS-
: tel. climate, and no state has pet
ter agricultural opportunities. Goo
has seen fit to let us live IN q.
40 place that could be called n
ut Garden of Eden. yet we rank iast
he in per capita income"
s. .The trouble is with the people
" and not the state" he stated. The
nc people have cut virgin timber and
Sc followed this with fires till it IS
IL hard to see how we have any
Of ,rep. left. If any trees at all ees,
ly caned. II was PSeslY aasaSaNsas
,St - froro 4h~S.
~ yes Aioh use a~ccIaental trees
Mississippi produced, during the
- last 8A years, 17,172, 967, 0OO
board feet Of lumber.
of There are 20 million uncultav-
able acres of land in Mississippi
and three fourths of these acres
could be producing timber, but
are now idle" stated Mr.. Living
ston. In pointing out the folly of
leaving these acres idle he said,
a If someone told us how we could
make u oil wells produce more
and longer, we'd all rise up and
say, let's do it.
Eve in Mississippi have two
n jobs to do, first is to protect the
10 trees we have from fire, and sec
ID ondly, to plant more trees on our
r. idle a%cres,'' said Mr. Livingston
e He further stated that these trees
n would hold and improve the soil
Carroll county could provide
sand enough to cover the entire
Delta with eight inches of sand
through erosion" he said. It's
everybody's problem and every
body's job to provide our children
with an economic opportunity in
Mississippi"
Mr.. Livingston explained the
b set-up for county fire protection
and said that county, state and
government funds would 60 to
make up the budget for the n
/ dertaking. Land owners will be
S taxed &c per acre for u~ncultavable
: land, and county funds, together
with state and government funds,
will provide a budget of from 7c
to lie per acre of unbelievable
land in the county, according to
, Mr. Livingston.