IRRIGATION. 



RICE BY IRRIGATION. 



The following notes on rice cultivation 

 are furnished by Geo. J. >McManus of 

 Galveston, Texas: 



What is there in rice growing for me? 



Is it a sure crop? 



Is it healthy? 



How is rice raised? On a marsh, is it 

 not? 



Past attempts to answer such questions 

 have proven futile because the truth is not 

 credited when told. 



Come with me to China or to any one of 

 the bustling rice milling towns along the 

 Southern Pacific railroad. It's a warm 

 October day. It reminds you vividly of 

 the hustling days of a big wheat crop in a 

 Northwestern town. See the beautiful 

 shock dotted rice fields coming up to the 

 very edge of the village. Count the smoke 

 of two, five, eight no, fiteen thresh 

 ing machines in sight. And here are seven 

 long lines of wagons, heavily laden with 

 sacked rice waiting their turn to unload at 

 different rice mills or warehouses. Come 

 to the roof of this building, and sweep the 

 prairie roads with the glass in every direc- 

 tion. On each of them the incoming rice 

 hauling teams are so near together as to 

 appear a continuous procession. Now 

 mingle with the people on the streets. 

 You're an insensate soul, indeed, if you 

 cannot feel the prosperity that permeates 

 them! Does it not call you back to the 

 dear old days of the early eighties way up 

 in the Eed River valley in Minnesota and 

 Dakota, when we all were so busy? 



Spend a month or more interviewing 

 these farmers. Visit their farms. Cross 

 question them within an inch of their 

 lives. See the merchants. See the bank- 

 ers, millers, farm implement dealers, rice 

 buyers, doctors (if you can find them.) 

 Inform yourself thoroughly about the 



whole rice situation (and you have hereto- 

 fore been taken for a fool.) ^Now you 

 may go back to conservative old chaps io 

 the Northwest (as I have done) and tell it 

 all to them. No, not all. Cut what you 

 know to be average returns one third, so 

 as to secure a respectful hearing tell 

 them: 



1. The average farmer raises 200 acres 

 of rice. 



2. Tell them the average yield per 

 acre is 11 barrels (44 bushels) rough rice 

 as it comes from the thresher 162 pounds 

 to the barrel. Very many planters make 

 from 15 to 20 barrels per acre. 



3. Tell them the price fluctuates from 

 $2.75 to $3.50 per barrel, according to 

 quality. 



4. Allowing the farmer ordinary wages 

 for himself and teams, it costs to raise $5 

 per acre more than wheat or a total of $14 

 per acre at most. 



5. Tell them $4,000 is the average clear 

 profit of the average rice farmer on the 

 average rice farm of 200 anres. Right 

 here your reputation for truth and verac- 

 ity will suffer a rent, which nothing will 

 ever mend except a visit by every one of 

 your hearers to the rice farms anywhere 

 along the Southern Pacific from Crowley, 

 La., to Eagle Lake, Texas. But you'd 

 better tell it all. 



6. Lands suitable for rice .are smooth 

 (not necessarily level), comparatively high 

 and well drained A marsh is not used 

 for rice growing. 



7. Fields are plowed with a gang or 

 sulky plow, and cultivated thoroughly 

 with a disc harrow, just as for wheat or 

 oats. As good crops as any on new breaking. 



8. One and one fourth bushels of seed 

 per acre is used and is sowed any time 

 from March to July. Good farmers use 

 the best press drills for planting. 



