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MAGNOLIA STATE AREA: 123,515 sq km (47,689 sq mi). POPULATION: 2,669,000. CAPITAL: Jackson, pop. 196,200. ECONOMY: Industry: apparel, furniture, lumber and wood products, food processing, electrical machinery, transportation equipment. Agriculture: cotton, poultry, cattle, catfish, soybeans, dairy products, rice. PCI: $15,840. ADMISSION: 1817 as 20th state.
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Mississippi ranks first in world production of catfish and third among states in cotton. Between 1950 and 1980 soaring demand for soybeans prompted reclamation of more than four-fifths of the almost five million acres of wetlands. Federal laws have now made it less profitable to convert critical waterfowl habitat to cropland. A new heritage corridor along the Mississippi River includes antebellum houses and Civil War battlefields. With improving test scores and high school graduation rates, Mississippi continues to raise its once low scholastic standing in the U.S.
Text source: National Geographic Atlas of the World Revised Sixth Edition, 1995
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