- 2 - 
lake bed* Bleewbare ivater is drawn from the Colorado Blrer into lateral 
oanala that carry It directly to the rice fields* Hear £1 OaiBi>o inaoh rioe 
was irrigated by means of water taken from wells and this practice is fol- 
lowed to some extent in other parts of the area under discussion* 
There had been very little rain in this region for the past two 
seasons and everywhere the soil and the vegetati(»i appeared abnonially dry* 
The small amount of precipitation had been followed as a natural conse- 
quence by a loarked decrease in the volume of stream flow in the Colorado 
liiver* so that the sv^ply of water available for irrigation has not suf- 
ficed for the needs of the rioe growers* Because of this the areas de- 
voted to rioe in 1917 covered only about one-third of the acreage in normal 
years* and extensive tracts fonserly devoted to rioe culture are now given 
over to cotton and com grown by dry farming methods* 
Plowing begins here in January and rioe is planted from the end of 
February on into April* Hormally the rioe harvest is over by the middle 
in 
of October* Occasionally heavy rains set in a nd/ so sm instances it is said 
that it was not possible to get the rioe out of the fields until January* 
In 1917 the harvest was completed early and there was no shooiced rioe in 
the fields at the time of iqy visit* 
Investigstlon of bird damage was limited to securing information froi^' 
rioe growers who seemed reliable* and to the identification in the fiela of 
the species of birds implioated* f.}ienever opportunity peimitted any time a- 
vailable was devoted to study and observation of the habits of species that 
were said to be injurious* Twenty-seven blaokblrds belonging to four ape- 
oies that had been feeding in rioe stubble were collected and their stom- 
achs preserved for examination in the laboratory* 
