The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-04-08

cultivation OF rice was attended with
great incidental expense, aside from the
manual labor of working the crop from
the preparation OF the soil to the har-
vesting. So that only the naturally
wealthy by inheritance, even though the
fortuitous owners of land adapted to
irrigation, could stand the expense of
building lOchs and canals and indulge in
the venture of rice culture.
So also, the idea used to prevail that
fishing upon the broad ocean could only
be done by large nets, operated by cum
bersome machinery on big boats equipped
for the purpose, and this, too, only when
schools of fish appeared on the surface
of the sea. But, on an occasion so the
story goes, a land lubber," CHANGING on
a sail boat at sea becalmed and finding
a large fish hook and line aboard, he
weighted it with an iron spike, baited
the hook and dropped it down, fathoms
deep, and scarcely had it struck bottom
before there was a quick strike and a
vigorous tug at the line in his hand and
after lively haul in imagine the sur
price of the shore natives and the Eek
perienced" boatman, to see the land
lubber' land the finest trout their eyes
had ever looked upon. The experiment
was repeated again and again with like
rapid results until the boat was loaded
to the rims with such trout as had never
before been hauled to shore. And now,
| deep sea fishing with hook and line yields
the most profitable returns to fishermen
for market.
Likewise, an experimental farmer, ''just
to see how it would do" once planted a
few rows of rice upon fertile high land;
and he was actually little surprised to
see it even "come up" He tended" it
as he did his other crops and watched
/ it's progress with a new and ever grow
ing interest. Imagine his surprise to see
it 'head up and his astonishment at
it's maturing a yield of pearly grain as
full grown and beautiful as the world
has ever seen.
So that North Carolina is not only the
pioneer Of deep sea fishing with hook and
line, but of highland rice culture as well,
and both have proved most profitable
since first inaugurated.
No more immense fortunes are now re-
quired to dig canals to bring water from
afar and build expensive lochs to hold
it for time of need before the cultivation
of rice can be INDUCED in in this favor
ed State. Every farmer who has land that
is fertile and the intelligence and energy
to farm at all can grow rice with rea-
scnable certainty of satisfactory profit
and the assured immunity from actual
! loss; for should his crop fail in cereal
| yield the straw alone would quite pay
! the expense of seed and culture.
! Here are some figures which we have
carefully gathered, and are very conser-
vative, on which we base the statement
that rice culture cannot but prove profit
able in this State, and on which we ven
ture the prediction that it is destined tC
be, at an early day, too, one of the truly
/ great industries of our grand old Com
monwealth. z
An average acre of upland rice will
yield 40 bushels, which at a minimum
market price of seventy-ive cents viii
aggregate $50. The straw per acre will
sell at from So to $12. A conservative
total per acre of $42; and so a one-horse
crop of 80 acres is equal to $1,26O. The
cost of cultivating and harvesting one
horse crop should not exceed 1850, which
would leave net profit to each one
horse crop of 5000.
There are lands which yield as higf
as 60 bushels per acre, and some choice