SOILS IN THE VICINITY OF BRUNSWICK, GA. 19 



water front and ditches dug for drainage and the distribution of irriga- 

 tion water. Canals have been carried through the plantations, cutting 

 them into small fields or sections of convenient size for irrigation, 

 and ditches cut through the fields to insure proper distribution and 

 drainage. 



At first sugar cane, cotton, rice, peas, and corn were grown, but 

 rice proved so profitable from the beginning that it was soon grown to 

 the practical exclusion of the others. The soil is admirably adapted 

 to this crop; and notwithstanding the strong competition that has 

 arisen from the recent extensive development of the rice industry in 

 Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas, its production here has been main- 

 tained upon a profitable basis, a fact partly accounted for in the 

 excellent quality of the product. That a large cleaning mill has just 

 been completed at Sterling is an indication of local confidence in the 

 future of this industry in Glynn County. Some complaint of decreased 

 yields is heard, which is not in the least surprising when it is considered 

 that the land has been cultivated to the same crop almost continuously 

 for a century and rarely or never plowed deeper than 3 or 4 inches. 

 Some land is "rested" during alternate years, but it is believed that 

 rotation with cowpeas, velvet beans, or other crops, coupled with 

 deeper plowing and an application of 1 to 2 tons of lime or 3 tons of 

 ground limestone per acre, would prove a much more profitable plan. 

 With frequent additions of silt and clay sediments from irrigation water 

 it is difficult to conceive of a more fertile soil than this deep alluvium, 

 representing largely material transported from the productive Pied- 

 mont section. Its productivity can but depend upon careful soil 

 treatment, and acreage yields of less than 50 bushels of rice should be 

 of rare occurrence. There are no insect pests attacking the rice, but 

 considerable grain is lost through the depredations of rice birds, unless 

 these are scared off by gunners. 



Occasionally serious damage is done by flood water breaking over 

 the dikes during storms. Careful and timely repair of weak places 

 in the dikes will reduce danger from this source to a minimum of neg- 

 ligible importance. A great disadvantage rests in the necessity of 

 hand harvesting. No practical machine for operation under the 

 soggy, miry conditions existing at harvesting time subsequent to the 

 withdrawal of the "harvest flow" has been perfected. 



Several varieties of rice are grown, the Carolina, Honduras, Japa- 

 nese, and Golden being the important ones. The usual method of 

 handling this crop in the Carolina-Georgia rice belt is to break the 

 land to a depth of 3 or 4 inches and harrow. The seed, planted in 

 drills about 14 inches apart, is lightly covered and water turned on 

 after a brief interval. In a few days this "sprout flow" is drawn off 

 and the ground allowed to stand dry until the grain is well up, when a 



[Cir. 21] 



