THE TEXAS RICE BOOK. 11 



Another question to be considered. Can the rice farmers of 

 the United States, with their improved agricultural machinery, 

 compete with the cheap labor of the Orient ? On the prairie rice 

 lands of Louisiana and Texas, one man with a four-mule team 

 can plant and harvest one hundred acres of rice. He will require 

 an additional man in harvesting and stacking, and, of course, help 

 for two or three days in threshing. Well tended, his crop will 

 net him 1000 barrels. He may do much better than this, and he 

 may do worse. In Japan, one-third of an acre is a reasonable 

 rice farm for a man. In China and India, the water buffalo is 

 Ui>ed in preparing the land, which .enables one man to cultivate 

 one-half an acre to two acres, depending upon the amount of 

 additional help employed. With our improved machinery, there 

 is no known country where a dollar will produce as many bushels 

 of rice as in the United States. The indications are that rice pro- 

 duction in India and Japan will decrease. These countries show 

 remarkable progress in textile manufactures. This indicates that 

 much land in the near future will be devoted to the production of 

 fibre. Every acre devoted to fibre must be withdrawn from the 

 cultivation of rice or wheat, for every available acre in China, 

 India and Japan is now under cultivation. It should be noted 

 that the increased production of rice in Southern Europe, espe- 

 cially in Italy and Spain, has been considerable within the past 

 thirty years, and wheat, oats and barley have yielded ground. 



The increase of the world's population in the next 30 years 

 will not be less than four hundred millions, and the food for this 

 immense number of people must be drawn from new fields. Be- 

 fore the expiration of that period, India, China and Japan will 

 become importers of rice, and the rice of Siam will find markets 

 at neighboring ports. The markets of Europe must then be sup- 

 plied by American rice, and the American consumption in the 

 United States in the mean time will have more than doubled. 



Let us take account of stock. Suppose our product last year 

 to have been two hundred million pounds of cleaned rice (this is 

 above the general estimate). We imported two hundred and five 

 million pounds, and Porto Rico, with an annual demand for 

 about seventy-five millions has been added to our markets. Cuba, 

 just at our door, will soon require one hundred million pounds 

 annually, and the Philippine demand will be a'bout one hundred 

 and thirty-five million pounds. These islands are all importers 

 of food products, because they find other crops more profitable 

 under their conditions. The Hawaiian Islands formerly sent to 

 this country about five million pounds annually, now they im- 

 port from us large amounts. With an annual production of about 

 two hundred million pounds, we have present and prospective 

 markets demanding seven ^hundred and twenty-five- million 

 pounds, with the probability that the demand will be more than 

 doubled in thirty years and (the markets of Europe added. 



Some will ask, "If such is the rice situation in the South, 

 what is the necessity of any tariff on it?" For several reasons. 



