RICE 361 



RICE PKODUCTION IN THE UNITED STATES 



The world's crop of cleaned rice amounts to approxi- 

 mately one hundred and fifty billion pounds annually. 

 Of this amount the United States produces approximately' 

 seven hundred million pounds. 



444. Rice-growing sections. — Previous to 1880 the 

 bulk of the rice crop in the United States was produced 

 in South Carolina and Georgia. At present Louisiana, 

 Texas, and Arkansas produce more than three-fourths 

 of the crop in this country. This shift in rice production 

 has been due to the opening up, within recent years, of 

 large areas of level prairie land in southwestern Louisiana, 

 southeastern Texas, and southeastern Arkansas, together 

 with the development of a system of irrigation and culture 

 that greatly reduces the cost of production by admitting 

 the use of improved seething and harvesting machinery. 



In addition to these important areas, rice is also pro- 

 duced in eastern Louisiana on low alluvial lands once used 

 as sugar plantations, and on soils of the same character 

 farther up the Mississippi. In southern Louisiana and 

 particularly in the eastern sections of Georgia and South 

 Carolina considerable quantities of rice are still produced 

 on what is termed the "tidal deltas." Lands of this char- 

 acter that are used for rice growing are usually located on 

 some stream, and have an elevation such that they can be 

 flooded from the stream at high tide and drained into it at 

 low. tide. Many inland marshes occurring in the more 

 elevated regions of South Carolina and Georgia, and so 

 situated that they can be irrigated from some convenient 

 stream, are used for growing rice. 



The areas adapted to upland rice are very extensive in- 

 asmuch as this crop can usually be grown on any soil 



