Edible Products. 



400 



[November, 1010. 



operated by steam or gasoline power. 

 One well will supply water for a field of 

 160 or 2°^) acres, depending on the por- 

 osity of the soil and climatic conditions. 



From the time the plants attain a 

 height of three or four inches until just 

 before the harvest the fields are kept 

 flooded to a depth averaging four inches. 

 This usually makes necessary the oper- 

 ation of the pumps nighc and day for a 

 period of seventy or seventy-five days. 

 When the water is turned off the fields 

 are as free from weeds as a parlor floor. 



Tbo discovery of this inexhaustible 

 supply of cold water, while assuring an 

 abn udaut yield of rice, has opened the 

 eyes of the farmers to the fact that they 

 bave at hand an inexpensive means of 

 irrigating their corn, potato and other 

 fields, as well as their berry and truck 

 patches. They have found, also, that 

 cows which have been supplied with an 

 abundance of pure, cold water produce 

 more and better butter. So while the 

 result may not be to induce intensive 

 farming, it will surely be, as it has been, 

 to induce more intelligent as well as 

 more profitable farming. 



Americans have not, as a whole, been 

 rice eaters, except from choice. This is 

 not a dietary treatise, hence the in- 

 ference will not even be suggested that 

 at least a more liberal mixture of rice 

 with our meats and our sweets might 

 prove beneficial. Time was when we of 

 the Occident were quite apt to look with 

 some degree of commiseration upon the 

 rice-fed Japanese and Chinese. But the 

 fact is that if they had rice in plenty 

 they were well fed and free from disease. 



The consumption of rice is increasing 

 annually, especially in America and 

 Europe. Indications are that the de- 

 mand will continue to keep, as it is to 

 day, a little in advance of the supply. 

 American-grown rice is said to be far 

 superior to that grown in the Orient. 

 Why should it not be? American pro- 

 ducts of all kinds are the best. There is 

 no reason why the rice produced by the 

 intelligent American employed in its 

 growing, preserving and milling should 

 not be superior to that grown by the 

 coolie under entirely natural conditions 

 not always favourable. 



The market for American rice is at the 

 Arkansas farmer's door. Mills have 

 been erected at Stuttgart and Weiner 

 and at other points along the Cotton 

 Belt Route, equipped to handle the 

 crops as fast as they come from the 

 threshers. The buyers go to the farmers 

 and pay cash for the entire yield as soon 

 as it is ready for delivery. The crop is 

 more staple than wheat or corn, because 



its grade does not depend so absolutely 

 upon climatic conditions. Experience 

 has shown that, in the Grand Prairie 

 section at least, a crop of first quality 

 rice is practically assured the day the 

 seed is sown. 



The industry has passed beyond the 

 experimental stage. The man or woman 

 who may wish to embark in the in- 

 dustry may have access to figures show- 

 ing actual results and returns from a 

 field of almost any given size. It may be 

 ascertained, almost beyond conjecture 

 or speculation, just what may be ex- 

 pected under like or similar conditions. 



The development of this old industry 

 along new and intelligently defined 

 lines, the demonstration of the ability 

 of the American farmer to provide food 

 for thousands where formerly but hund- 

 reds were fed, is in no sense a modern 

 miracle. It is rather, but another de- 

 finite and epoch-making step in the real 

 progress of the world— a progress in 

 which Americans must ever lead. It is 

 but supremely natural that the food 

 problem of the present day should 

 be worked out and solved along lines 

 so logical and simple.— Journal oj 

 Agriculture. 



INDIAN CORN. 



(Prom the Louisiana Planter and Sugar 

 Manufacturer, Vol, XIV., No, 8, 

 August, 1910). 



All around the happy village, 

 Stood the maize fields, green and shining, 

 Waved the green leaves of Mondamin, 

 Waved his soft and sunny tresses, 

 Filling all the land with plenty. 



Where Indian corn, or maize, originated 

 is unknown. But this much is certain, 

 early voyagers found it growing in all 

 parts of America. The Indians venerated 

 it, esteeming it so important and divine 

 a grain that their story tellers invented 

 various tales under which this idea was 

 symbolised under the form of a special 

 gift from the Great Spirit. The Ojibwa- 

 Algonquins, who called it Mondamin, 

 had a pretty story of this kind. The 

 name Mondamin signifies the Spirit's 

 grain, or berry, and in this story the 

 stalk in full tassel is represented as 

 descending from the sky, under the 

 guise of a handsome youth in answer to 

 the prayers of a young man at his fast 

 virility, or coming to manhood. 



There were many other stories among 

 the different tribes, all based upon 

 similar premises, yet all had in common 

 the idea that the plant was a gift and 



