RICE. 



333 



pounds each, or 20,149,600 pounds. The crop of 1870 was not a 

 successful one. In 1859 Plaquemines parish yielded 4,635,500 

 pounds of the crop of 6,331,257 pounds, or about two-thirds of the 

 total product of the State ; in 1869 the same parish produced 

 6,247,400 pounds, and yet it was less than a third of the crop of 

 the State, and returns were made from fourteen other parishes. 



These facts show the culture of rice is rapidly extending in 

 Louisiana, and may be extended to nearly every parish in the State ; 

 it is slowly but surely overcoming its serious hindrances on the 

 marshes of the Atlantic coast ; it has been mainly carried on by 

 negroes on their own account, as a business in which they have had 

 a lifetime training. 



In referring to the recapitulation of the crops for 1872-73 we find 

 the following particulars : 



Parishes. 



Steam-power 

 Eice Mills. 



Horse-power 

 Rice Mills. 



Crop. 









barrels. 









435 



St. John the Baptist 



i 





1,250 



St. Charles 



1 



2 



5,402 









308 





i 





12 









117 





5 





30,254 





1 



13 



11,741 







4 



1,224 









884 









579 



Total .. .. 



9 



19 



52,206 



The following is the of&cial return of American rice production 

 at three decennial periods : — 



States. 



1850 



I860. 



1870. 





lbs. 



lbs. 



lbs. 





2,312,252 



493,465 



222,945 





63,179 



16,831 



73,021 





2,140 







1,075,090 



223,704 



401,687 





38,950,691 



52,507,652 



22,277,380 





5,688 









4,425,349 



6,33i,257 



15,854,012 



Mississippi 



2,719,856 



809,082 



374,627 





700 



9,767 





North Carolina . . 



5,465,868 



7,593,976 



2,059,281 



South Carolina . . 



159,930,613 



119,100,528 



32,304,825 





258,854 



40,372 



3,399 





88,203 



26,031 



63,844 





17,154 



8,225 









716 









3,286 





Total .. .. 



215,313,497 



187,167,032 



73,635,001 



