The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1880-02-26
The Cultivation of Upland Rice.

The experience of the past few years
has fully demonstrated the fact that By
far the most profitable employment for
the farmers of Southern Georgia is the
cultivation of the white, or highland rice.
The writer has tested the matter fully,
both by experiment and observation.
While this variety of rice fourishes best
in wet, alluvial soil, producing as large
yield under such circumstances rs the
Carolina golden" yet it does remarkably
we'll on ordinary uplands, which are
usually devoted to the growth of the
cereals or cotton. Indeed, it may be
stated as a fact that any land, however
elevated or sandy, that will make unas-
sisted, say from eight to twelve bushels
of corn per acre, will easily produce from
fifteen to twenty-five bushels of rice with
the same cultivation.
The only difference between the up
land or Carolina rice exists in the outer
covering or hull of the grain, which is Of
a pale, light color in the former, and a
bright yellow in the latter. In weight,
quality and excellence, as an article Of
food, the one is the equal of the other.
Upon corn or cotton upland, planting
should begin about the Goth of March,
and may continue with success as late as
the first of June.
By way of preparation, simply flush up
the ground with turning plough, and
smooth the surface, if possible, with an
ordinary wooden or iron harrow. Then,
with narrow scooter open trenches two
feet asunder, and apply in the drill any
fertilizer that may have been provided.
If the soil is high and dry, the seed, in
small handfulls, say thirty or forty grains,
should be deposited at Intervals Of fifteen
or eighteen inches 20 allow of the free
passage of the hoe in cultivation. Cover
with board as you would cotton. Where
the land is low and strong, more especially
if by lying fallow the crab grass has been
exterminated, the seed may be drilled at
the rate of about one and half bushels
per acre. Thus treated, fifty bushels
may be easily made in average seasons.
Cultivate lalf with frequent plough
ings between, and keeping the hills free
from grass or weeds.
No crop is more easily made or will
prove as remunerative. With equal sea-
sons, and planted side by side with corn,
the rice will produce double the yield Of
corn, and is worth, in the rough state,
fully third more in the market. The
writer !: s seen forty bushels produced on
the light Sea island cotton lands on the
seacoast of Liberty county.
He has also cultivated the rice as you
would peas, between the bills of corn,
where the soil was low and moist, raising
full crop of corn and fifteen bushels of
rice to the acre. In the latter case the
rice received a thorough working, after
the blades of the corn were removed for
fodder.
The rice straw, if protected from the
weather, furnishes good proyinder for
sheep, horses and cattle, and oftentimes,
in q wet season, the stubble will put forth
a second growth, which can be cut when
green and cured, making the very best of
hay.
Rice and oats should be staple crops in
Georgia, and both can be successfully
cultivated from the base of our mountains
to the Southern border of the Common
weath.-H. Fl. j., in Me1us and Courier.