July 29, 1892.] 



SCIENCE. 



59 



Estimates by State Commissioners of Agriculture are avail- 

 able for recent years for South Carolina and Louisiana. The 

 figures of production for the last three years at hand are: — 



South Carolina. Louisiana. 



1888 67,752,374 51,414,909 



1889 93,143,508 63,330,897 



1890 68,091,944 



The production for Louisiana for 1890 is given at about 

 1,000,000 barrels of rough rice. 



The largest cultivator of rice in the United States is proba- 

 bly Col. John Screven of Savannah, Ga. It is to the kind 

 ness of this gentleman that I am indebted for the following 

 information, relating to the rice culture in Georgia and 

 the Carolinas (I leave Louisiana entirely out because the 

 situation there is complicated by the presence of the sugar- 

 cane culture). 



"There are only two systems: tidewater, and inland or 

 back-water culture. In the latter system, the water is de- 

 rived from swamp or still-water reservoirs, formed by bank- 

 ing in the water of swamps and so retaining it convenient 

 for the irrigation of adjacent fields. The culture of such 

 fields is practically the same as in tide-water culture, the 

 water being applied and removed at pleasure, provided the 

 reservoirs or back-waters are sufficiently supplied, as may 

 not be the case in seasons of drought. In the former, or 

 tide-water system, a want of water-supply can scarcely occur, 

 certainly not at the periods of spring tides, on which the 

 system of irrigation is commonly based. 



" The tidal lands lie in the deltas of the rivers and in 

 their natural state are subject to overflow, certainly in the 

 spring-tides, and being extremely level may be covered by 

 'great tides" to a depth to hide summits. As these lands 

 contract and settle under drainage and cultivation, this ad- 

 vantage is increased after they are taken in. 



"They are embanked sufficiently to keep out the highest 

 tides, and water gates, called "trunks," are laid, so as to 

 admit or discharge the water, as the tides rise or fall. At 

 these gates the drainage fall is from four to five feet in the 

 Savannah River, where the mean tide-fall is about six and 

 a half feet. The average drainage of the fields, however, 

 will not exceed three and a half feet. To make the drainage 

 as complete as possible, main ditches, say six feet wide by 

 four feet deep, are dug around the fields, which are again 

 subdivided by minor ditches, 2 feet wide by three feet deep, 

 called quarter drains, cut parallel about seventy-five feet 

 apart. This ditch system is not all-important for irrigation. 

 It combines greater value in the rapid and thorough drain- 

 age it affords; for rice is an amphibious plant, and while irri- 

 gation is very necessary to its successful growth, good drain- 

 age, the more rapid the better, is equally necessary, for rea- 

 sons which need not be stated here, as we have to consider 

 only its hygienic value." 



I had addressed to Col. Screven a number of questions 

 relating to this subject. I give them here with the answers 

 I received. 



1. Which is the least dangerous of the difl'erent systems 

 of irrigation ? Answer. The tide-water system, because the 

 water is not taken from stagnant reservoirs, and may be 

 oftener changed. 



2. What is the system of manuring generally adopted, 

 are human excrements used ? Answer. Commercial fertil- 

 izers are more commonly used — human excrements never. 



1 This is the almanac term for tUe high spring tides raised by the union of 

 new or full and perigee moon — not storm-tides. 



3. What means are used to prevent the contamination of 

 drinking water? Answer. Water from wells, sometimes 

 artesian, is used, very commonly wafer drawn directly from 

 the river, which, by the more careful, is cleared by settling, 

 or is filtered. 



4. Whatseasonsaremost unwholesome for the cultivators ? 

 Answer. The summer and ante-frost autumnal months, 

 commencing with July and the harvest flow, and especially 

 after that flow is removed, say, from August 15, when it is 

 cast off for the harvest, and the water-growth, animal, and 

 vegetal exposed to the sun and decay. 



5. Do the hands live in the immediate neighborhood of the 

 plantations or, perhaps, on higher ground? Answer. Either, 

 as convenience dictates, or on the plantation itself. Very 

 often higher grounds are more unwholesome than the level 

 of the rice-fields. Settlements close to the river-shore, where 

 the tides move the atmosphere, and the winds are least im- 

 peded, are often the most healthy. High grounds overlook- 

 ing rice-fields, and not well shielded from them by vegeta- 

 tion, are considered most unwholesome. It should be stated 

 that the cultivators (laborers) in the rice-fields are negroes, 

 who are constitutionally less liable to fevers than whites. 

 Ordinarily, the white residents of rice fields abandon them 

 from May 1 until frost the following autumn. 



6. What system is used to dry the ground ? Answer. 

 The drainage method already described. The rice-fields are- 

 never pondy or muddy when properly drained. During the 

 dry stages, they admit the plow, harrow, toothed roller, drill,, 

 or any other appropriate agricultural implement, and are 

 sometimes even dusty, when stirred. 



7. What is done to prevent the formation of swamps or 

 lagoons ? Answer. Effective drainage. 



8. Is anything done to prevent infection from the rotting 

 crops which have been beaten down by storms ? Answer. 

 When drainage is efi^ective, serious infection is not likely to 

 occur from crops beaten down by storms. 



9. Are laborers permitted to work in the rice-fields before 

 sunrise and after sunset ? Answer. The most dangerous 

 time to laborers is in the harvest, when the hot suns raise 

 noxious effluvia in the fields from decaying water vegeta- 

 tion and animalculse. At such times the laborers (negroes) 

 seek their work in the early morning before sunrise, so as 

 to complete their tasks before afternoon, when the sun is 

 most oppressive. They fear the sun more than malaria. 



10. What means are taken to obviate malarial and typhoid 

 fevers ? Answer. None specially ; incidentally such drain- 

 age as is necessary to successful rice culture Drainage and 

 good health are as interdependent as drainage and good hus- 

 bandry. As for typhoid fever, it is unknoum in the rice- 

 fields, even among whites. Filth diseases are rare. If by 

 "malarial fevers" is meant fevers other than those from 

 paludal (marsh) causes, I venture to assert that in the rice- 

 fields, and on the southern Atlantic coast generally, there is 

 marked absence of them, and where fevers prevail from 

 paludal (marsh) causes (bilious fevers ?) typhoid fever will 

 not originate. It is a notable fact, that typhoid fever was 

 unknown in the city of Savannah before 1861. 



In conclusion, I will in a few words give such advice to 

 Japanese sanitarians as is clearly suggested by the preceding 

 facts. 1. First of all, there is one thing that must be done if 

 the culture is not to remain what it is now, a public calamity ; 

 the immunditse must be kept out of the water. I should ad- 

 vocate the use of artificial manures, —bone phosphates and 

 American fertilizers. Thus the general infection of drinking- 

 water with typhoid, cholera, and other germs, would cease. 



