THE MOST IMPORTANT CEREALS 173 



Rice is rarely raised north of that region in which the average summer 

 temperature (June, July, August) is lower than 77F., and in moist 

 regions where lowland rice can be cultivated in delta, or alluvial lands, 

 that can be inundated. The best soil for rice is a medium loam, containing 

 about 50 per cent, of clay. This allows the presence of sufficient humus 

 for the highest fertility without decreasing too much the compact nature 

 of the soil. The rich, drift soils of the Louisiana and Texas prairies have 

 shown a marvelous adaptation to rice. These soils are underlain with 

 clay, so as to be retentive of water. 



The rice lands of the United States comprise delta lands, inland 

 marshes, alluvial lands and prairie lands. A large part of the rice grown 

 in South Carolina and Georgia is produced on tidal deltas, and to some 

 extent on inland marshes. In eastern Louisiana, rice is grown on low 

 lands, which were once used as sugar plantations, also on the well-drained 

 alluvial lands farther up the Mississippi River. In 1884 and 1885, a 

 few farmers from the northwestern prairie states settled on the great 

 southern prairie which extends along the coast from the parish of St. 

 Mary in Louisiana to the Texas line. Wherever they found the prairie 

 land sufficiently level with a creek nearby, which could be used to flood the 

 land, they built small levees 12 to 24 inches high with an interior ditch 

 12 to 1 8 inches deep and form to five feet wide. Large crops of rice were 

 raised by the adaptation of such agricultural machinery, as the gang plow, 

 disk harrow, drill and broadcast seeder to the new conditions, but a set 

 back came owing to the cheap construction of the levees and the advent 

 of dry summers when the streams went dry. There are large areas de- 

 voted to raising rice hi Arkansas where the rice fields vary from 10 to 40 

 acres plowed with tractors and gathered by harvesters. The yields run 

 as high as 104 bushels, the average yield in 1919 being 60 bushels. 



Cultivation. The time of plowing is hi the spring just before planting 

 time and deep plowing should be practised as it places more food within 

 reach of the roots of the growing rice. The amount of rice sown with a 

 drill per acre varies in different sections and with different methods of 

 sowing, from i to 3 bushels per acre should be used. After seeding just 

 enough water is let on the field to saturate the ground. Flooding follows, 

 when the rice is 6 to 8 inches tall, so as to prevent scalding of the plants. 

 The depth of water that should be maintained from the first flooding 

 until it is withdrawn for the harvest depends upon other conditions. If 

 the growing crop thoroughly shades the land, just enough water to keep 



