34 THE TEXAS RICE BOOK. 



GREAT RICE PLANTATION. 



ESTABLISHING A PLANT IN AUSTIN COUNTY TO COST $5O,OOO. 



Sealy, Tex., Dec. 20. Though wet weather, boll weevil and 

 the September storm have almost ruined this country it seems a 

 new era is dawning. Bottom farmers are to a great extent going 

 to raise sugar cane and the vast prairies will in the course of a 

 few years be converted into great rice fields. 



Messrs. G. Frank Rossire, of New York, E. Peperkorn, civil 

 engineer of the Beaumont Rice and Irrigation Company, with 

 Mr. A. Ludwig and his surveying corps, have been busy for a 

 week or more laying out reservoir and canals on the lands owned 

 by G. A. Jahn & Co. and G. F. Rossire on the Bernardo River. 

 These two firms own over 5,000 acres of land near here. They 

 will build a reservoir with a capacity of 100,000 gallons of water 

 which, with the additional flow of the San Bernardo, will enable 

 them to flood all their land and probably two or three thousand 

 acres more. The pumping plant will handle 30,000 gallons per 

 minute. Cost of the plant will reach over $50,000. The canal 

 will be 100 feet wide, three feet of water constantly to enable 

 them to float barges up and down from their siding on the Cane 

 Belt Railway. It will probably be five to seven miles long. Work 

 is to begin at once. 



Messrs. Rossire and Peperkorn leave to-night for Beaumont 

 to confer with Mr. G. A. Jahn, x and will return in a short time. 



These gentlemen say the prairie lands adjacent to the San 

 Bernardino are as fine rice lands as any in the State. 



Messrs. Magruder, Hamby, Menke, Hill and several others 

 are going to try their luck at rice also the coming season and 

 have commenced work. 



RICE GROWING IN TEXAS. 



BEST LAND ON EARTH FOR THE CROP, SAYS PROF. A. S. KN T APP. 



Beaumont, Tex., Dec. 24. During the course of a conver- 

 sation which took place Saturday night at the Crosby House be- 

 tween Prof. A. S. Knapp, who is connected with the Agricultural 

 Department of the United States, Mr. Gustave A. Jahn and The 

 Post correspondent, Prof. Knapp said that the best piece of ad- 

 vice he could give the rice farmers of Texas was to plant only 

 the best seed. 



"I find," said Prof. Knapp, "that the Texas farmer has the 

 best soil on earth for raising rice, and being new soil he has every 

 advantage over the farmers in the older rice sections like Louis- 

 iana and the Carolinas, but he is recklessly regardless of the seed 

 that is planted. I can not understood why a farmer will plant 

 poor seed and reap a crop of poor grade rice when, if he would 

 use care and judgment in the selection of the seed, his crop would 

 be worth thousands of dollars more to him. If they plant domes- 



