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younjT rice may be scalded by the hot sun, the planting not being done until 

 late in April or in May. In what is generally known as dry culture the land 

 is prepared as for oats and carefully harrowed. The rice is then planted 

 broadcast or with drills — generally broadcast — and when it comes up, or 

 rather after it comes up, the lands are moistened with water and the water 

 kept a little below the tops of the plants, following them up as they grow 

 taller. The water is not taken off these plants unless, as is commonly 

 thought, they are attacked by crayfish. This, however, is regarded by many 

 as doubtful. Sometimes an inci eased quantity is put upon the lands for the 

 purpose of covering the plants so as to drown the caterpillars that attack 

 them at this stajje of growth. Floodinc: the land several times, as is prac- 

 ticed in South Carolina, is not k':iown here. If no mishap occurs to the crop 

 the water is kept upon it constantly from the time it com^^s above the srround 

 until the lands are drained off preparatory to harvesting. 



Prepnrnui land and sov'iny f^icl. - For dry culture, the lands are ploughed in 

 winter. For wet culture the lands are only ploughed about the time of plant- 

 ing — say, in April. In dry culture it is considered good practice to sow late 

 in March, and reasonably good practice to sow in April. In wet culture it 

 is expedient to sow before the latter part of April. Rice planted up to the 

 15th of May is considered good for a fair yield ; planted after that the yield 

 will be cut down in quantity. If plantod late in Juiis^. it matures so late in 

 the fall that the cold nights are apt to shrivel it and but a small crop will be 

 realized. On the river the rice is generally sown by hand. Broadcast seed- 

 ing machines have been used, but not to any extent. Some rice has been 

 planted with drills, but they ne^er obtained much us9 among the river 

 planters. 



Harvesfinq and thrasihv>q -The rice is cut when it matures, generally in 

 August, and is put in shocks of about 20 bundles each. It ordinarily re- 

 mains in these shocks about a week, during which time the shock dries out 

 some and may Leat a little. The old rice planters think it wise to then carry 

 the rice into a yard called a battery, and to stack it there carefully, where it 

 undergoes some sweating, during which it is liable to stack burn. Most of 

 our river planters, however, now prefer to cut the rice, to tie it up, to ship it 

 off after a few days only, and to haul directly from the shocks to tlie thrash- 

 ing machine, the rice lyin? sufficiently long on the stubble to dry it before 

 it is tied up, and very little curing is then required in the shocks. Practically 

 all of the rice is thrashed at once ; whereas, if stacked, it sometimes burns 

 if left too damp. Under my own observation there has been produced on 

 this land as high as 30 barrels (4,860 pounds) of rough rice per acre. This 

 was upon good Innd that had been in peas and had been fall-plou2jhed with six 

 mule teams. The average product per acre on the lower coast (Mississippi 

 liiver) will not exceed 8 barrels, and 12 barrels is considered a good crop. 



Wet adtnre lyid iveeds. — I think the same general rules will apply to the 

 upper coast, but usually on the upper coast they resort to dry culture, while 

 the lowness of our rice lands on the lower coast leads to a great deal of plough- 

 ing actually in the water. Ajjain, our people plough in the water, because 

 what are called our best rice lands are buckshot clay, and they are so stiff 

 that the average small rice planter can not plough them with any team that he 

 has, unless he softens them up in this way. Wet culture is a very delicate 

 process and unless done just right is apt to end disastrously, whereas with 

 dry culture the rice crop will come up as certainly as an oat crop, with the danger, 

 however, of a large growth of grass coming along with it. Our planters 

 become very skillful with their wet culture, and always strive to get rice up 

 ahead of the grasses and weeds that have to be picked out by hand. For 

 this reason 1 have always thought that the rice lands in the western part of 

 the State were bound to supply the whole consumption of the country, owing 

 to the facts that they could be readily drained, that our lowland weeds do not 

 prevail there, and that the cidture was rendered incomparably cheaper by the 

 use of harvesting machines. 



