42 THE TEXAS RICE BOOK. 



seven or eight men behind the mowers to pick it up and bind it. 

 And when all machinery fails on down grain, then the supple- 

 backed reapers, with the hand sickle of our forefathers, can 

 save it. 



AS TO THE RICE INDUSTRY. 

 Houston Post. 



The rice industry has come to Texas to stay. In the past 

 two years the crop has grown from a few thousand acres in Jef- 

 ferson County to hundreds of thousands of acres located in a 

 dozen counties. The rice crop is a costly one to get started, owing 

 to the necessary preparation for irrigating which involves the 

 machinery for pumping, the digging of canals, the building of 

 flumes and levees and the costly machinery for harvesting and 

 threshing. A number of companies have recently been organized 

 to undertake the cultivation of rice on a large scale and the cap- 

 ital of each ranges from $50,000 to $300,000 ; some of these com- 

 panies will put in only irrigating plants to furnish water to the 

 farmers, but others will or have purchased land and will them- 

 selves cultivate rice as well as furnish water to others. These 

 figures apply to the industry on a large scale. 



Matagorda County has shown the greatest development of 

 the rice industry ; if all the plans now in contemplation or under 

 way are carried to completion, the acreage will amount to 15,000 

 or 20,000, as against 750 for the season just ending. The increase 

 for the year following will be enormous, though not now estim- 

 atable. 



Jefferson County farmers have developed the industry be- 

 yond the realm of speculation; they were the pioneers and have 

 reaped a rich harvest. Beaumont now has two rice mills and an- 

 other building, and draws rough rice from all portions of the 

 section engaged in its cultivation. The increase in acreage will 

 be very large the coming year, but exact figures are not obtain- 

 able. The growing of rice is not carried on as an experiment, 

 but is an established business and one which is as certain to re- 

 turn a profit as any other sort of business. 



Below will be found reports from the different rice centers 

 of Southwest Louisiana and Southeast Texas ; these reports also 

 contain estimates of the cane crop, which is generally cultivated 

 in the same section with rice. The cane industry was once a 

 great one in the coast country of Texas, and is now being revived 

 with every promise of growing to greater proportions than it 

 reached "before the war," when this section of Texas was popu- 

 larly known as "the sugar bowl." In Brazoria County the cane 

 industry is going to be a most important one ; the new State farm 

 and refinery at Brazoria will give it a great impetus. The State 

 has already arranged to put in 1,200 acres in cane for this sea- 

 son, and the refinery will be built in time to handle this and all 

 that can be raised by the farmers in the vicinity. 



