Edible Products, 



402 



May, 1910. 



wheeled reapers can run it is very little 

 more expensive than wheat. Taking a 

 ten-year average it has been worth about 

 75 cts. a bushel, or $22-50 an acre, or $675 

 as one man's crop. 



Assuming the yield of sugar beets to 

 average about 12 tons for all the best 

 sugar States of our country, and that to 

 be worth $5 per ton prepared for ship- 

 ment in the field ; and we have $60 to the 

 farmer, and about the same amount to 

 the manufacturer as a gross return from 

 that crop, counting the sugar yield of 

 the beet as 250 lbs. of raw sugar per ton, 

 and its price 4 cts. a pound. 



The corresponding fair average yields, 

 such as the crops already named, sugar- 

 cane in the Gulf States should give about 

 18 tons to the acre, counting the cane in 

 cultivation for the mill, and not that 

 grown for seed, nor the land necessarily 

 devoted to rotative crops. That on the 

 basis of present sugar prices should be 

 worth about $4 per ton, or $72 per acre, 

 ready for the factories and considering 

 its yield as the equivalent in total of 

 160 lbs. of raw sugar $2'40 more at the 

 factory, making the gross value of the 

 crop of an acre of sugar cane $115, being 

 near or about the same as that of 

 sugar beets. 



With the lelative cost of cultivating 

 and harvesting these crops, this article 

 has nothing to do. It is meant to show 

 the comparative value of certain pro- 

 ductions of the soil ; that $115 or $120 

 gross return of an acre of beets or of cane 

 comes out of the ground, and furnishes 

 about seven or eight times as much 

 money for somebody's benefit and for 

 many more people's benefit as did the 

 return of an acre of wheat or corn. 



The home beet and cane sugar crops 

 appear to yield the greatest amount of 

 nutritious food to the area in culti- 

 vation, manifold as much money to the 

 acre as the greatest of the grain crops, 

 afford more remunerative work to the 

 farmer and long and profitable employ- 

 ment to many thousand labourers of the 

 temperate zone, who, without such 

 crops, would be compelled to idle for half 

 the year after the grain crops were 

 harvested. 



RICE-GROWING IN THE UNITED 

 STATES. 



(Prom the Agricultural News, Vol. IX., 

 No. 203, February, 1910.) 

 The following information is obtained 

 from an article in the Rice Belt Journal, 

 in which is summarised the information 

 given in the final report of the Bureau 



of Statistics of the United States De- 

 partment of Agriculture, issued on 

 December 20, 1909 :— 



In area, Louisiana leads with 375,000 

 acres, Texas follows with 291,000, and 

 Arkansas comes next with 28,000 ; South 

 Carolina has 18,000 acres, Georgia 4,200, 

 Florida and Mississippi, 1,000 each, and 

 north Carolina 425 acres. In this con- 

 nection it is worthy of note that the 

 greatest increase next year will be along 

 the Mississippi river and in Arkan- 

 sas, where considerable development is 

 taking place. The greatest increase will 

 be in eastern Louisiana, and there are 

 prospects of considerable increase in the 

 State of Mississippi, while Arkansas 

 may safely be expected, according to 

 the well-informed, to double its present 

 acreage. There will be an increase in 

 Landry Parish, Louisiana, but in the 

 parishes of Acadia, Calcasieu and Vermi- 

 lion, a material decrease is certain, al- 

 though 10,000 acres of new land will be 

 put in by the United Irrigation and 

 Rice Milling Company, which is extend- 

 ing its canals. The total acreage of rice 

 in the United States is placed at 720,000 

 —a reduction of 11,000 from the prelimin- 

 ary estimate, and an increase over that 

 of last year of 65,000. 



In yield per acre, Arkansas leads with 

 an average of 40 bushels ; Alabama fol- 

 lows with 35, and Texas comes next 

 with 34 ; Louisiana is two-tenths of a 

 bushel behind Texas, its production 

 being 33 8 bushels per acre ; North Caro- 

 lina averages 302 and Mississippi 30 

 bushels, while South Carolina produces 

 only 25"6 bushels to the acre, on an aver- 

 age, and Florida follows with a still 

 lower average. 



The average price per bushel of rough 

 rice on December 1 was 79'4c The price 

 of South Carolina rice led at '19c, Arkan* 

 sas rice followed at 90c, and Georgia 

 and North Carolina rice came next at 

 87 and 85c. respectively. Florida, Ala- 

 bama and Mississippi rice brought 80c, 

 and the two great rice-producing states 

 of Louisiana and Texas followed in the 

 order named ; Louisiana rice brought 

 79c, and Texas rice 78c. The total farm 

 value of the rice crop of 1909, on Decem- 

 ber h 1909, is placed at $19,341,000. 



The Department's figures as tc acre- 

 age and production in Louisiana and 

 Texas are largely based on reports 

 received from the farmers, mills and 

 warehouses, and are largely accepted as 

 being reliable. Figures on other points 

 are doubtless correct, although the 

 quoted prices for rice may be a trifle 

 higher than those actually paid. 



