518 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONL\N INSTITUTION, 196 



dissolves and carries away excess salt. Drainage ditches must of 

 course be dug lower than the rice field (pi. 4, fig. 2) from wliich the 

 salt or brackish water is pumped. 



French rice growers in the early years sowed their crop broadcast, 

 largely to avoid the necessity of setting out by hand the tender shoots 

 that have started in a bed ; but they have more and more been forced 

 to revert to hand plantuig because of the proliferation of certain 

 aquatic weeds that have the same growing season as rice when rice 

 starts from seed. These weeds in their early stages can be kept in 

 check or given a handicap by working a field to be planted in rice 

 with a tractor equipped Avith cage vvheels (pi. 5, fig. 1) . More and more 

 dependence is placed on the settmg out by hand of young rice plants, 

 a task for which a machine has yet to be invented, and for which it 

 has been next to impossible to hire or to train French laborers. 



Seedbeds for rice seedlmgs are usually provided with natural fences 

 of evergreen trees as a protection against the mistral that often blows 

 vigorously down the Rhone Valley for days at a time (pi. 5, fig. 2). 

 The back-breaking task of pulling up rice seedlings from the seedbed 

 (pi. 6, fig. 1) and of transplanting them is done by hand by experienced 

 laborers imported for the most part from Valencia, Spain, where rice 

 growing, mtroduced by the I^ioors, has been an unportant activity 

 for years. These workers are introduced mto France under contract 

 for a period of from 2 to 3 months for the tasks of planting, weeding, 

 and spreading fertilizer. 



Except for these stoop-labor tasks for which foreign laborers are 

 imported, almost every other phase of rice production is mechanized. 

 The bundles of young shoots were pulled by a ti-actor to the fields to 

 be planted. Until recently the crop was harvested by hand (pi. 6, 

 fig. 2) ; now it is for the most part harvested by specially adapted 

 combine-harvesters, and is, of course, transported to the warehouse or 

 market by truck. 



In 1956 came the depression in the wine business. To cope with 

 the wine surplus, the French Government encouraged shifting from 

 the glowing of grapes to the production of some other crop, particu- 

 larly so if the vmeyards were heavy producers. The vineyards in the 

 Camargue are noted for their high yields and were on low ground 

 that had been irrigated for a long time; hence they were ideal for the 

 growing of rice, the new money crop. The result was that during the 

 years 1956 and 1957, 6,000 hectares of vineyards were converted into 

 rice fields. Thus the political factor has played an important role in 

 the expansion of rice culture in the Camargue. 



A revolutioji in rice growing has taken place in many parts of 

 the world. For centuries it was considered axiomatic that rice could 

 be produced only where labor was extremely cheap, as in India, China, 



