SOUTHERN PACIFIC LINES 27 
The village of Rayne i is in an important agricultural community, 
with its chief interest in rice, which is raised over a wide area in the 
Baris: vicinity. The fields are irrigated by water pumped 
Flevation 36 feet,  f£0m bayous and wells. The Southern Pacific Rail- 
Population 3,710. road here crosses a branch of the Texas & Pacific 
Yew Orleans 160 miles. “Railway which connects Opelousas and Crowley. 
Crowley, the parish seat of Acadia Parish, is now the center of the 
great rice industry of southwestern Louisiana. About three-fourths 
of the area of the parish is in rice, which is irrigated 
Crowley. by 300 miles of canals and water from 125 wells. 
Sei i The principal supply of underground water here is 
Naw Be desu: found about 300 feet below the surface, and consid- 
erable water is also obtained at depths of 17 to 60 
feet. One of the large canals is crossed between Rayne and Crowley. 
It is claimed by local authorities that one-third of the rice produced 
in the United States is raised within 30 miles of Crowley. Acadia 
Parish alone produced 16,317,463 bushels of rough rice in 1929 
(Fifteenth Census). There are many rice mills where the rice is 
cleaned and polished, with an annual production averaging 1,500,000 
barrels of 162 pounds, according to the Crowley Chamber of Qe 
merce. Rice is milled to cull out broken and small material and 
remove the hull and the several thin layers that surround the grain, 
a process which robs it of valuable food elements. Most of the rice 
to be exported has to be coated with a very thin film of tale in glu- 
cose. A large part of it is shipped to Puerto Rico. Rice requires a 
generous supply of water, not only for the growth of the rice plant 
but to kill weeds that would otherwise choke it. This water is 
. pumped from wells and bayous and in large amount from the Sabine 
River. Many of the canals and ditches that bring the water, some 
of them from long distances, are crossed by the railroad. Fortu- 
nately, in most seasons there is an abundant water supply, but it is 
found that in some bayous strong pumping causes the backing up of 
brackish water, which is deleterious. The pumping is done by steam 
and electricity, with oil for fuel, and most of the water is supplied by 
companies that irrigate their own fields and sell water to others. 
Some of the batteries of pumps require from 400 to 800 horsepower. 
The fields are crossed by a network of small ditches like furrows, 
with low banks to retain the water. 
Ordinarily the irrigation of rice costs about one-fifth of the value 
of the yield, which is 40 to 50 bushels to an acre. Rice sprouts in 
