Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1905-05-22


o,,Itur,. are watching with great In
tercst the progress Of the rice culture
,york now carried on in the new rice
holt along the Gulf Of Mexico in
louisiana and Texas. Conditions
,bnro have not been wholly satisfac-
tory during the last year, but the De-
partment is doing adj it can to heip the
rice planters, and the indications are
that the growing of the white cereai
will i'm a comparatively short time ne
one of the principal industries OF the
Southwest.
The acreage devoted to rice In
Louisiana and Texas last year COM
prised SO per cent. of the entire rice
acreage of the United States. accord
inc to figures published not long ago
nv the Department. A total of 610,700
acres was planted in the two. states,
and as the total five years ago when
rice was first recognized as staple in
that section was but 1926, 1t will be
seen that the increase was more than
100 per cent.
Louisiana now has the largest acre
age in rice, Last year 3I6,500 acres
were planted. Texas is showing
much more rapid rate of increase. hav-
ing gone from Sill acres in 1899 to 234,-
200 in 1904. 1t is officially established
that about 100000 acres which have
not vet been touched are available for
rice culture in the two states, while
individuals who are on the ground and
should know whereof they speak say
that Texas alone has at least 100000
acres of land on which the white cereal
I,a n
dustry has plenty of room in which to
expand.
The experts of the Department say
that the prairie lands along the Gulf,
reaching from Bayou Tuche in
Louisiana to u point near the mouth
of the Rio Grande in Texas, are better
adapted to rice culture than those Of
any other section of the country. I'm
der present conditions. these lands are
the only ones on which it can be
profitably cultivated. These prairies
for some distance back from the Gulf
are underlaid by a stratum of i'm
pervious clay. AS it is absolutely
necessary to have rice fields covered
with water during the growing season.
the clay subsoil makes this possible.
On ordinary land the thousands of GAL
Ions of irrigation water-and all the
rice fields in the new belt are irrigat-
ed-would soak in almost Immediate
ly, but on the prairies where the rice is
now grown SO extensively the underly-
ing clay prevents this waste of water
and the process of irrigation is there
fore comparatively inexpensive. All of
the big rice-growing concerns have
their own pumping plants located
along the banks of some river or
bayou. The pumps fill up the big
main supply canals, scores of miles of
which are to be found traversing the
rice belt, and from these, lateral irri-
cation bitches lead out across the
field The smaller farmers either rent
their water supply from the big con-
Germs or irrigate their fields from wells
dugs especially for the purpose. Ar
tesian water is easily obtainable in
most parts of the Gulf region. so that
this latter process is also comparative
ly cheap.
The clay subsol also makes it pos
sible for the farmers to drain their
fields thoroughly at harvest time. 1t is
essential that this be done in order to
permit the use of heavy harvesting and
threshing machinery, the enforced alb
sence of which in the old rice-growing
region in the South Atlantic States has
been SO largely responsible for the de-
cadence of the rice industry there.
The decrease of rice production in the |
Carolinas and Georgia, incidentally, has
been even more marked than the in |
crease in Texas and Louisiana. There |
has been a sixty-fOu- per cent loss in |
acreage in the last five years, and re-
ports made by the Bureau of Statistics
indicate continuance Of this decrease
and the ultimate extinction of the rice
growing industry in that region which,
up to the time the value Of the Gulf belt |
was discovered. was supreme in the
world of rice production. None of the
three Atlantic States has been harmed |
by the gradual diminution of the acre