1903 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



339 



the commercial article is always polished 

 to give the grain the smooth, pearl}' ap- 

 pearance, which artificially enhances its 

 market value, but detracts from the real 

 food value. 



IRRIGATION OF RICE IN LOUISIANA 

 AND TEXAS. 



The rice of the Gulf States is now 

 grown mainly on the uplands, and does 

 not depend on tidal irrigation. With 

 the use of modern methods and ma- 



civil war, but until they do so they can 

 not easily compete with improved ma- 

 chinery at home or cheap labor abroad. 

 The production could and should be 

 doubled, as we now produce less than 

 half of the rice consumed in this coun- 

 try, and the use of rice as a staple arti- 

 cle of food is constantly increasing. 



Acadian success with Providence rice, 

 intermittent as crops were, showed that, 

 with proper methods of cultivation and 

 irrigation, Louisiana was particularly 



Courtesy Geological Survey. 



BREAKING SOD WITH GANG PLOWS AND TRACTION ENGINES FOR RICE PLANTING, BAY CITY, 



'MATAGORDA COUNTY, TEXAS. 



chinery, the industry has developed into 

 a leading one in these two states, while 

 it has declined in the Carolinas and 

 Georgia. 



During the last fifty years, however, 

 rice production in the United States has 

 grown but little, and only the present 

 time sees an}' great advance in produc- 

 tion over the crop of 1850, for the de- 

 cline in the Atlantic States has offset the 

 advance in the Gulf States. It is possi- 

 ble that the former may adopt some of 

 the methods in use in the latter, and 

 thus regain the prestige held before the 



fitted for this crop. At first, the only 

 attempt at irrigation was the raising of 

 levees above the rice fields to reserve some 

 of the heavy rainfall, instead of allowing 

 it to waste into the bayous. When water 

 was needed to flood the fields, the levees 

 were- cut and the water allowed to flow 

 on the plants ; but in dry seasons this 

 method of irrigation was worthless, and 

 something more dependable had to be 

 devised. Later it was discovered that 

 upland soil was especially suited to the 

 growing of rice, good crops being ob- 

 tained in wet seasons, and it became 



