FOR BETTER CROPS IN THE SOUTH 75 



during all seasons to furnish sufficient water to produce rice 

 except upon small irregular areas, and the labor of working in 

 the mud of such low areas was very great. For about five years, 

 or up to 1895, the existence of the rice farmer was a precarious 

 one. In desperation he decided to pump the water from the 

 streams into canals made by throwing up two embankments 

 from 50 to 100 feet apart, taking the dirt from the middle and 

 thus carrying the water above the surface of the ground so that 

 it could be let out through flumes into the fields or laterals. 

 These canals were a complete success. Of water there was an 

 abundance, and it was only necessary to lift it from ten to thirty 

 feet from the stream into the canals in which it could be carried 

 for as much as twenty miles at a height of from two and one- 

 half to six feet above the surface of the land to be irrigated. 

 Rice could be irrigated at a cost of from $3 to $6 per acre, and 

 with irrigation, the crop was absolutely certain. The virgin 

 soils which represented a deposit 1,800 feet deep with from six 

 inches to three or four feet of black surface soil, would produce 

 from sixteen to twenty barrels (of 162 lbs.) of rice, worth from 

 three to four dollars per barrel. 



There ensued a development in Louisiana and Texas com- 

 parable only to that of the irrigated districts of California. 

 Within seven years from the completion of the first canals, 

 almost every foot of land, that could be irrigated, was under 

 cultivation for rice. Roads were built, drains were opened, 

 railroads came, towns and rice mills were built, and land values 

 jumped from $1.25 to $40 and $60 per acre. The production of 

 rice in this section increased from a few thousand to 6,000,000 

 barrels per year. Canals were extended so that the entire 

 country is now under irrigation. 



Early in the development of the rice industry it was found 

 that there is an inexhaustible supply of underground water. 

 At a depth of from 225 to 300 feet is a stratum of water-bearing 

 gravel from forty to seventy-five feet in thickness. When this 

 is tapped by a 12-inch pipe fitted with proper screen, the water 

 rises to a point varying from twenty feet below the surface to 

 above the ground, depending upon the location in distance from 

 the coast. When pumped with a centrifugal pump a 12-inch 

 well will irrigate from 250 to 300 acres of rice. The oil wells of 

 this section furnish an abundance of fuel oil for the irrigation 

 pumping plants. 



Varieties of Rice — There are a very large number of varie- 

 ties of rice, differing in shape and color of the grain, in the time 

 required to mature and in the relative proportions of food nutri- 

 ents—carbohydrates, protein and fat. There are probably more 

 than 2,000 distinct varieties of rice. The three principal varie- 

 ties or types grown in the United States are the Carolina Gold, 

 the Honduras, and the Japan. 



