RICE — CRIST 517 



water, where fish and wildfowl abound. This wild natural landscape, 

 foiined for the most part since the Eomans established Aries at the 

 then mouth of the Khone, forms an enclave in the dry and smiling 

 cultural landscape of Provence, with which it is in marked contrast. 

 The Isle de la Camargue was for millemiia a land of scrub, semi- 

 feral cattle (pi. 4, fig. 1), and of sheex^ that mider the supervision of 

 patient shepherds with their black dogs grazed on the tufts of coarse 

 halophytic plants. It was "natural" grazing comitry, and the wealthy 

 Kicard family entered the Camargue with big money to foster the 

 raismg of scrub bulls, wiry and fierce, for the bull fights at Aries, a 

 popular tourist attraction. Tourists require roads, and now the 

 Camargue is crisscrossed by an adequate network of highways. 



Once the Camargue was thus made accessible, people with money as 

 well as those with land were not slow in realizing that the "natural" 

 conditions were most favorable for the introduction and expansion of 

 rice production. On much of tlie land, level plots could be constructed 

 with relative ease, and fresh water from the Rhone was abundantly 

 available for irrigation. Those with small plots ideally located found 

 it easy and relatively inexpensive to level them off and pump in the 

 necessary water. Heavy investments have been made in the area, but 

 rice growing is by no means left to the millionaire. The small farmer 

 is very much in business, as witness the organization of buying, ware- 

 housing, and marketing cooperatives. Of the 2,000 rice growers, 1,500 

 cultivate less than 25 hectares, 300 between 25 and 50 hectares, 100 

 between 50 and 100, 85 between 100 and 150, and only 15 work more 

 than 150 hectares. 



It is estimated that at least $10,000,000 has been invested in the 

 growing of rice in the area since 1942, by private individuals and by 

 cooperatives. Pioneering in techniques has paid off' handsomely, for 

 in 1959 there were 30,000 hectares in rice in the Camargue alone, and 

 the average yield liad increased fourfold in 17 years ! 



France now produces some 85,000 tons of polished rice, but the 

 national market absorbs only 76,000 tons a year. Further, a commer- 

 cial treaty with Madagascar requires France to import annually a 

 certain tonnage of rice from that island. Hence France is both an 

 importer and an exporter of rice. The problem of finding a foreign 

 market is already acute. 



In La Camargue those with ample capital often find it profitable 

 to undertake costly operations to prepare a piece of land for the pro- 

 duction of rice. As has been mentioned, much of the soil has a high 

 salt content, which can most readily be decreased by the process of 

 flushing, i.e., it must be drained as well as irrigated. Giant pumps 

 hoist water from the Rhone for the irrigation of the rice fields. This 

 water brings rich silt and plant food in colloidal suspension and also 



