230 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



May 



indirect benefits. On such waste, sandy 

 land it will take on an average about 

 eighty years for a crop of pine trees to 

 grow to merchantable size. Individuals 

 can not wait so long for a crop and they 

 will not engage in the business. The 



state, to whom time does not occur, 

 must undertake the work by purchasing 

 waste land and planting it with pine. 



The forestry board is ready to go to 

 work. Will you see that the legislature 

 provides us with the means ? 



SOUTHERN IRRIGATION SUCCESSFUL. 



NOTES ON RICE IRRIGATION STA- 

 TISTICS IN LOUISIANA FOR 1902. 



CHIEF Statistician, L. G. Powers, 

 has transmitted to the Director 

 of the Census a preliminary statement 

 concerning rice irrigation in the State of 

 Louisiana for 1902. The report was 

 prepared under his direction by Clarence 

 J. Blanchard, and is based upon in- 

 formation obtained by correspondence. 

 The statistics are for the several parishes 

 and indicate a great increase in rice irri- 

 gation since the crop year 1899. 



Irrigation in Louisiana is restricted 

 almost entirely to the cultivation of rice, 

 in the production of which cereal this 

 state now ranks first in the United 

 States. A few farmers along the Mis- 

 sissippi River in the vicinity of New 7 

 Orleans report irrigation of other crops, 

 principally vegetables. 



Rice is grown to some extent through- 

 out the entire southern fourth of the 

 state, with the exception of a marshy 

 strip about twenty miles in width along 

 the Gulf coast. Within this rice belt, 

 however, there are two regions where 

 rice is grown by irrigation and where 

 conditions are especially suited to its 

 cultivation. The one embraces the low- 

 lands along the lower Mississippi and 

 its outlying bayous ; the other com- 

 prises the extensive prairies of south- 

 western Louisiana. These regions are 

 widely dissimilar in soil, and as a result 

 very different methods of irrigating and 

 harvesting are employed. The delta 

 lands of the Mississippi have a deep, 

 rich, alluvial soil, with an elevation 

 little, if any, above the banks of the 

 streams. Those along the Mississippi 

 are, in many places, considerably lower 

 than the surface of its waters, which are 



restrained by high levees. Irrigation is 

 by means of flumes in the river levees, 

 by siphons, and by steam pumps. 

 Owing to breaks in the levees caused 

 by floods, the difficulties to be over- 

 come in properly draining the planta- 

 tions and the unsuitability of the soil 

 for the use of modern machinery, the 

 rice industry in this part of Louisiana 

 has developed but little in the last six 

 or eight years. 



COASTAL PRAIRIES. 



Louisiana's present leading position 

 among the rice-growing states is due to 

 the discovery of the peculiar adapta- 

 bility of the coastal prairies to the cul- 

 tivation and irrigation of rice. This 

 adaptability was first demonstrated by 

 the large yield of irrigated rice in 1897, 

 which immediately caused a great in- 

 flux of immigrants and capital. These 

 prairies are comparatively level, with a 

 slight slope toward the Gulf, and have 

 ten navigable rivers and numerous lakes 

 and bayous. The soil is not deep, com- 

 pared with that of the delta lands, but 

 has proved to be wonderfully adapted 

 to the cultivation of this cereal. It is 

 underlaid with an impervious subsoil 

 which plays a very important part in 

 the economy of rice irrigation. This 

 subsoil not only holds the water on the 

 land, but gives a compact base, so that 

 when the irrigation season is over and 

 the levees are opened, the water runs 

 off very rapidly and the ground becomes 

 firm enough to permit the use of the 

 latest improved machinery. 



The prairies are never more than sev- 

 enty and generally range from twenty 



