RICE INDUSTRY, American, The. The rice industry had its inception in America about the middle of the 17th century, when Sir William Berkeley made an attempt to raise rice in Virginia in 1647. As this experiment, which was continued for several years, was an utter failure, owing probably to the high latitude in which the seed was planted, it was generally be lieved that such a crop could not be grown in this country. The fact that this was an error was discovered accidentally, in 1694, when a vessel bound for Liverpool from Madagascar was blown' so far out of her course that, hav ing been somewhat injured by the storm, it was decided to put into Charleston for repairs. Among those who boarded the vessel was Land grave Thomas Smith, and, at his request, the captain gave him a small package of rough rice to be used as seed. Although little faith was expressed in the success of the experiment Smith planted it in proper soil in lower Carolina and his enterprise was rewarded by the growth of a crop that was almost sufficient to meet the needs of the entire colony.
From that day the success of the rice indus try was assured. the cultivation of rice
had extended so widely that no less than 17 ships sailed from Carolina with cargoes of this grain, and, during the 10 years between 1730 and 1739, inclusive, the shipments to Great Britain and other ports amounted to more than 223,787,000 pounds. In 1754, the exports to England alone aggregated over 100,000 barrels of unhusked rice, which was equivalent to 30, 000,000 pounds of the cleaned product, and yet the supply that was left was ample for home consumption. From that time until 1784, the yield remained practically the same, but, in that year, the system of water culture was intro duced, an innovation which has since resulted in constantly increasing crops.
The following statistical table gives a clear idea of the condition of the industry from the beginning of the 19th century up to 1900, to gether with necessary information regarding the prevailing tariffs. For the sake of brevity these figures have been grouped in periods of five years, with annual averages. The table is as follows;