Growing Rice in the South 



By F. C. Quereau 



Assistant Director, Rice Experiment Station, Crowley, La. 



There is no doubt but that rice is the 

 greatest cereal food in the world. It 

 has been the principal food of Oriental 

 races for thousands of years, and even 

 in modern times it furnishes a staple 

 food for a greater proportion of the 

 world's population than all other cereals 

 combined. Famine in the Eastern coun- 

 tries is always associated with a failure 

 of the rice crop. Rice has no superior as 

 a carbohydrate food because the starch 

 of properly prepared rice is in an easily 

 digested form, and when combined with meat or beans forms a 

 well-balanced, energy-producing ration. The population of any 

 given section or country is in direct ratio to the food supply. 

 We cannot, therefore, have better proof of the food value of 

 rice than in the almost marvelous density of the population of 

 Indo-China and Japan. It is worthy of note, also, that the 

 fertility of the soil has been maintained, and at the same time 

 the food ration balanced by the use of the soy bean in rotation 

 with rice. 



Development of Rice Growing —Prior to 1890, the rice pro- 

 duction of the United States was largely restricted to the Caro- 

 linas where it has been cultivated since 1694, when it was 

 introduced from Madagascar by an English sea captain. The 

 alluvial prairies of southwest Louisiana and Texas up to the 

 year 1888 were the home of deer and wild fowl, and the range of 

 the long-horn Texas steer. The native French settlers lived in 

 isolated communities along the wooded rivers and bayous. 

 These people maintained themselves largely by cattle raising, 

 hunting, and trapping. They produced corn in small quantity 

 which was ground into meal in primitive mills. Rice and meat 

 was the staple food. The rice was planted in small patches 

 in the coulee or slough bottoms. These low lands were generally 

 dry in the early spring, at which time they were plowed and the 

 rice sown broadcast and harrowed in with a wooden tooth har- 

 row. Oxen furnished the motive power. 



If the season chanced to be wet, the rice was sprouted and 

 planted in the mud. The field was leveed with a small embank- 

 ment, and the crop was irrigated by the natural rainfall. If the 



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