146 RURAL CALIFORNIA 



the United States Department of Agriculture, was 

 for the year 1919, fifty-five and one-half bushels in 

 California as compared with an average acre yield 

 of thirty-seven and three-quarters bushels for all the 

 rice-growing states of the country. Thus, the demon- 

 stration of the suitability for rice of large areas of 

 land which had become of very low productive value 

 for other purposes, coupled with the high price of 

 rice engendered by the war, induced large invest- 

 ments for water supply and land leveling, brought 

 the rent value of suitable lands to figures beyond 

 all anticipations, and induced also large investments 

 for rice milling and storage and organization of pro- 

 ducers for handling of their products. All these 

 things constituted a development which, both for 

 speed and volume of investment and enterprise, no 

 other specialty of California production ever realized 

 within a single decade. Following are the records of 

 the advancement of rice-growing in California com- 

 piled from the reports of the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture : 



Production 

 Year Bushels Farm Value 



1910 3,000 $ 2,000 



1911 6,000 4,000 



1912 70,000 64,000 



1913 293,000 293,000 



1914 800,000 800,000 



1915 2,268,000 2,041,000 



1916 3,263,000 2,545,000 



1917 5,600,000 9,800,000 



1918 7,011,000 13,321,000 



1919 9,300,000 24,831,000 



1920 9,720,000 11,761,000 



