MISCELLANEOUS CROPS 601 



difference appeared in the maturing of the seed. Trials have been 

 made with soils covered with a large amount of decayed vegetation. 

 The results were generally disappointing. The roots of the rice, 

 heing shallow feeders, did not gain much hold upon the soil, and the 

 decayed vegetation was not adapted to the rice plant. Rice has gen- 

 erally failed on peaty soils. Among the best rice lands of south- 

 eastern Louisiana are the so-called buckshot-clay lands, which are so 

 stiff that they can hardly be plowed unless first flooded to soften 

 them up. 



The best rice lands are underlain by a semi-impervious sub- 

 soil. Otherwise the land can not be satisfactorily drained at time 

 of harvest in order to permit the use of improved harvesting ma- 

 chinery. The alluvial lands along the Mississippi River in Louis- 

 iana are not underlain by hardpan, and they can not be drained suf- 

 ficiently to permit the use of heavy harvesters and teams of horses. 



Gravelly or sandy soils are not adapted to rice cultivation be- 

 cause they do not possess the mechanical conditions for the retention 

 of water, and for other reasons above mentioned. Occasionally, on a 

 light sandy soil, underlain by a stiff subsoil, one or two fairly good 

 crops of rice may be grown, but this is the limit. 



Rice Lands. A large proportion of the rice grown in South 

 Carolina and Georgia is produced on tidal deltas. A body of land 

 along some river and sufficiently remote from the sea to be free from 

 salt water is selected with reference to the possibility of flooding it 

 from the river at high tide and of draining it at low tide. Lands 

 of this class are also planted to rice in southern Louisiana. 



Inland Marshes. Some excellent marshes are found in South 

 Carolina and Georgia upon what may relatively be termed high 

 land. These are in most cases easily drained and in many instances 

 can be irrigated from some convenient stream. The objection that 

 planters have found to such tracts is that the water supply is unre- 

 liable and not uniform in temperature. In case of drought the sup- 

 ply may be insufficient ; in case of freshets the water is too cold. To 

 obviate these objections reservoirs are sometimes constructed, but 

 they are expensive, owing to loss by the evaporation from such a 

 large exposed surface. However, where all the conditions are favor- 

 able, it costs less to improve these inland marshes than the delta 

 lands, and the results are fairly remunerative. 



Alluvial Lands. In eastern Louisiana rice is grown largely on 

 low lands which were once used as sugar plantations; also on the 

 well-drained alluvial lands farther up the Mississippi. 



Prairie Lands. In southwestern Louisiana and southeastern 

 Texas is a large area of comparatively level prairie land which has 

 only within recent years been devoted to rice growing. These lands 

 are a sufficient distance from the coast to be free from devastating 

 storms and the serious attack of birds. No expensive clearing, ditch- 

 ing, or leveeing is needed to prepare the lands for rice. The drain- 

 age is good and the lands can be cultivated to winter crops, thus pre- 

 venting the growth of red rice and injurious weeds and gr< f isses. 

 Such cultivation enables the planter to plow deeply in the fall and to 



