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South Mississippi in 1852: Some Selections from the Journal of Benjamin L. C. Wailes
Edited by John Hebron Moore
While ENGAGED IN CONDUCTING AN AGRICULTURAL and geological survey of the state, Benjamin L. C. Wailes, assistant professor of geology at the University of Mississippi, in 1852 made a journey overland through the little-known Piney Woods region of South Mississippi and along the Gulf Coast.1 At this time the economy of that section of the state was in a state of transition. For many years previous a majority of the inhabitants of the coastal plairf had supported themselves by grazing cattle in the pine forests and the canebrakes along the streams, but during the 1840?s the once great herds of this eastern cattle kingdom began to decline in numbers because of damage to the range from overgrazing and forest fires.2 In that same decade a new lumber, tar, and turpentine industry first made its appearance, and, expanding in size during the remainder of the ante-bellum period, it provided employment for many of the people of the southern part of the state.3
In a series of newspaper articles written during the
1	B. L. C. Wailes, Report on the Agriculture and Geology of Mississipvi, Embracing a Sketch of the Social and Natural History of the State ([Philadelphia], 1854). For a biography of Wailes refer to Charles S. Sydnor, A Gentleman of the Old Natchez Region-. Benjamin L. C. Wailes (Durham, 1938).
2	Eugene W. Hilgard, Report on the Geology and Agriculture of the State of Mississippi (Jackson, 1860), 361.
3	Canton Independent Democrat, December 2, 1843; Jackson Missis-sippian, June 15, 1849; July 1, 1857; Port Gibson Herald, June 12, 1845; Raymond South-western Farmer, January 20, 1843.
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