UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
DEPARTMENT BULLETIN No. 1155 
Washington, D. C. 
June, 1923 
RICE EXPERIMENTS AT THE BIGGS RICE FIELD STATION IN CALIFORNIA. 
\ 
By Jexkix W. Jones, Agronomist, Office of Cereal Investigations, Bureau of Plant 
Industry. 
CONTENTS. 
Page, 
e growing in California 1 
The Biggs Rice Field Station 3 
Environmental condition? 3 
Soil 3 
Temperature 4 
Rainfall 5 
Wind 6 
Evaporation 7 
Cultural expermien- s 9 
Depth of seeding 9 
Rate of seeding 10 
Date of seeding 14 
Preparation of the seed bed 15 
Continuous cropping to rice 15 
Irrigation experiments 16 
Time of submergence 17 
Depth of submergence 17 
Stagnant and slowly changing water 18 
Fluctuation of depth of submergence 19 
No submergence 19 
Fertilizer experiments 20 
Experiments, 1914 to 1916 21 
Experiments, 1917 to 1919 24 
Summary of fertilizer experiments 27 
Varietal experiments 29 
Classes of rice 29 
Varieties grown on tenth-acre plats 30 
Page. 
Varietal experiments— Continued. 
Varieties grown on small increase plats . . 34 
Nursery experiments 35 
Leading varieties of rice for California 43 
Less important varieties 45 
Control of weeds 47 
Water grass or barnyard grass 4n 
Japanese or white water grass 53 
Scale-grass 53 
Spike rush 53 
Cat-tails 53 
Sedges or umbrella plants 54 
Canary grass 54 
Crabgfass 54 
Joint-grass 54 
Red rice 54 
Red-stem 55 
Cheat 55 
Other crops for rice land 55 
Beans 55 
Corn 55 
Grain sorghums 56 
Cotton 56 
Hemp 57 
Summary of experiments with other 
crops . ." 57 
Summary 57 
HISTORY OF RICE GROWING IN CALIFORNIA. 
Until recent years the cultivation of rice on a commercial scale 
in the United States was confined to the South Atlantic and Gulf 
States. The coastal section of South Carolina and Georgia was long 
the principal area of commercial production, but with the freeing 
of the slaves the industry rapidly disappeared there. About 1SS5 
rice production was begun on the broad prairies of southwestern 
Louisiana. From that time until about 10 years ago commercial 
rice production in the United State- was routined almost entirely 
to Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas. 
a The experiments herein described were carried on in cooperation with the Sacramento Vallev Graiu 
Association. 
32862-23— Bull. 1155 1 
