The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-09-23
FROM THE RICE FIELDS.
PLANTERS BEGINNING TO COUNT
UP THEIR LOSSES.

The Freshet Going on Very Slowly
| The Fields Expected to Be Dry
Enough to Work the Latter Part of
the Wsek-The Situation in Louisi-
ana.
There is very little that can be said in ad-
dition 10 what has already been said con-
corning the inundated rice fields. The wa
ters are receding slowly, and it is thought
that by Tuesday they will have left all the
fields on this side of the freshet dam. II
the 26-feet rise reported from Augusta does
not come down upon the fields this week.
and the weather remains fine, planters will
be able to get to work by the latter part of
the week, and then they can form a better
estimate of their losses from the rains, the
floods and heating.
There is another factor, small though 1t
is, which was developed by a question put
to a planter yesterday. He was asked
what the colored people who have lost so
much, do for provisions this winter"
Live on rice, was the reply.
when their rice is all drowned out, and
they are out at money!
LAYING IN THEIR STORES.
'Of course, why notl They have not
DCcu NdlLlu1 LOT Uut NApeT 10 ~ nOWli, DuJ
have been carrying the rice Off by boat
loads. An Unparalleled eye could not de-
tect in looking at a shock that it had been
| disturbed. They take the sheaves out, strip
the heads off into sacks and put the sheaves
| back so carefully under the caps that the
planter does not know how much rice he
has lost in this way until he comes to
| examine the sheaveS. The rice fields across
| from the city are especially the prey of
Rh 60 at nirbt nd
depredate the fields, and in some Instances
do not take the time to strip off the rice
| heads, but load their boats down with the
full sheaves. When they get it home they
| thresh the rice out with fail Some Of
the planters employ watchnen, but that
does not always prevent rice stealing; in
fact, 1t has not been long since a planters
Waterman carried off thirty bushels of rice.
THE LOUISIANA CROP.
| The Louisiana Planter, in a review of
| the rice situation in Louisiana, says in its
| ceipts the mills are all pounding
| now and the market is well sup
| piled with clean. Although some of the
| out-turn is still of doubtful keeping quality
| sound rice is no longer the exception, and
orders can be filled with confidence; hence
there has been some activity during the
past week, though not enough to move off
| IHe receipts Oh TOuRD. L ne european grain
crop and potato crop are both reported as
likely to be short. The latter fact tends to
strengthen our opinion that rice will hold
well up to the present range of values if it
be not rushed upon the market too rapidly.
The rice harvest is progressing with unex-
pected slowness. While the September
weather has been much better thus far than
was August, still it has been comparatively
rainy, and it has been found almost impoS-
sible to carr on the harvest in any salts
factory or even safe manner"
DIFFICULT HARVEST.
Rice put up i'll shocks or small stacks has
been found heating, and this has required
them to be broken down and dried again,
with but little weather to effect the drying
in. Much of the rice land ordinarily dry in
August is yet too wet and soft to allow
carts to enter it to haul out the crops. The
few dry days that do come are awaited of to
the fullest extent, and what rice is coming
to market is due to them. The harvest OF
1888 will be long remembered as one of the
most difficult and expensive known to the
industry in this state Almost the entire
crop has had to be cut by hand and the
average work done per hand has been
greatly reduced by the rice being blown
about. Our previous estimate of loss of
at least one-half of the rice crop that was in
sight Aug. seems to be confirmed by all
subsequent observation"