Field of Corn Yielding 250 Bushels on One Acre 



Corn on the Alluvial Lands and the reclaimed Marsh Lands of the State 

 yields from 50 to 100 bushels to the acre. This wide variation depends more 

 upon the season than upon anything else; since a farmer usually plants all the 

 acreage he can possibly take care of during a favorable season. If an unfavor- 

 able season comes, such as a late spring, deficient stand or too much rain, some 

 crop must suffer; and with the southern farmer it is usually the corn. 



Corn on the Bluff Lands and the Uplands is the principal crop next to cotton. 

 These lands are commonly sufficiently fertile to produce profitable yields during 

 favorable seasons of both cotton and corn without the use of fertilizers. By 

 growing cowpeas, soy beans or velvet beans with the corn, however, for an 

 increased nitrogen supply, the yield of both crops, especially of corn, may be 

 materially and profitably increased, the yield being increased twenty-five to 

 fifty bushels of corn to the acre. 



It has been found that the moisture content of Louisiana corn is very low 

 compared to that in corn produced in Illinois. For example, 13.4 per cent in 

 Louisiana as an average against an average in Illinois corn of 19.1 per cent. 

 This is due to the usual heat and dryness of the climate during August and 

 September. This gives Louisiana an advantage in the early shipment of the 

 crop that enables the buyer to get better corn. 



Rice 



Louisiana is as distinctively a rice producing State as she is a sugar produc- 

 ing State. The rice crop is an exceedingly important one to the State, not 

 only because of the amount of capital involved in its production and the wealth 

 evolved therefrom, but because by it lands in the State, ^vhich were not well 

 adapted to any other crop, have been utilized. 



This crop is confined almost entirely to the level alluvial lands of the Ata- 

 kapas Prairies and to the Coast Marsh Lands of the southwestern part of the 

 State. The acreage in 1918 was almost double that devoted to sugar-cane and 

 distributed as follows: About 12 per cent of the acreage was in the River District, 

 producing an average of 40.2 bushels to the acre; 6 percent along the Teche, 

 producing an average of 35.4 bushels to the acre; and 82 per cent in southwestern 

 Louisiana, producing an average of 29. 1 bushels to the acre. From this state- 

 ment the relative productivity of the rice lands of the State can be discerned. 

 The varieties of rice planted in percentage to the total acreage were, Honduras 

 12%, Japan 5%, Blue Rose 57%, Louisiana Pearl 12%, Early Prolific 10%, 

 Edith 2% and Carolina 2%. 



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