Arizona republican., 1901-11-02
THE FUTURE OF RICE.
Special Reports of Govern-
 ment Irrigation Expert
The Texas and Louisiana Growers Will be Able to Supply the Coun- try in Few Years.

Washington, Nov. Frank Bond. irrigation expert of the department of agriculture, who has just returned from southern Louisiana and south eastern Texas, where iie nas been pur- suing investigations looking to the dis tribution of the available supply of water over a larger area than it is now used to irrigate. predicts that within the next five years or so the United States will be producing enough rice to supply all the demands of home con sumption and be able to export largely to foreign countries. He called atten- ton to the fact that only few years ago the United States was raising a very small percentage of the rice con- sumed in the country. while at present 50 per cent of the home demand was supplied by the growers of the Texas and Louisiana and Carolina districts. It is for the growers in Texas and Louisiana fields that MT. Bond predicts future, as in the Carolina fields, which are 200 years old. the character of the soil precludes the adoption of modern methods of cultivation. The rice growing industry in Texas and Louisiana. however. is comparatively recent.
 Irrigation of the rice fields in Lou
 
 from the method pursued in the north west. Instead of ditches. serpentine l reservoirs. built above ground. conveys l the water throughout the rice growing district. Pumping stations have been | built at intervals throughout the dis trict. where huge engines of many hundred horse power pump the water | from the bayous into the reservoirs. Where the rice has been planted the I fields are flooded and the water all | lowed to stand for seventy days. when ! the fields are drained. After allowins, | ten days for the rice to mature, the ground is hard enough to permit the employment of machinery in harvest ing the grain, much in the same man ner as the vast wheat crops of the northwest are gathered.
 | It is this problem of economical irri- ! gation of the rice fields-that is to say, the determination of the least mum Der of water inches by which a sue i cessful rice crop can be grown-that | the department has devoted it's great est efforts.
 1 From the investigations made by Mr. Bond, under the direction of Prof. FL wood Mead. the expert of the agricul- tural department in charge of all irri- gation work, he has arrived at the con- clusion that the vast acreage in Texas. | Louisiana. Georgia and Mississippi which it would be possible to place un- der rice cultivation could supply the demands of this country and leave a large margin for export.
 The rice growing industry, he be- lieves. will. within a few years. through | the united efforts of the agricultural department and the planters. become of great prominence The state of California alone used 42. 900. 900 pounds of rice during the last year. and of this quantity 6.000.000 pounds were fur nished by American growers, princi- pally from Louisiana and Texas, and 1 100000 pounds came from Japan. | (. .000. 900 pounds from China and the remainder from Honduras.
 The rice grown in this country. Mr. Bond says. is far superior. both in 1 grain and polish to the Chinese rice, ! and there is no reason why. with its | extensive cultivation in this country, the price should not be cut in half and the grain vie with the American cere- !, als as a staple article of food for the American people,