Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1902-06-05
GOVERNMENTS EXPERIMENTS
PRODUCE GOOD RESULTS.
IN IMPORTANT INDUSTRY
An Underground Reservoir in the
Rice BeIt-Irrigation Companies
Prosper-Last Years Immense
Crops-A Grain From Which Moth
ing is Wasted.


states where suitable stretches of
land for its cultivation exist as to call
attention to the Importance which
rice has assumed among the cereal
crops. This is due to several causes,
chief of which is the care taken by the
government to foster and enlarge the
scope of this industry. For several
years past the United States has i'm
ported from abroad seed rice to ex-
pertinent with in the rice lands of this
country, and now has commission at
work, under the direction of it's de
partment of agriculture, studying rice,
its culture, and the lands wherein it
has been and may be grown in every
part of the world. The reputation of
this country for its success in the cul-
ture of rice is known in the east, and
it was to the United States that THr-
key turned for instruction and infor-
nation relative to putting certain
lands under cultivation in rice
Japan has $50 varieties of rice,
many of which are adapted to Ameri-
can soil, and one, known as the
"short straw Japan is in general use
in the gulf coast rice belt. 1t is a
most prolific plant, and the stalk is
short and hardy, which enables it to
resist those heavy winds that some.
times fiatten fields of long straw rice.
The United States rice commission
is composed of Professor S. A Knapp
and Professor w. H. Heilman. Pro
fessor Knapp, who left Iowa and took
up his residence in southwest Louis
lana several years ago, for the benefit
of his health, has become an expert
upon the subject of rice culture He
has been making a tour of the world
studying the processes of raising rice
i'll various countries, and especially
in China. Japan, India, the Philippines,
Egypt and the islands of the Pacific,
and he has sent to the experimental
growers in this country seed that
seemed to him adapted to the soils of
their states.
Professor Heilman is making a soil
he will map out it's different soils and
determine their adaptability to various
qualities of rice and other crops and
decide what fertilization might be ad-
vantageously supplied.
For many hundreds of miles under
of fresh water, at a temperature of 70
degrees, is tapped at depth varying
from 1875 to 200 feet. The United
States government is endeavoring to
discover the course and extent of this
underground river, which supplies in.
Vulnerable deep-well irrigation plants
and canals with an ineXhaustible guam
tity of clear water This underground
river is easily tapped. A well has
been sunk in it to a depth of zoe
feet in fourteen hours time 1t lies
in the region of the oil reservoirs and
and southeast Texas; how far beyond
is not yet determined
Through the wide extent of rice
lands, wild and cultivated, which lie
in this region, flow ten navigable and
many smaller streams besides an
in length from one to forty-five miles,
and in width from twenty to $50 feet.
These have many miles of laterals and
pumping stations, or relifts, wherever
a fall in the incline of the land throws
the canal below it's highest level. The
canals are built in the ridges, or high
portions, of the prairies which are
from six to twenty-five feet above the
surface of the streams that traverse
them. Some of these pumping stations
have capacity of 100000 gallons a
minute, but most of then average
10000 to $4,000 gallons a minute
The Chinese claim to have been
eultivating rice for 5000 years, and
their crop has attained to 100000.
900 barrels annually. In this coun-
try the first rice that grew success
fully was in 1894, at Charleston, S
c., and in the Gulf Coast rice Delt in
1S47. while the total rice production
last season represented four and a
half pounds per capita. Louisiana and
Texas produced over 100000, 900
pounds between them and have en-
larged their canals many miles, in
creased their acreage and arranged to
produce nearly double that amount
this year.
Under the irrigation system a rice
crop never fails, as it is not subject
to the effect of low water in the rivers
or drought generally.
Over thirty rice mills, largely owne1
by New York capital, are situated in
the rice centers of Louisiana and
Texas, exclusive of those in the large
cities. These have a daily capacity
of from 300 to $500 barrels and can
warehouse as high as 100000 sacks of
rice at one time. These sacks hold
1852 pounds of rice in the hull, or 100
pounds and over of clean, polished
rice
200 Ways of Cooking Rice.
Notwithstanding the increase in
irrigating canals and rice acreage
the cereal did not assume great pro-
portions as a merchantable article un-
til the government took an interest In
it. Then the Rice association Of
America established a kitchen at the
Buffalo exposition, where rice was
cooked in 200 different ways by Gull
nary artists, who could have made
anything taste delicious. This was a
great advertisement for rice, and the
association, which intended to sink
money in the venture, cleared So, 900
over and above all expenses. The
Southern Pacific railroad is reported