Texas Almanac and State Industrial Guide for 1904 Page: 80
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THE TEXAS ALMANAC.
the coastal plains in Louisiana and in Texas into a highly productive agri-
cultural region, lifting the former State within the space of ten years into
first place in the point of rice production, and the latter within less than
ten years into second place, while closely pressing for the top position. The
growing of this cereal, which constitutes the principal food for more than
one-third of the human race, has been engaged in from time immeinorial,
the plant being a native of the East Indies. There is some conflict of author-
ity as to when it was introduced into the United States, but the version
generally accepted is that it was planted in South Carolina in 1700, the seed
having been procured from a wrecked ship which had sailed -from Mada-
gascar. Until within comparatively recent years North Carolina, South
Carolina and Georgia, and some portions of Louisiana, were the principal
rice producing sections. It was planted upon alluvial lands, and irrigation
was generally accomplished from tide water streams. The lands were re-
claimed by inclosing them with dikes, and at each high tide the water was
admitted. It was impossible to use harvesting machinery on such lands, and
the crops were therefore cut with sickles. There was also some rice grown
on marsh lands, and some also on the coastal prairies on the "Providence
plan." That is to say, swales in the prairies were obstructed by embank-
ments, and after a rainfall the water which was caught was admitted to
the lands as needed. This plan resulted in profit only when the rains fell,
but it was precarious and could only be practiced to a limited extent.
There are records showing that Texas produced some rice in 1850, but
the quantity was very small, and the industry was of little consequence
until a few years ago. Something less than twenty years ago some Iowa
farmers, who had removed to Louisiana, conceived the idea of pumping
water from the streams onto the prairies, and cultivating and harvesting
rice there with improved machinery.. The plan succeeded; the industry
proved highly' profitable and grew so rapidly that at the census of 1890 Louis-
iana had taken first place as a rice producing State, whereas South Carolina
had enjoyed that distinction for nearly two centuries. However, the irri-
gation of rice by the pumping process did not become anything like general
until the latter part of the last decade, many farmers still depending upon
the "Providerice plan." Two years of drouth demonstrated the impossibility-
of raising rice profitably without irrigation, except in years of abundant
and timely rain, and in 1897 there was a rush to the pump lands.
The planting of rice on the "Providence plan" in Texas was somewhat
increased in 1888. The first efforts at cultivation of the crop, according to
the new and enlarged method by irrigation, were made in southeastern Texas
in 1892. The first effort to irrigate the crop on an extensive scale was not
made until 1897, when the Port Arthur Canal Company installed a consid-
erable plant in Jefferson County, although two years previously a rather
large acreage had been planted in the same county on Taylor's bayou, from
which water was pumped. Every year thereafter the number of plants and
acreage and territory increased, but until 1899 the cultivation of the cereal
was confined to southeastern Texas, east of the city of Houston. In that
year 200 acres were planted in Colorado County, and thereafter the develop-
ment west of Houston was rapid. The rice growing industry of Texas, as it
is to-day, is almost entirely the work of the present decade.
In 1850 there were about 110 acres of rice in Texas. For some years the
industry declined, and at the census of 1890 (based on the crop of 1889) there
were about 178 acres. At the census of 1900 (crop of 1899) the acreage had
increased to 8711, of which 8206 acres were in Orange and Jefferson Counties,
the extreme southeastern counties of the State. The following figures will
show how the industry has grown in Texas since that time:
Years. Acres. Barrels.
1900....... ........7..0,000 500,000
1901 ........................100,000 950,000
1902 ......... ...... .......180,000 1,700,000
1903 ....... ............ 210,000 2,100,000
The average price of rice during the past season was $2.50 per barrel to
the grower, so that the total value of the rough rice crop of Texas, exclu-
sive of the-straw, was $5,250,000. The crop of 1903, according to this estimate,
was larger than that of Louisiana in 1899, when 201,685 acres of rice were
planted in that State.
The estimate of the United States Department of Agriculture for 1903 is
even larger than the figures above given, being 220,000 acres, with a produc-
tion of 2,392,500 bags, for Texas, and 300,000 acres, with 2,662,500 bags, for Louisi-
ana, and 400,000 bags for the Carolinas and other States. This government esti-
mate was made early in the threshing season. Figures made recently by
Mr., W. C. Moore of Houston, who is interested in 80 per cent of the large
plants of Texas, place the acreage at 210,000 and the total product at 2,100,000
barrels. ,
It will be observed that Texas is rapidly approaching to first place in the
production of rice; the vast extent of its territory, suitable for this crop,
rendering it almost certain that it will take first rank within a very few
years. In 1902 the Rio Grande-river became the southwesterly boundary of
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Texas Almanac and State Industrial Guide for 1904, book, May 1904; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth123779/m1/92/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.