IMPORTANCE OF RICE 239 



compared with the world!s wheat crop of 204,000,000,000 

 pounds, and a sUghtly smaller corn crop. By far the 

 greater part of this enormous crop is raised in Asia. India 

 has an annual production of 70,000,000,000 pounds of 

 cleaned rice, China 50,000,000,000 pounds, and Japan 

 18,000,000,000 pounds. The total European production 

 of rice amounts to about 1,000,000,000 pounds annually, 

 most of which is grown in Italy and Spain. 



In comparison with these figures, the production of rice 

 in the United States is insignificant, the average yield for 

 the five years from 1913 to 1917 being only 862,000,000 

 pounds. Practically all this crop is grown in the four states 

 of Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, and California. In slavery 

 times, South Carohna produced most of the rice grown in the 

 United States, but after the slaves were freed the industry 

 rapidly declined. The fields along the Atlantic Coast are 

 small and not adapted to the use of modern seeding and 

 harvesting machinery, while the level plains of Louisiana 

 and Texas, with abundant water for irrigation from wells 

 and rivers, furnish ideal conditions for the cheap production 

 of rice on a large scale. Since the introduction of modern 

 machinery into this district, about 1885, there has been an 

 immense increase in the production of rice, though the United 

 States still imports more than 200,000,000 pounds of cleaned 

 rice annually. In 1917, 500,000 acres were devoted to rice 

 production in Louisiana, 230,000 acres in Texas, 146,000 

 acres in Arkansas, and 80,000 acres in California. The 

 average yield to the acre was about 37.6 bushels of rough rice 

 of 45 pounds each, equivalent to about 1,080 pounds of 

 cleaned rice. The total crop of the United States was valued 

 at $69,000,000. This is one third less than the value of the 

 rye crop. 



303. Conditions Necessary to Production. The con- 

 ditions which are necessary to the successful production of 

 lowland rice include a soil which retains moisture and is 



