CULTIVATION OF RICE IN THE UNITED 



STATES. 



A CROP WHICH MUvST DEPEND ON IRRIGATION 

 THOUGH GROWN IN HUMID AREAS. METHODS 

 USED IN THE PRINCIPAL RICE-GROWING DISTRICTS. 



BY 



LESLIE HARRISON. 



IT can be stated that rice cannot be 

 grown without irrigation, and for all 

 practical purposes that statement will 

 hold true ; for while it is true that 

 " Providence" rice has been grown in 

 the past, and is grown yet, it is also 

 true that rice grown without the artifi- 

 cial application of water has compara- 

 tively small commercial value in the 

 rice industry of the Southern States. 



The methods of cultivation and irri- 

 gation are widely different in the two 

 great rice districts of the country ; for 

 excepting the fact that the resultant 

 crop is the same, and that both are 

 grown by means of irrigation, there are 

 few points of likeness. For example, 

 Carolina rice-growing is historically the 

 oldest in the country, and its present 

 methods show almost the same primitive 

 conditions which have characterized rice 

 cultivation from its first Asiatic begin- 

 nings. Louisiana and Texas, on the 

 other hand, whose industry has more 

 than taken the place that was once oc- 

 cupied by South Carolina and Georgia, 

 make use of the most improved methods, 

 with expensive modern machinery for 

 harvesting and threshing, and are now 

 engaged in irrigation works of great 

 magnitude. 



Rice growing is not by any means a 

 new venture in this country. In 1694 

 a storm-tossed Spanish vessel put into 

 Charleston harbor, where it lay for some 

 time to undergo necessary repairs. Dur- 

 ing this stay the captain of the vessel 

 gave to one of the citizens of the town 

 a handful of rough rice. From this one 

 handful, through careful seeding and 

 cultivation, developed the notable Caro- 

 lina rice, now world- famous. For along 



time Georgia and the Carolinas furnished 

 the principal part of the rice crop of the 

 country, and for a number of years pre- 

 ceding the civil war these states pro- 

 duced 105,000,000 pounds of cleaned 

 rice annually. At the present time the 

 annual yield is about 50,000,000 pounds. 

 Louisiana now produces more than 

 half of the rice raised in this country, 

 the annual output amounting to some 

 200, 000,000 pounds. The history of her 

 rice industry dates back to the exiled 

 Acadians French settlers from Nova 

 Scotia who in the last half of the 

 eighteenth century began the raising of 

 "Providence" rice; but providential 

 rain was not to be depended on, and fat 

 years were invariably followed by lean 

 ones, so that irrigation came to be more 

 and more desirable, until now the sys- 

 tems of Louisiana are among the most 

 elaborate and valuable in the country. 



IRRIGATION OF RICE IN THE CAROLINAS 

 AND GEORGIA. 



The rice industry of the Atlantic coast 

 is confined to tidewater areas from Cape 

 Fear to the Florida boundary of Georgia. 

 In this area there are about 80,000 acres 

 on which rice might be grown, but, as a 

 matter of fact, only about half of this 

 is cultivated. The water supply is en- 

 tirely from coastal rivers, and the plan- 

 tations must lie far enough above salt 

 water to avoid its bad effects on the 

 fields. This limits the cultivation to a 

 strip lying not more than 30 miles from 

 the coast, and seldom less than 15. In 

 a few cases where the river water is 

 brackish at certain seasons, storage res- 

 ervoirs are provided to offset these con- 

 ditions ; and where the water is always 



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