The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-06-26


join the ranks of the riee-eating nations
which at present include Japan, China,
india and other important countries. Al
ready the rice industry OF America IS
enormous and constantly Increasing IN eX-
tent. This plant adopted from the old
world, is doing even better in the Unit
itat
However, the department of agriculture
is carrying on extensive experiments with
a view to improving the crop. Recently
/ II has been decided to establish sub
experiment station at Crowley, La, where
work viii 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 viii lend the services
OF ITS experts and furnish advice and as
sistance
The department has a rice farm in
south Carolina, where breeding and Sc
/ lection work has been going on for some
time The efforts of the experts at that
point are largely confined to fighting "a
1 Iungous disease known as rotten Ifeck.
which has attacked the Carolina rice crop
Tor years, doing incalculabie damage. Re
| Gently the government has obtained "A
number OF new varieties of rice from
iItaly, which appear TO be immune as
| against disease. The department is CO
operating in rice work with the state of
Arkansas, and government rice farm
viii soon be established in Texas.
Inc newest experiments in rice cultlVa-
ton are being carried ON In California.
People in the Sacramento valley have
become convinced that they can gTOW
rice, and the government is working out
with several large irrigation concerns. the
various problems involved. The indica-
tons are that the experiments Will be
successful and that "a supply of the ce-
real for the thousands Of Chinese and
Japanese on the Pacific coast thus will
be obtained. The southern rice does not
SUIT the taste of OrientalS, SO those on
the Pacific coast import their supply from
Asia. The department has imported hun
dreds of varieties from the Philippines,
ana other countries. Scores have been
abandoned after trial. but some good va
rieties have been discovered and their
cultivation has spread. There are lao
varieties OF rice.
Rice was introduced into America be
fore 164I- In that year Sir William
Berkeley is said to have raised d small
crop IN the colony Of Virginia. NADIA
gascar rice was first planted in South
Carolina in 1884, according to former Gov
ernor Aston of that state. It is said that
sea captain, hOmeWard bound from
Madagascar, was driven into Charleston
1arbor by stress Of weather and called on
Governor Thomas Smith and presented
him with a small bag Of rice seed. This
the governor planted in a moist spot in
his garden, and that was the beginning
of the South Carolina rice industry,
which flOurished for nearly two gentu-
ries. 1t is said that the exact spot where
Governor Smiths first rice crop was har-
vested is still pointed out.
Until the outbreak of the Civil war
rice culture was confined almost entire
" to the CarOlinas and Georgia. but the
great conflict almost destroyed the in
dustry in those states. Meanwhile il had
been taken up in Louisiana and Texas.
There were millions Of acres of seemingly
r "a q
that time, which somebody suggested
might be used for growing rice.
To DR.. II. S. Knapp now a venerable
emplOye of the department of agricul-
ture, but then an expert in the prime of
life, fell the task Of supervising the work
of developing southwestern Louisiana and
Texas. Farmers from the northwestern
states were induced to settle on the pros
pect1ve rice farms, canals and irrigating
bitches were dug, and then the problem
Of cultivation was tackled. 1t was de-
termined TO supersede the old hand meth
ods with modern machine methods if pos
sible
The agricultural machinery which made
the bonanza wheat farms of the DakO-
tas possible was tried. Most of it worked
well, steam and horse power doing the
work Of men Immense plo7s. seeders
harrOWs and reapers were used success
fully, but the binders got stuck in the
mud Ihis difficulty was overcome BY
widening their tires and adding cogs to
them, so that they would not sink in
the soil and would grin the surface In
this way immense tracts were cultivated
When these improved methods are con-
sidered, it is no wonder that the industry
in the South Atlantic states which re-
lied principally upon hand labor, should
suffer.
Compare a Louisiana or Texas rice
plantation Of several thousand acres Gull
tivated thus, and irrigated by canals
twenty-five to fifty miles long, the wa
fnT in nh Hh aa
OF artesian wells, and the latest type
OF steam thrsshlng machine and a mod
ern mill nearby to prepare the grain for
market, with the antiquated system pre-
Valllng IN the Orient There the rice
farm covers only a 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 imprOVem ent
is noticed in the Philippines where the
water buffalo draws a primitive pillow
When harvest time comes in the Orient
men, women and children wade into the
rice paddles and cut the grain with sick
les Later they hull the grain by pound
ing it in a mortar
In the southern states rice lands are
fertilized by rotating with other crops or
by blowing under the rice straw and huils
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 q depth of sew
eral inches, being confined by a dyke OF
levee about a foot in height. The wa
ter must be kept covering the roots of
the plant for weeks. In that warm eli
mate the soil is like a great sponge. 15.OOO
gallons of water being absorbed by every
acre during day. Before harvesting the
water is turned off and the land dries out
considerably. After harvest the grain is
shocked for curing, great care being
taken to prevent fermentation
Having been threshed, the grain is tax
en- 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 relocating peoples, who
thus get the fun benefit OF the nitro
genous, fatty outside, which adds Won
derfully TO the nutrition and flavor of
the grain. Fashion in America and Eu-
rope, however, demands a peaTly white
grain and II is made so by friction in
revolving cylindrical apparatus which is
covered with sheep or moose skins tan
ned to a wonderful degree of softness.
The palatable brown powder is sold for
stock feed and fertilizer at three-quarters
Of a cent q pound.
Whole grain is most popular I'm the
American market and for that reason the
whole and broken grains are separated
before leaving the mill, the latter selling
for considerably less. To meet the de-
mand for whole grain ten tons of the
celegrated kushiu rice were imported
from Japan by the department of sgri-
culture n 1E0Q Tf1fe -f.fr- v-oefrrooe On