Edible Products. 



4,3 



[Jan. 1908. 



These lands were valued at 25 cents to 1 dollar 50 cents per acre. To-day improved 

 lands are worth on an average 12 dollars 50 cents per acre. Within the territory- 

 there are about thirty rice mills with a daily capacity of over 20,000 barrels of rice. 



The rice belt of Louisiana and Texas comprises a section of prairie land 

 bordering on the Gulf of Mexico and extending westward from the parish of St. Mary, 

 along the coast of Louisiana, 140 miles to the Sabine River, and thence about 400 

 miles along the Texas coast to Brownsville on the Rio Grande, with an average 

 width of 60 miles and a mean elevation of from 6 to 40 feet above the sea level. 



By 1898 the canal and the deep-well system of irrigation had been satis- 

 factorily tested, and the rice industry was rapidly extending along 9afe lines. At 

 this date it was found that too large a percentage of the machine-handled rice was 

 liable to breakage in milling. The attention of the United States Department of 

 Agriculture was called to this fact, and measures were immediately taken to remedy 

 the defect and to overcome the difficulty by the introduction of new varieties. 

 The Department's work resulted in the introduction of a variety from Japan known 

 as Kiushu, which has given very satisfactorily results. 



The Kiushu variety is known for its short thick kernels and thin hull. It 

 takes on but little polish, and the percentage of bran is small. 



In the evolution of this industry further difficulties became apparent. 

 While rice could be successfully planted during a period of nearly four months — 

 March, April, May and June— it all ripened at nearly the same time, giving only 

 about one month lor harvest, against four months for planting ; that is, it was 

 demonstrated that the harvest could not be prolonged in proportion to the period 

 of planting where only one variety of rice seed was used. The varieties planted 

 developed this peculiar characteristic, that whether planted in March or June 

 they would mature at about the same time, those planted later developing in every 

 instance with increased rapidity. The harvest is the season of high wages, and 

 the limited harvest period increased the expenses and prevented the use of the 

 necessary care properly to cure, thresh and store the crop, thus greatly augmenting 

 the cost and reducing the quality of the rice. If the period of the harvest could be 

 materially lengthened, every grower could produce from 50 to 100 per cent, more 

 rice. One farmer with a single helper and good teams can prepare the land and 

 plant 200 to 300 acres of rice. It would be difficult to cut more than 100 to 150 acres 

 with the same help, but if the harvest could be extended over three months' 

 time, then the labourers who planted the crop could in the main harvest 

 it. It became evident that this result could be obtained only by planting 

 early, medium and late maturing varieties, and that these varieties 

 must be rices of fixed characteristics and habits of growth. Such, with few 

 exceptions, can be found only in Asiatic countries, where centuries of uniform 

 conditions of climate and culture have established fixed habits of growth in certain 

 varieties of rice. It has been found that American rice growers using imported 

 Japanese seed have several points of superiority over the home-grown rice. It has 

 generally been noted that the vitality and germinating power of the imported seed 

 were nearly 40 per cent, greater than that of domestic seed. The imported seed 

 averaged better colour and was freer from rust than much of the domestic. It was 

 less liable to the chalky and break imder the milling process. 



Selection of Land. — In selecting laud for the growing of rice the first 

 choice is along some river or stream where the water rises and falls with the tide 

 and yet is not brackish, where the land is low enough to be flooded at high tide, 

 and at the same time high enough to be well drained at low tide. These lands 

 permit of the best irrigation that are from 12 inches below high tide and 3 feet above 

 low tide. On such fields water can be raised sufficiently high on all the grain, and 



