Los Angeles herald., 1891-12-19
CULTIVATION OF RICE.
WATER PLAYS A BIG PART IN THE
RAISING OF THE CEREAL.

IL stin in Its Infancy = How Rice
Fields Are Kept Flooded.
"Tell you something about rice in
louisiana" repeated Andrew G. Wilkin-
son, the owner of a large rice mill in
New Orleans, where the rice grown on
his plantation is cleaned, at the Gilsey
House. 81 see that the papers have just
found out that Englishmen are trying
to buy up and form trust of the rice
mills in the south, although the agents
have been down there for something
over six months. Nobody is quicker
than John Bull to scent bargain.
New Orleans is the chief rice milling
sity of America. Fifty years ago we
did not have such a thing as rice mill,
but now we have sixteen working 800
rice Founders and employing more than
1900 men. Louisiana has always been
known as the Sugar State, but we also
want to add to it that of the Rice State
Of the Union.
ssHow is it cultivated? Well, the
FIRST necessity of profitable rice culture
is comparatively level piece of land,
properly prepared for the seed. This field
must be located so as to be conveniently
irrigated from the prairie reservoir or
the fume in the levee. Highland rice
does not pay in Louisiana, the only
profitable rice being that grown in
water Water is the first and last want
Of sprouting, growing and ripening rice.
Before the ground is ready for the seed
it is divided up by system of little
sublevees and watering bitches. 1t is
then planted in drills dug by machines
or rather / should say that the ma
chine is the proper way to do it, but the
seed is frequently broadcasted with us in
Louisiana.
''Then comes the most delicate part,
in the water manipulation. After the
seed is planted the soil is thoroughly
saturated with water to sprout it, but
the water is at once taken off when the
seeds have evenly terminated, and kept
off until the tender shoots of the plant
rise two or three inches above the
ground. You can easily see that the
young plants may be either drowned out
or dried up by the least inattention in
regulating the flow.
DRAWBACKS TO THE WORK.
On the other hand, with too much
water, crawfish invade the fields and de-
your the delicate plants, while with none
at all, rice caterpillars cut them down
and kill them. If you neglect the main
Aume you not only risk the total loss of
your crop, but by permitting the water
to get ahead of you there may come
break in the levee, and away go your
cattle and crops.
''rhe most expensive part of rice grow
ing comes when it is about foot high,
after it has been literally watered; I
mean the grassing of the rice. You see,
the laborers wade through the rice, pull
ing up and throwing into heaps all the
weeds and water grasses they find. This
grassing costs on an average about four
dollars an acre, and after that is over
the rice planter has but little to do ex-
eept to give it plenty Of water. One pc
culiar thing about irrigation is that the
heads Of the rice plants never fill out,
no matter how much water you give
them artifcialIy, unless there are plenti-
full rains.
"One feature of rice cultivation would
be great fun to city sportsmen, but is a
terrible nuisance to Us. / mean the
birds. Talk about your ducks and geese
hiding the sun. Perfect clouds of rice
birds, English sparrows, summer ducks,
rail and other fowl of the air and wa
ter, come to see if they can't harvest our
crops for us. From daybreak to dark
perfect fusilade from the guns and old
muskets is heard in hundreds of square
miles of country. Over in this field you
hear the shrill shouts Of creole farmers
shrieking out Sunday school language in
French patols; from the next probably
the deep chested whoop of negro field
hands. and in another the hoarse yells
Of the new American rice growers
those who have come from the great
northern wheat fields 1t is scream!-
popl- whoopl bang!- boom!-in the
noisiest battle from dawn to dark that
you ever heard.
"The rice birds are our worst enemies,
and while we kill millions of them, left
to manure the fields, other millions come
in to take their places. The ravages of
the rice birds some years are fearful,
she crop being almost total loss. Per-
haps now that the Yankees are coming
down to grow rice they may invent some
machine that will either destroy the
birds or keep them away.
PROFITS OF RICE CULTURE
'As soon as pale yellow tint appears
ever the level heads of the opening
grain the water is carefully drawn off,
the fields being drained as thoroughly as
possible, and the workeof harvesting is
begun. The dried sheaves are carted
direct from the field to the steam
thresher, where the grain is prepared for
market.
"The profits in rice planting, with good
luck, will in a few years make any man
rich. The yields on good lands in Lou
isiana give from fifty to seventy-ive
bushels to the acre. Rice is a plant
which is generous to the attentive and
industrious farmer, but it resents neg
lect more than any other cereal. A man
can cultivate fifteen to twenty acres of
rice land, and if strong and industrious
he can easily secure from 1000 to 1900
bushels of rice, worth at present prices
about dollar bushel. The work is
not hard, except during grassing time,
and, as good living is cheap with us, a