November, 1910.] 



399 



Edible Products. 



most highly productive of any in the 

 entire country. This gauge, of course, 

 is the ability of the laud to returu the 

 greatest percentage of profit, measured 

 by the money value of the crcp and 

 comparative cost of production. 



It is a self-evident proposition that 

 lands which will return an annual net 

 profit of from 140 to $80 per acre are a 

 good investment. It requires no argu- 

 ment to convince even the most scepti- 

 cal. The main thing is to establish the 

 fact and to give plausible proof that 

 the measure can be sustained. 



The farmers of the Arkansas prairie, 

 a vast plateau of more than a half 

 million of acres, extending from near 

 Jonesboro on the north, to Stuttgart 

 and Gillet on the south and east, have 

 equalled or exceeded this profit per acre 

 every year tor the last seven years, on 

 lands which ten years ago were worth 

 from $5 to $20 per acre. And the con- 

 vincing and satisfying thing about it 

 is that the average yield of each succes- 

 sive crop is a little higher than that of 

 the preceding year. Many of what 

 may be called the older fields in the rice 

 belt are yielding upwards of 100 bushels 

 of rice per acre annually. Last year's 

 crops sold at the mills for from 90 cents 

 to $1*04 a bushel. In no case did the 

 cost of producing and marketing the 

 crop exceed $20 per acre. This fixed 

 cost includes an average of $6 per acre 

 for water. Rice, as we all know cannot 

 be grown without water. 



The season of 1910 promises to be 

 the most remarkable of any since the 

 " discovery " of the Arkansas rice belt. 

 The demonstration has been made that 

 practically every acre of prairie land 

 as well as practically every acre of 

 baycu land in the State is by nature 

 perfectly adapted to rice culture. The 

 successes in the older field have naturally 

 prompted experiments in untried terri- 

 tories. This newer development has 

 been most marked in the vicinity of 

 Weiner, in Pointsett County, Weiner 

 is located in the Cotton Belt Route, 

 eighty-six miles north of Stuttgart. 

 This season's acreage in that section 

 alone is more than 6,000, which is about 

 double that of 1909. 



The successes in this new territory 

 surrounding Weiner for the first year 

 were really wonderful. The yield was 

 large and the quality of the rice is the 

 very highest. One farmer, somewhat 

 sceptical perhaps, ventured with one- 

 half acre, He threshed from sixty-eight 

 bushels of first quality rice, worth in 

 the market 90 cents or $1 a bushel. He 

 has been convinced. This crop was 



raised without any special care being 

 given to it. It was sown, flooded, 

 reaped and threshed in exactly the same 

 manner as the larger fields are handled. 

 In fact a rice crop does not permit of 

 any really special care. The ground is 

 prepared exactly in the same manner as 

 for corn, oats or wheat. The seed is 

 sown with a drill used for wheat or 

 oats. After that there is no cultivating. 

 The flooding of the fields, which is 

 essential to the growth of rice, destroys 

 all other vegetation and precludes de- 

 vastation by worms or insects. 



Right here is where the Arkansas rice 

 fields scores its great point of advant- 

 age over any section yet developed 

 in America or in Asia. This is in the 

 possibilty to control absolutely the 

 water supply and the flooding of the 

 fields. Rice cannot be grown without 

 water. It is essentially a water plant, 

 aud in this particular differs from any 

 other cereal cultivated by mankind. 

 But while rice thrives aud grows to 

 maturity with its toots and a portion of 

 its stalk immersed, it is as easily ruined 

 by flood and is much more easily 

 damaged by drought than any of the 

 other grain crops. The conditions are 

 most favourable where enough water 

 can be easily procured, where all danger 

 from flood is minimised, and where the 

 water may be drained from the fields at 

 the proper time, allowing harvesting 

 machines to pass over what was a few 

 days before the bed of a miniature lake. 



The development of rice fields on the 

 prairie and bayou lands in the vicinity 

 of Weiner and other sections of Point- 

 sett County greatly enlarges the area of 

 the Arkansas rice belt. It opens thou- 

 sands of acres of perfectly adapted rice 

 lands to settlement or purchase by the 

 progressive farmers of the north, who 

 have become interested in the develop- 

 ment of this wonderful industry which 

 promises, ere many years, to assume an 

 importance not second to the cotton 

 industry in some of the States of the 

 South. 



The question of sufficient water supply, 

 so necessary to the growing of rice 

 successfully, was the only one in the 

 Grand Prairie section which at any time 

 gave the farmers any real concern. This 

 problem really solved itself. Tests have 

 proven conclusively that the entire 

 prairie section is underlaid by an inex- 

 haustible subterranean lake, probably 

 fed by streams leading from mountains 

 or hills many miles away. The water is 

 found at a depth of sixty or seventy feet. 

 In these the water rises to within forty 

 or fifty feet of the surface. The pumps 

 are set just below the water line and are 



