BREAD PLANTS 9 



The water supply is often many feet lower than 

 the rice field. Pumps are used to bring it up, or 

 it may be elevated by the principle of the siphon, 

 a method that saves power generated by engines. 

 Deep wells supply water to the irrigating ditches 

 in some rice-growing sections of the Southwest. 

 This allows tracts far removed from river courses 

 to come under this form of agriculture. 



Before the field turns yellow, the land is drained, 

 and the reapers and binders cut and bind the 

 grain, which is shocked, then stacked for later 

 threshing. The use of machinery greatly reduces 

 the need of hand labor, which is far more ex- 

 pensive in this country than in the Tropics and 

 the Far East. 



The methods of growing rice have changed 

 little since the beginning of its cultivation in 

 China and India. The plow is most primitive, 

 often little more than a crooked pole, with its nose 

 in the mud, dragged along by a stupid water 

 buffalo. 



The preparation of the field is often only the 

 stirring up of the mud at the bottom of a shallow 

 swamp, obstructed by tree roots and rubbish. 

 The seed bed is a level patch, better prepared. 

 The seed is sown broadcast, often sprouted before- 

 hand. When the shoots are three inches high the 



