36 THE TEXAS RICE BOOK. 



tic seed every grain of it should be selected with the greatest care, 

 but my advice would be to buy the very best imported seed. With 

 good soil and plenty of water there is no reason on earth why 

 there should be a particle of red rice in the whole Texas crop." 



Mr. Jahn here cited an instance where a rice farmer in this 

 country, after saving his seed for the coming year and selling 

 his rice at an average price of from $3.40 to $3.50 per barrel, was 

 offered $1.50 for his seed rice. The illustration pointed the mor- 

 al of Prof. Knapp's advice. The farmer should have saved the 

 $3.50 rice for seed and sold the $1.50 rice. 



Prof. Knapp is making a tour of the Texas rice belt an 

 spent Saturday in this city. He visited the rice mills in this ciH 

 and examined closely into the grade of the rice which was raised 

 in the county. His conversation quoted above was the point he 

 most desired to impress upon the farmers, and one which he said 

 he would bring before the Department of Agriculture in his re- 

 port. He will deal at length with this question in his report, and 

 by the circulation of this report he expects to influence the farm- 

 ers to give more attention to the grade of the rice. He will also 

 endeavor to impress upon the department the necessity of en- 

 couraging the raising of a higher grade of rice in the United 

 States. He sees no reason why the imported cereal should be a 

 better grade article than the domestic if the farmers in this coun- 

 try will investigate and study the means to reach a perfect grain. 

 Houston Post. 



OPENING A RICE FARM. 



Wharton, Tex., Dec. 3. Hon. G. W. Collier, with Messrs. 

 T. J. Hooks and W. H. Turner, all of Beaumont, who have pur- 

 chased a tract of Matagorda rice lands, comprising between five 

 and six thousand acres, are in the city to-day, returning from a 

 view of their purchase. They say that the greater part of the 

 tract will be put in rice, and are arranging for a speedy setting 

 to work on the canaling and plowing. The water of the Color- 

 ado River will be used for irrigation. The Cane Belt Railway 

 will be the shipping line. From Galveston News of Dec. 4th, 

 1900. 



A RICE GROWERS' EXPERIENCE. 



A. P. Borden, of Pierce Station, in a communication says: 

 "I purchased a gasoline engine and centrifugal pump to fur- 

 nish the water supply and had to buy a quantity of farming ma- 

 chinery such as harrows, drills, threshing machines, self-binders, 

 etc. Also had to build a canal three-fourths of a mile long, throw 

 up levees, etc., which was expensive work owing to so much wet 

 weather. 



