410 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



oats, $52,866,200, rye, $1,408,950; barley, 

 $7,323,480; white potatoes, $7,356,820; 

 hay, $10,034,868. Total, $681 471,827. 

 And yet the improved machines by which 

 this has been accomplished have come 

 into use only to a limited extent. They 

 are mainly adapted only to use in farming 

 on a large scale under the most favorable 

 circumstances. 



Comparing retail prices the prices paid 

 by the farmers for machines and imple- 

 ments it is shown from tables of com- 

 parison that in the case of one manufac- 

 ture, surreys selling for $225 in 1880 sold 

 for $85 in 1900; top buggies with a price 

 of $90 in 1860 and $60 in 1880, sold for 

 $43 in 1900. The corn drills of 1880 sold 

 for $12; those of 1890 for $8. Harrows 

 declined from $15 in 1880 to $10 in 1890; 

 plain float spring-tooth harrows from $20 

 to $10: disk harrows from $27 to $18. 

 Six-foot twine binder harvesters were sold 

 in 1880 for $325 and in 1890 for $120, and 

 the "combined" harvester was sold for 

 $150 in 1880 as against $65 in 1900. The 

 price of mowers in one establishment de- 

 clined from $100 in 1860 to $40 in 1900; 

 in another from $160 to $40, and in still 

 another from $120 to i$45. Leslies 

 Weekly. 



RICE CULTURE AND PROFITS. 



Oswald Wilson, special field agent of 

 the division of statistics, department of 

 agriculture, read the following paper on 

 ''Rice Culture and Profits" before the 

 Cotton Growers' Association at the Farm- 

 ers' Congress. 



Rice is the greatest cereal product in 

 the world, considered from a commercial 

 standpoint, and as an article of food. 



We can only realize its magnitude and^ 

 importance when considered in compari- 

 son with other cereals. Wheat is a great 

 cereal and the so-called staff of life. It 

 has a wide range of production, being 

 grown in nearly every country on the 

 globe. The total production of wheat in 



the world for 1899 reached the stupendu 

 ous amount of $2,723,407,000 bushels,, 

 which would make 6,500.000 carloads, 

 with a market value of $1.399,100,000. 

 But this does not come up to rice. 



Corn is a great crop and in 1899 the 

 world produced 2,634,109,000 bushel?, 

 valued at $833,400,00. 



These are two great staple cereals, but 

 their combined production will not come 

 up to rice. We must find another. 



Take oats. The world's production in 

 1899 reached 3,212,689,000 bushels. This 

 immense pile of oats had a market value 

 of $708,170,000. 



Here we have the three great staple 

 grain crops of the world, with an aggre- 

 gate production of over eight and a half 

 billions of bushels and a market value of 

 nearly $2,940,670,000. But this does not 

 equal rice. 



Just a moment think of the immense 

 number of people engaged in the produc- 

 tion of all the wheat, corn and oats in the 

 world, time employed, acres of land tilled 

 and machinery used. Add to this the 

 people employed in marketing the grain, 

 on railroads, in mills, and laborers to 

 handle it, and we have a greater army 

 than the combined soldiers of the world. 



Rice, with its 74,074,369,193 pounds, 

 valued at $2,962.974,781 is greater by 

 more than $20,000,000. Again, rice is the 

 principal article of diet of 800,000,000 

 people, or more than 54 per cent of the 

 entire population of the world, while the 

 other cereals combined only supply 46 

 per cent. Which is the greater cereal? 



Coming nearer home, we find that rice 

 has been produced iu the United States 

 for nearly three centuries, but only of late 

 years has it reached much development. 



During the past ten years 20,000 per- 

 sons from the north aed west have been 

 attracted by the demonstration of the fact 

 that irrigation in conjunction with meth- 

 ods successfully applied years ago in 

 wheat growing in the prairie states, would. 



