12 FARMERS' BULLETIN. 



be dragged over the field so as to compact the ground, thereby increasing 

 the capillary power of the soil and thus causing moisture to rise from be- 

 low. Should water be available, however, a better plan is to apply a suffi- 

 cient quantity of it to saturate the soil and to pass a light harrow over the 

 field as soon as it is sufficiently dry. 



DRAINAGE. 



Although rice is a water plant, good drainage is as essential in its 

 cultivation as it is in that of any other crop. If the land will not admit 

 of thorough drainage, it will be impossible to prepare the ground prop- 

 erly, and in consequence the stand will be poor and the yield of the crop 

 very much diminished. It is generally believed, too, that when rice 

 approaches maturity the water should be withdrawn from the land so as 

 to permit of the formation of a good heavy head. Rice can unquestion- 

 ably ripen in water, but the character of the seed is very much affected 

 for the worse thereby, and in milling such a crop it will not give as good 

 an article of commerce as it would have given if the water had been 

 withdrawn at the proper time. 



It is in the harvesting rf the crop, however, that drainage is most 

 important. It matters not whether the rice is harvested with a reaper 

 and binder or a sickle, the field should be dry, so as to permit of the 

 shocking of the rice in the fielu vhere it falls. So far as shocking rice in 

 mud and water is concerned, that is absolutely out of the question, and to 

 have to carry it to the levees, as is now done, is too slow and expensive a 

 process. 



IRRIGATION. 



Of equal importance with drainage is the subject of irrigation. Unfor- 

 tunately, the conditions are so favorable for the growth of rice during the 

 rainy season that very little has been done to utilize the water supplied by 

 the large number of streams which traverse the country in every direction. 

 Usually the rain water is sufficient to mature one crop, and the river 

 water, which contains a large amount of silt and soluble plant food, has 

 been permitted to flow uninterrupted to the sea. 



The western farmer and the sugar planter of the Hawaiian Islands 

 know what a difference irrigation makes in the yield of their crops, but 

 such results are not as remarkable as those that are obtained in applying 

 irrigation water to rice lands. In certain portions of Louisiana and Texas 

 rice has been grown on some lands for a number of years, and they 

 continue to yield nearly as much rice now as they did the first year they 

 were cultivated, although the only fertilizer applied during the whole of 

 this time has been irrigation water. Even here in the Philippines, where 

 the yield of rice per acre is in the neighborhood of 600 pounds, lands have 

 been made to produce 2,000 pounds with the help of irrigation. 



We need not go far to find the reason for this. It is a well-recognized 

 fact that no matter how rich in plant food a soil may be, the plant, \ 



