12 THE TEXAS RICE BOOK. 



First. The question of economic distribution has not yet been 

 settled. Second. Many things are yet to be learned auout rice 

 in connection with machine production. As yet it does no. take 

 as high a polish as hand-produced rice. It has what is known as 

 the chalky edge, which reduces the price of the finished product 

 fifty cents per hundred. The price of rice at present is based on 

 fashion and not on food value. It is the problem of finish or 

 shine it takes and not on what it is. This chalky edge is due to 

 careless management in producing large crops, and will soon be 

 remedied. Credit is due to the United States Department of 

 Agriculture for prompt and valuable assistance in overcoming 

 some very serious obstacles in the way of economic rice produc- 

 tion. Another thing to be learned is better cultivation, as neces- 

 sary to quantity and quality of product. Third. Rice farming 

 on our system is in its infancy. Many farmers have recently 

 commenced with small means, and are not in circumstances yet 

 to make a crop at the greatest profit, which requires ready cap- 

 ital. Fourth. The greatest danger from Oriental competition 

 is what is known as dumpage, i. e., after home consumption has 

 been supplied the remainder is sold for what it will bring, regard- 

 less of cost of production. This occasional dumping of a sur- 

 plus on our markets utterly demoralizes home prices. In the 

 United States, when an enormous crop of grain gives us a cheap 

 surplus it is fed to cattle and hogs. In Oriental countries it must 

 be sold, because they do not have the stock to which it can be fed 

 and hence is exported at any price it will command. It is like 

 eggs, the surplus is sent to market, whether the price is four 

 cents or forty cents per dozen. These are the reasons for a tariff. 

 I have thus far discussed rice almost entirely from its com- 

 mercial standpoint. This is not its most substantial and attrac- 

 tive feature for the South. The paramount demand of the South 

 is for some good, small grain crop, which will furnish food for 

 the people and a profitable surplus for export, leaving upon the 

 farm abundant and nutritious by-products for the maintenance of 

 stock, and thus utilizing the luxuriant pasture lands now classed 

 as waste. Cotton and pasture do not co-operate. The sole bi- 

 product of cotton is worth too much commercially to be generally 

 left upon the farm. The full resource of the average farm can 

 never be developed with cotton as the main crop. Corn is a grand 

 grain, but its stalk is too woody, and has lost much of its value 

 before it is required as a food for cattle. The plant that meets 

 these requirements is rice. It has a wide habitat, and can safely be 

 planted from the equator to the thirty-sixth parallel of latitude. 

 South of this line most farms have a creek or river bottom, eas- 

 ily flooded, which might be devoted to rice. One hundred acres 

 of rice furnishes at least 100 tons of straw superior to native 

 prairie hay, and twenty-five tons of bran and polish. This pro- 

 vides for the wintering of 100 head of stock. Some plan will 

 soon be devised for the use of agricultural machinery on bottom 

 land, as well as on the firmer soils of the prairie. The future of 

 this industry is full of interest. 



