PRODUCTION or Ric IN THE 'UNITED STATES FOR 120 YEARS, 1795 TO 1915, WITH TARIFF' RATES PREVAILING FROM 1789 TO 1857.
Although the superiority of American rice was a fact long before the Civil War the success that planters have attained since 1865 has been indicated in a better quality of rice. In the old days, before the war, when Ward's famous along grain Carolina)) rice was the standard of perfection, Georgia and the Carolinas were the only States in which rice was grown to any great extent. In nearly all the other southern States its cultivation was merely for home consumption. Since the war, however, there has been a change in these condi tions: Georgia and the Carolinas have retained their rice fields, but other southern States have evinced an increased interest in the cultivation of this product, Louisiana and Texas being par ticularly notable examples of the gigantic strides which this industry has taken.
The southern rice fields upon which the beit commercial crops are grown are the reclaimed cypress swamps and the tide water lands along the coast. Of course, many of the finest plan tations are among the marshes higher up the rivers, or even in the interior upon level tracts that are so situated that they may be irrigated with ease. In nearly all of these plantations the system of water cultivation is followed. In the case of the tide-water lands, they lie along the rivers, above the meeting of fresh and salt water, in such a position that they may be flooded with water when the tide is high and drained at low tide. Thoroughly protected by dikes, the salt water, which is so fatal to the rice, cannot reach them from below, nor can freshets sweep them from above.
The serious check which this industry re ceived during the Civil War was not forgot ten upon the declaration of peace. Lands there were in plenty, but there was no money to operate them, and it was not until incidental protection was derived from the tariff that any vigorous attempt was made to rehabilitate the old plantations. Since that time the greatest advancement has been made in Louisiana, and, during more recent years, in Texas.
The history of rice culture in Louisiana dates to 1718, but, during all the years i 'prior to the war, this industry was confined chiefly to the parish of Plaquemine. Experience had shown, however, that, in Louisiana, rice was a sure. crop, upon which a fair price could be realized quickly without the outlay of a great amount of money, and so, in the uncertain days that followed 1864, it was to rice that the plant ers turned, with the result that a crop which had never been able to do more than supply a local demand, suddenly sprang into a position of national importance. So great and lasting was this impetus that, by 1875, the State of Louisiana was furnishing fully 30 per cent of the total yield of the United States, while in each of the five years following 1880, it aver aged 40 per cent ; 1885, 60 per cent; 1890, 65 per cent; and 1895, 75 per cent. As the industry grew in other States this percentage fell off, and in 1916 Louisiana produced about 50 per cent, Texas 25 per cent and Arkansas 16 per cent. The year 1916 saw the largest acreage planted in the United States, 866,000, and the crop was 41,325,000 bushels, or 47 bushels per acre, far the best American average re corded. The best 10-year average is 34.7 bushels per acre. Before the World War the United States exported considerable rice to British In dia and French Indo-China, and also imported small quantities from the Dutch East Indies, Germany, Japan, China, etc. The Philippine Islands production is nearly double that of the entire United States.
India's production of rice is about 56,000, 000,000 pounds annually ; China's is probably as great ; Japan grows 20 bushels to an acre, and the Siam crop is seven to eight times the Amer ican. The world's production is estimated at about 150,000,000,000 pounds annually.
The American storage facilities for rice are mainly in the southern States where it is grown. The mills, elevators and warehouses there have a total storage capacity of about 40,000,000 bushels, of which one-half is in Louisiana and more than a fourth in Texas. This capacity is the equivalent of a year's crop.