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SOUVENIR CENTENNIAL EDITION, HANCOCK COUNTY EAGLE
August, 1958
Board of Supervisors Aid Forestry In County
Your Board of Supervisors, believes it their duty to work for the best interest of Hancock County, and each one of the County’s citizens. In the protection of timber resources of this county we feel the people have at stake their greatest investment.
Through the cooperaton of the State of Mississippi and the Federal Government it costs this county and its citizens only two cents an acre of uncultivatable lands to be assured of this protection.
The Board is glad to cooperate with the state in carrying on this work. It is impossible without the wholehearted cooperation of every individual to absolutely stamp out forest fires, but the number of fires and their devastations can be reduced to an ab-
BAY CANNING COMPANY LUCRATIVE INDUSTRY OF THE PAST
The Bay Canning Company was established in 1935 by the following company: R. J. Ladner, Mrs. R. J. Ladner and Miguel Parillo. The factory was located on the Bay of St. Louis in the North ward and was established for the purpose of canning shrimp, oysters and vegetables though vegetables were a minor objective. The canned products were shipped wholesade throughout the United States. The factory canned two thousand two hundred and sixty barrels of shrimp at a cost of $14,395 and thirty thousand seven hundred and thirty-one barrels of oysters at a cost of $18,069.08. The Company owned twenty large pow. er boats which employed eighty men and 19 skiffs which employed about thirty-six men. The factory operated eight months of the year and employed two hundred and fifty four men with an annual payroll of $95,368.00. This factory provided work for a larger number of people than if it were located in the rural section and made these two types of seafood available to people of the inland section.
solute minimum by such cooperation.
From Hancock County’s 222,100 acres of forest land, $1,879,338 worth of timber f. o. b. plant were cut in the year 1956. Some 10,313,-
000	board feet of timber were cut into board measure products and seme 38,341 cords of pulpwood were cut along with production of 25,336 tons of distillate wood.
Thus, from the forest lands of the County, a little over 100 bd. ft. of timber was harvested for each acre of forest land.
For timber growing, Hancock County has excellent soil, high rainfall, warm temperature and excellent species of trees. Much of the Connty’s land has recently been restocked either by natural means or by planting. A large proportion of the growing timber is not yet saleable. Future production should easily triple that of 1956 and possibly go higher.
Very likely that production will go higher for the people of Hancock County are supporting forestry today as never before.
The number of forest fires is dropping. Protection forces are at their best level with Mississippi Forestry Commission and industry firefighters constantly on the alert A high percentage of the landowners are doing an excellent job with liitir timberland management and many others are turning that way.
A sampling of the attitude toward forestry was obtained recently from a grammar school student who volunteered that so far as she was concerned the 11th Commandment was, “Do not bum our woods—Mr. Parker said so.” (Area Forester Marion T. Parker, Mississippi Forestry Commission).
Centuries back the forests of Hancock County produced only pine knots for Indian fires and Cypress logs for their dug-out canoes. Later live oak, cypress and yellow pine timbers for the Queen’s ships and Lafitte’s fleet were cut. Later, because of
The above photo shows a parade of years ago, when automobiles were few and far between. You will notice the horses and buggies parked on the side. No doubt, there was a hot time in the old town that night.
the vast stands of premium long-leaf yellow pine, great sawmills cut vast amounts of timber—as many as a million ft. a day in some mills without regard to restocking and replenishing these forests.
Uncontrolled fires nearly completed the destruction of timber on these lands.
Somewhere around the first World War the more progressive of the same lumbermen reached the conclusion that not only was the land well suited for growing
SMOKE
El Trelles Cigars
THE PRIDE OF THE SOUTH
trees, but that the job could be done in their lifetime. Since that early day, continuous and rapid progress has been made and progress is continuing at an accelerated rate. Hancock County forest lands can exceed the expected rate of growth (400 bd. ft. per acre per year average for good stands in Mississippi) because of her longer growing season and higher rainfall and temperature.
FUR INDUSTRY BROUGHT TIDY INCOME
The Fur Industry thrived in the Southern part of the county. There were 15,000 acres of trapping land and 600 men engaged in trapping. In 1935-36 there were 30-,
000	hides shipped but in 1937-38 only 20,000. These hides brought an average of 85 cents per hide. There were ten fur buying operators in the county. Some of the lands were leased and others worked on a commission on gross sales.
THE JOHNSON CANNERY FLOURISHED IN THE '30'S
The Johnson Cannery was established in 1934 and was owned and operated by Lewis O. Johnson, Jr. It was located at the terminus of the Blaize pier at the head of Washington St. in Ward 3. This pier extended about four thousand; feet into the waters of the Bay.
Shrimp, oysters and vegetables were canned and shipped by wholesale to all points in the United States. Its raw products were valued at $25,000 per year. This cannery operated ten months of the year and employed twenty-five men per day but employees were paid on a piece work basis and not on a regular wage scale. Though small, this industry was far-reaching as it employed local men and women and put a product on the market that otherwise would be food for local people and not for people of inland districts as the shipping of seafood in the raw is not satisfactory.
FRANK P. CORSO, INC., DISTRIBUTOR
By MARIOiN PARKER Area Forester
Many can remember the time when a man took his ax into the woods and started hewing down trees. He cleared these trees to increase the size of his farm land or more often to replace that which was worn out by continuously growing soil depleting crops without the use of fertilizer and by not protecting good soil conservation.
Sawmills also destroyed lots of good timber land by clear cut-ing, not leaving any seed trees to reproduce. Not all of the mill operations was of this type, some practiced good forestry even
in those days. They left in mos instances, a barren waste of cu over land. The responsibility o the problems we face here ii Hancock County is ours. Toi many people think that holding ; deed to a certain tract of lan< gives them the right to do with i just what they want to do, n< matter how destructive. The; burn their woodland each year no knowing or more sadly, not cai ing that these fires are killin; young seedlings that would som day -become a timber crop of grea value. Every citizen in Hancoci County needs to help bring int full productivity every acre tha is not producing.