UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
In Cooperation with the 
Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station 
DEPARTMENT BULLETIN No. 1356 
Washington, D. C. T October, 1925 
EXPERIMENTS IN RICE PRODUCTION IN SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 
By Charles E. Chambliss, Associate Agronomist in Charge of Rice Investiga- 
tions, Office of Cereal Investigations, Bureau of Plant Industry, and J. 
Mitchell Jenkins, Superintendent, Rice Experiment Station, Crowley, La., 
and Assistant Agronomist, Office of Cereal Investigations, Bureau of Plant 
Industry 
Page 
Introduction „ 1 
Natural factors affecting rice produc- 
tion 3 
• Soils 3 
Topography 4 
Precipitation 4 
Temperature 5 
Wind velocity 7 
Evaporation 8 
Cultural experiments 8 
Plats 9 
General cultural methods 9 
CONTENTS 
Page 
Cultural experiments — Continued. 
Seed-bed preparation 10 
Date of seeding 12 
Rate and method of seeding 14 
Depth of seeding 15 
Fertility experiments 15 
Irrigation experiments: 19 
Date of submergence 21 
Depth of submergence 21 
Rotation experiments 26 
Summary 31 
INTRODUCTION 
The largest acreage of rice in the United States in one area is in 
southwestern Louisiana within the parishes of Acadia, Allen, Beau- 
regard, Calcasieu, Cameron, Evangeline, Jefferson Davis, Lafayette, 
St. Landry, and Vermilion (fig. 1). In this section, rice was first 
grown in small patches by Acadian settlers for home use. These 
people selected for rice growing the low places on the prairies where 
water would accumulate after rains. The crop was sown by hand, 
cut with a sickle, and threshed with a flail. With no facilities for 
supplying water when needed by the crop, production was small and 
uncertain. The commercial production of rice could not be developed 
by these methods without an unlimited supply of cheap labor, such 
as exists in the rice-producing countries of the Orient. This kind 
of labor was not obtainable, and without it the development of the 
rice industry was dependent upon the use of machinery. 
It was first demonstrated in Acadia Parish by settlers from the 
upper part of the Mississippi Valley that rice could be produced 
profitably on the prairie lands by the use of wheat-farming machin- 
ery if irrigation water could be cheaply obtained. The successful 
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