Los Angeles herald., 1909-06-26
American Rice
Growers
BY Frederic j. Haskin

industry of America Is enormous and
constantly increasing in extent. This
plant, adopted from the old world, is
doing even better in the United States
than 1t does in it's original habitat.
However, the department of agricul-
ture is carrying on extensive expert
ments with a view to improving the
crop. Recently it has been decided to
establish a ub-eXperiment station at
Crowley, Louisiana, where work will
be conducted in cooperation with the
state. The people Of that section are
so interested in the scheme that they
have furnished land and buildings for
the station, and Louisiana will pay
all the expense of maintaining the
plant. The federal department will lend
the services of it's experts and furnish
advice and assistance.
The department has a rice farm in
South Carolina, where breeding and
selection work has been going on for
some time The efforts of the experts
at that point are largely confined to
fighting a fungous disease known as
rotten neck" which has attacked the
Carolina rice crop for years, doing in
calculable damage. Recently the gov
ernment has obtained a number of va
rieties of rice from italy which appear
to be immune as against disease. The
department is cooperating In rice
work with the State Of Arkansas and
a government rice farm will soon be
established in Texas.
The newest experiments in rice cul-
tivation are being carried on in Cali
fornia. People in the Sacramento val
ley have become convinced that they
can grow rice and the government is
working out with several large irriga-
tion concerns the various problems in
Volved. The indications are that the
experiments will be successful and that
supply of the cereal for the thou
sands of Chinese and Japanese on the
Pacific coast will thus be obtained.
The southern rice does not suit the
taste of Orientals, so those on the Pa
cific coast import their supply from
Asia. The department has imported
hundreds of varieties from the Phil
ippines, India, Japan, China, Siam.
Ceylon, italy and other countries.
Scores have been abandoned after trial,
but some good varieties have been
discovered and their cultivation has
spread. There are 1400 varieties of
rice.
Rice was introduced into America be-
fore 1647. In that year Sir William
Berkeley is said to have raised small
crop in the colony of Virginia. NADIA
gascar rice was first planted In South
CdTOllua III 1889, aCCOTuliS u AOliiol
Governor Aston of that state. 1t is
said that a sea captain homeward
bound from Madagascar was driven
into Charleston harbor by stress of
weather and called on Governor
Thomas Smith and presented him with
small bag of rice seed. This the
governor planted in moist spot in
his garden and that was the begin
ming Of the South Carolina rice indus
49,, 4on nnqTlV two
centuries. 1t is said that the exact
spot where Governor Smiths first rice
crop was harvested is still pointed
out.
Until the outbreak of the Civil War
rice culture was confined almost en-
tirely to the Carolinas and Georgia,
but the great conflict almost destroyed
the industry in those states. Mean
while it had been taken up by Louis
lana and Texas. There were millions
of acres of seemingly valueless land
along the gulf coast at that time,
which somebody suggested might be
used for growing rice.
Compare a Louisiana or Texas rice
plantation of several thousand acres.
cultivated thus, and irrigated by
canals twenty-five to fifty miles long,
the water in which is pumped from
hundreds of artesan wells and the
latest type of steam threshing machines
and a modern mill nearby to prepare
the grain for market with the anti
quated system prevailing in the Orient.
There the rice farm covers only feW
square rods. In one district Of Japan
400 separate fields. can be counted in
an area of twenty-five acres. The soil
is usually spaded by hand, although
slight improvement is noticed In the
Philippines, where the water buffalo
draws a primitive plow. When harvest
time comes in the Orient, men, women
and children wade into the rice pad
dies and cut the grain with sickles.
Later they hull the grain by pounding
1t in a mortar.
In the southern states rice lands are
fertilized by rotating with other crops
or by blowing under the rice straw and
hulls or by use of artificial fertilizer.
The seed is sown by machinery and
when the plants are about six inches
high water is let into the field to
depth of several inches, being confined
by a dyke or levee about foot in
height. The water must be kept cover
ing the roots of the plant for weeks.
In that warm climate the soil Is like
a great sponge, $4,000 gallons of water
being absorbed by every acre during a
day before harvesting the water Is
turned off and the land dries out con-
siderably. After harvest the grain is
shocked" for curing, great care being
taken to prevent fermentation.
Having been threshed the grain is
taken to the MILL where the outer husk
is removed by machinery, the chaff
blown away and the grain polished.
Before this last process rice is, brown
in color and is so consumed by rice
eating peoples, who thus get the full
benefit of the heterogeneous, fatty out
side, which adds wonderfully to the nu-
triton and flavor of the grain. Fashion
in America and Europe, however, de-
mands a pearly white grain and it is
made so by friction in a revolving
cylindrical apparatus, which Is covered
with sheep or moose skins tanned to
wonderful degree of softness. The
palatable brown powder is sold for
stock food and fertilizer at three-quar-
ters of cent a pound.
From rice the Japanese make sake,
or rice beer, and the Chinese make
wine Rice figures in the religious
customs and superstitions of many
countries In Borneo this grain is re-
garD ed as living spirit and feasts are
held in honor of the genius which per-
vades it. In Madagascar there is a be-
lief that If rice is thrown or flute is
played before the grain is harvested
destructive hail storm will follow. The
inhabitants of the Island of Celebes
never entirely empty bowl of rice, un-
less they are certain the vessel will be
refilled at once. The Arab places rice
on his roof to keep misfortune away.
Among some Oriental peoples rice is
thrown over the head of guest at a
festival in order to detain his soul,
which, being too happy, might be lured