Lower coast gazette., 1909-05-15
SATURDAY MAY Is, 1905.
The Rice Experiment Station at Crowley.

OAIthDal MA ~ I"'
The Rice Experiment Station at Crowley.
The cooperation Of our state and federal authorities IN the IN
auguration of a Rice Experiment Station at Crowley has resulted
in the opening of the station and, we believe, is the beginning OF
the most important advance in the rice industry thus far recorded
in the industrial world. The rice industry is probably one of the
Oldest on earth and yet in the East Indies, where it is the chief
cereal crop, it is carried on in the old fashioned ways that have
prevailed for thousands of years. In South Carolina the rice in
dustry obtained a very high development, the industry was carried
on in very carefully dyked fields, which were very difficult Of main
tenance with the light sandy soils of the coast lands OF South Caro-
lima and the crop was frequently injured by great storms. In
Louisiana, where the rice crop has been raised generally on the
Mississippi River and Bayou Lafourche and supplied with water
from those streams, the water supply has been under good control
and only occasionally have crevasses in the banks lnJur1ng the adj
jacent crops.
In southwestern Louisiana and Texas with hundreds of thous-
ands of acres of land 10 to Is feet above tidewater, the soil has
been found extremely well adapted to rice culture and the loW lit
has permitted the irrigation of the land from the adjacent streams,
while artesian water from cheaply constructed wells has also fur
nished a very considerable supply, and now Southwestern Louisiana
and Southern Texas have become the chief sources of supply OF rice
of the federal union.
All this production of rice has been carried on in a general
way, following the old routine. The advent of harvesting ma
chimes has aided the industry very much in Southwest Louisiana
and also in Texas, but along the Mississippi River and Bayou La
fourche their use thus far has not been general. The arrange
ment Of the lands for sugar cane culture differs from that neces-
sary for rice culture and this has led to the cutting up of the land
into small squares in which, thus far, harvesting machines have
not been satisfactorily worked.
In the new Experiment Station at Crowley, thirty-six acres of
rice have already been planted, including 81 plots of an acre each
and a four-acre strip. About $50 varieties of rice have been COL
lected by the U. S. Department of Agriculture and all of these
will be tested and of course there is no telling but among them
there may be found some varieties better adapted to Louisiana
A~eonditons than we 4rave ever had before. Il
The matter Of the rotation Of crops will be carefully expert
rented with and the determination made Of what crops are best
adapted TO- succeed the rice crop. Nearly every one familiar with
the culture knows by experience that ordinary horse manure is very
A offooiya In rpo folds and whpraUnr thpra have hppn anV drOn-
pings a spot of deep green rice, much taller and deeper in color
than any of the rest will be found. Ammonia may be a very fugi-
tive fertilizer, butts value in rice culture ought to be very care
fully determined, as enough data has already been accumulated to
show thata crop of rice on any given area of land can probably be
increased so per cent. and probably 100 per cent. by the use of the
proper ammoniacal fertilizer. 1t is understood, further, that the
crops that produce seeds are very exhaustive to the soil in the mat
ter of ~phosphoric acid and it will be probably found that after a
few years use with ammoniacal fertilizers, phosphate fertilizers
will be imperatively needed, either is conjunction with ammoniacal
fertilizers, Or alone, as the results at the Experiment Station may
indicate. it's proposed this year to use nitrate OF soda, phos-
phonc acid and potash. These prairie lands of western Louisiana
are presumed to have been built up g%eoogcaly by the degrade
ton of the old bluff lands of the West bank OF the Mississippi
River, which, at an earlier geological epoch resembled the bluff
lands at Baton Rouge, where the river was some fifty miles wide
and extended from the bluff lands at Baton Rouge to those over at
Opelousas and, as the river within recent years has extended from
the bluff lands in Memphis over to the bluffs in Arkansas, fifty
miles away. The alluvial lands in Louisiana are generally con-
sidered not to need potash. These prairie lands of Southwest
Louisiana may, or may not, need potash, which fact may be de-
termined later on.
Efforts will be made at planting by the calender with the view
of determining whether or not the rice in the end cannot be har-
vested also by the calender, the maturites being 50 arranged as to
spread the harvesting season over a longer period. At the present
time our chief two rEes are the Honduras and the Japan varieties.
Of these the Honduras natures earlier than the Japan and thus
divides the harvesting season into two parts wherever these two
rices may be cultivated under one management. The situation
would be improved still further if it were found possible to secure
q certain ~periodcity in harvesting by a similar ~periodcity in
planting.
Prot. Chamblss of the u. S. Department Of Agriculture will
have a force of observers on hand who will pay especial attention
to the rice breeding and selection of types. Artesian water will be
used in the experimentation and the building will be promptly
erected. Prof. F. C. Quereau will have charge of the station
under Prot. w. R. Dodson, Director in Chief Of all the Louisiana
stations. Prof. Chambhss is also conducting some experiments on
behalf of the U. S. I Department of Agriculture at Lonoke, Arkan-
sas and also in South Carolina, and at Beaumont and Pierce, Texas
and Sacramento, California.
The Gueydan News.
Hon. Henry L. Gueydan, the editor and general manager Of
the Gueydan News. was down for a paper on Burning Questions
at the annual session Of the Louisiana Press Association, held at
Covington last week. He was not present, but in his absence the