218 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



1907 there were 19,000 acres under cultivation and in 1909, 

 18,600. Mr. Rice also states tliat Georgia in 1909 had 

 5,000 acres in rice and Korth Carolina had 1,000. He 

 figures that with a total of 24,000 acres from the South At- 

 lantic States, a crop of 30 bushels to the acre and $1 to the 

 bushel (both of which he believes too high), the rice industry 

 for the South Atlantic States would not produce $750,000. 

 Regarding this he writes as follows : — 



Knowing what I do of the local conditions I expect to see South 

 Carolina's acreage cut more than one-half another year. As a 

 matter of fact, it is hard to see how as much as 10,000 acres of rice 

 can be grown in South Carolina at the present time, imder prevail- 

 ing conditions. 



The industry is moribund and ought to have been dead for the 

 sake of decency long ago, as it mei-ely perpetuates conditions the 

 world has outgrown. 



Louisiana and Texas, with wliite labor, ought to make money with 

 rice selling at 50 cents a bushel ; we could not make a cent with rice 

 at $2 a bushel. A little examination would show you Avhy. 



For an example that will be illuminating, take the case of George- 

 town, fonuerly the center of the rice industry. Oysters are bought 

 from Norfolk and fish from Tampa, although as the crow flies the 

 town is eight miles from the marshes, abounding in both. Neither 

 love nor money will move negroes to gather oysters or catch fish, 

 except such fish as involves no manual labor in the catching, — 

 flounders, shad, mullet and so on. 



Surrounded by fifty miles of forest, wood cannot be bought at 

 any price, except slabs from the saw mills. You will find these 

 negroes working two days a week at the mills and loafing the rest 

 of the time. That is why the planting of rice has failed. The 

 rice-field task is three hours' work, beginning at 9 a.m. and ending 

 at noon, sharp. Hoping against hope, a few planters have struggled 

 on, but some have received the coup de grace this year, our amiable 

 former governor, Mr. Heyward, being among the slain, for he lost 

 $25,000 net this year. The bobolink ought to be welcome to what 

 he can find in the rice fields, for if he can reap a profit there he 

 exceeds man's efforts. 



This correspondence suggests that the bobolink which is a 

 useful bird in the north and also in the south. in the cotton 

 fields, where it destroys the cotton worm, should be protected 

 throughout the country at all times, except when doing in- 



