i S 4 THE NEW AGRICULTURE. 



A few years ago it was discovered that certain sections 

 of the South, parts particularly of Louisiana and Texas, of- 

 fered promising opportunity for rice growing by wholly novel 

 methods. Perhaps the general resemblance of these regions 

 to the great prairies of the middle West the level reaches 

 of country and the fertile soil, coupled with the fact that 

 climatic conditions and lack of altitude prevented their use 

 as a profitable domain for wheat, cotton or corn, while at 

 the same time rendering the supply of water which rice re- 

 quires in excessive quantities an eminently easy matter, sug- 

 gested the idea of a revolution in the methods of the rice 

 raising industry. Then came, about eight years ago, the in- 

 troduction of a new variety of grain, the Kushu. The Hon- 

 duras sort, the kind that had previously been grown, had 

 three defects. It contained such a percentage of starch in 

 the grains that they were invariably broken in the process of 

 milling, it deteriorated so badly within three years as to 

 be hardly worth saving, and the yield was light. The new 

 variety is comparatively urideteriorating ; the grain is short 

 and so hard that there is almost no breakage in milling, and 

 the yield is fully 25 per cent, over that of the old variety. 

 The importance of the greatly enhanced yield is, of course, 

 apparent. The importance of the non-breakage of the grains 

 in mechanical manipulation is seen by a comparison of the 

 price of whole and broken rice, the former selling at $5 

 per hundred while the latter sells for only $1.75. The use of 

 the new variety has so reduced the supply of the broken, 

 or brewers' rice, as the inferior kind is called, that in south- 

 western Louisiana the demand cannot be met by the local 

 supply. 



The inception of the new movement dates from the day 



