(Transcribed by Leora White, 2008)

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE RICE INDUSTRY
IN THE LAKE CHARLES DISTRICT



Thesis



Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of
The University of Texas in Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements


For the Degree of

Master of Arts

By


Alice Place Levee
Austin, Texas
August, 1941


 

Dedicated to my Mother and Father


PREFACE

        The purpose of this paper is two-fold: first, to set forth the historical background for Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana, and its county seat, Lake Charles; second, to give the steps in the development of the rice industry in the district. The historical review covers briefly the Louisiana government under French, Spanish, and American domination; also the general progress of Calcasieu Parish from 1840 to 1941. The discussion on the rice industry includes material on the three important phases of the crop - its cultivation, milling, and marketing.

        Since much of this work is based on personal interviews and old newspaper records, the writer is indebted to many people throughout the Lake Charles district. There are, however, a few people who deserve special mention, for instance: Homer L. Brinkley, general manager of the American Rice Growers’ Cooperative Association, Lake Charles; Rupert F. Cisco, general manager of the Lake Charles Association of Commerce; Lee Hereford, editor of the Rice News; S. Arthur Knapp, banker and son of Dr. Seaman A. Knapp; A. M. Mayo and his son Seaman, owners of the Mayo Title Guaranty Company; W. M. Reid, vice-president of the Rice Millers’ Association, New Orleans; Elmer Shutts, Surveyor for the city of Lake Charles; and Frank Smith, editor of the Lake Charles American Press. In connection with the actual writing of the paper, it is a genuine pleasure to acknowledge the valuable help received from the suggestions of Dr. Horace Bailey Carroll and Dr. Walter Prescott Webb, both history professors at the University of Texas. To all these people, and many others not listed here, I tender thanks most gratefully.

A. P. L.
August 1, 1941
Austin, Texas
 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I.  The History of Lake Charles, Louisiana
        The Background for Official Organization
        Period of Early Settlement
        Statistical Progress of Lake Charles
        Forces That Enabled Industrial Progress
        The Transportation System
        The Lumber Industry
        The Cattle Industry
        The Rice Industry
        The School System
        The Newspaper Organizations
II.  The History and Cultivation of Rice
        History of Rice
        Natural Factors
        Machinery
        Irrigation
        Cultural Science
        The Production of Rice
III.  The Milling of Rice and Rice By-Products
        Composition of Rice
        Primitive Methods of Milling Rice
        Modern Methods of Milling Rice
        Rice and Rice By-Products
IV.  The Marketing of Rice
        Importance of the Rice Industry
        Northwestern Immigration
        The Tariff
        Investment of Northern Capital
        Marketing Associations
        Scientific Research
        Publicity Schemes

APPENDIX

A. Maps
        Calcasieu Parish
        Lake Charles
B. Descriptive Terms for Rice
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY

VITA
 

ILLUSTRATIONS

History of Rice
Graphic Diagram of a Typical Rice Mill
Lake Charles Products Company
Louisiana State Rice Milling Company
Interior View of A Rice Mill
Interior View of A Warehouse
(These above illustrations are not good enough quality to reproduce here.)
A Rice Recipe
 

CHAPTER I

THE HISTORY OF LAKE CHARLES, LOUISIANA

The Background for Official Organization.

        It is frequently said of Louisiana, “No state in the Union has a more varied and picturesque history.” (1) It is in the history of the state that an explanation is found for its distinctive parish system of government and its use of the Napoleonic Code of Laws.

        In general, the history of Louisiana is divided into two major periods: the Colonial, government by the French and Spanish, from 1699 to 1803; and the American, from 1803 to the present time. The Colonial Period is subdivided into the periods of Exploration and Settlement. Although the Spanish government was the first European nation in the sixteenth century to attempt an exploration of the Mississippi River, it did not accomplish anything of permanent value because of failure to follow up by colonization the work of Hernando de Soto. More than a century elapsed after De Soto’s exploration before anyone again tried to explore the Mississippi. Then on April 9, 1682, Robert Cavelier de La Salle claimed all the territory drained by the Mississippi River for France and named the country “Louisiana” in honor of Louis XIV. (2) The period of French settlement began with the work of the d’Iberville brothers - Biloxi in 1699, and New Orleans in 1718. The colony of Louisiana prospered, though it received little support from France. (3) On November 3, 1762, Louis XV ceded Louisiana to Charles III of Spain. The Spanish government moved slowly in its colonial policy for Louisiana; finally Governor Antonio de Ulloa took possession in March, 1766, but, because of a revolt in 1768, Spanish authority was not definitely established until Alejandro O’Reilly overawed local resistance in 1769. (4) The Treaty of San Ildefonso, October 1, 1800, restored Louisiana to France. (5) Alcée Fortier referred to the Spanish retrocession to the French as follows: “Not long, however, did the tricolor wave in front of the cabildo in New Orleans. On April 30, 1803, Louisiana was ceded to the United States, and on December 20, 1803, the transfer of the province took place.” (6)

        One of the first problems that demanded the attention of the United State Government, after purchasing Louisiana, was the matter of law and the administration of justice. President Madison, on March 21, 1810, appointed Francois-Xavier Martin to be Superior Judge for the territory of Orleans. One of the first things that Judge Martin did upon arriving in Louisiana was to study its history, through which he learned that under French domination the laws and customs of Paris had been brought to the colony by Crozat, and that under Spanish domination the laws of Castile and the Indies had been transferred by O’Reilly. “From that period,” says Judge Martin, “it is believed that the laws of Spain became the sole guide of the tribunals in their decisions. As these laws and those of France proceed from the same origin as the Roman code, and there is great similarity in their dispositions in regard to matrimonial rights, testaments and successions, the transition was not perceived before it became complete, and very little inconvenience resulted from it.” (7) In 1808, a civil code of laws, based on a draft of the Code Napoleon, was adopted by the Louisiana Legislative Council. Today Louisiana uses the Napoleonic Code, or written laws, to guide its civil cases; on the other hand, Louisiana, like its sister states of the Union, uses the English Common Law, or unwritten laws, to govern its criminal cases. (8) Another governmental policy that the American government, in 1805, tried to introduce into Louisiana was the county system, but in 1807 the federal government admitted its defeat by recognizing the parish system, which, begun as an ecclesiastical division under the French and Spanish domination, finally became a recognized part of Louisiana political community life.

        On March 26, 1804, Congress divided Louisiana into two parts; the lower division, approximately the present state of Louisiana, was called the territory of Orleans. On April 10, 1805, the Legislative Council divided the territory of Orleans into twelve counties with such indefinite boundaries that these new administrative units failed to function. (9) The second Legislative Council, in 1807, acknowledged the traditional parish system by passing an act which provided for the division of the territory of Orleans into nineteen parishes, among which was Saint Landry, originally including all of the southwestern section of Louisiana. (10) Subsequently the Saint Landry Parish, as first established, has been subdivided into these parish divisions: Saint Landry, Saint Martin, Iberia, Calcasieu, Cameron, Lafayette, Saint Mary, Acadia, Vermillion, Allen, Beauregard, Jefferson Davis, and Evangeline. (11)

        One can best appreciate the development of Calcasieu Parish, formerly a part of Saint Landry, by reviewing something of its geographical setting. Studying the state as a whole, one learns that Louisiana has an area of 48,506 square miles, which includes rolling hill land in the north and prairie and marsh land in the south, all of which is interspersed with numerous bayous, lakes, and rivers. (12) The fact that Louisiana is a part of the great Atlantic Coastal Plain has had a determining influence on its physical features. Its soil is fairly productive since, according to geological evidence, the state was originally formed out of a portion of the Gulf of Mexico which, for thousands of years, has been receiving rich deposits from the central section of the United States by way of the Mississippi River. (13) On account of its proximity to the Gulf the state’s climate is moderate the year round. (14)

        Calcasieu Parish, located in the southwestern corner of Louisiana, had two distinct geographical regions. The northern section of the parish is somewhat hilly and rises to an elevation of about fifty-six feet above sea level. This area, originally covered with pine forests, is now comprised of cut-over lands used chiefly for cattle and sheep grazing. The southern part of the parish, the location for Lake Charles, although a low and flat area, barely rising more than twenty feet above sea level, has an excellent drainage system afforded by its many bayous and canals. (15) The soil in the southern section is of an ashy grey color, having beneath its topsoil about three feet of impervious clay, a feature of great economic importance to the rice planter. (16)

        The geographical location of Calcasieu results in a climate favorable to the activities of man and the growing of vegetation. The air movement is one of the delightful features of the parish. The prevailing winds are from the Gulf, making the atmosphere cool in summer and warm in winter. Destructive high winds are exceptional, occurring only on rare occasions from the West Indian hurricanes. (17) Precipitation, which in this locality is almost entirely in the form of rain, is also an important factor in an agricultural area. The long continued droughts, so common to some parts of the country, are practically unknown here. (18) Tables on the mean temperature and precipitation show that Lake Charles has a dependable climate since neither the degrees of temperature nor the inches of precipitation varies more than two points over a period of thirty years. The charts further indicate that the rainfall averages about fifty-six inches annually.
 

DATA COVERING SEVERAL YEARS (19)

DATA FOR JUNE, 1940 THROUGH MAY, 1941 (20)

        The principal rivers of the parish are the Sabine on the west; the Mentaur [Mermentau] on the east; and the Calcasieu, which heads near the northern boundary and runs through the center of the parish to the Gulf. The principal growths of timber are white, red, water, and live oaks, hickory, walnut, sassafras, magnolia, cypress, elm, post oak, and pine. Almost one-half the area of the parish was covered originally with a dense pine growth. (21)

        The earliest inhabitants, the Indians, generally neglected the great wealth in natural resources in the present region of Calcasieu. Into this section, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, came a new group of people, adventurous pioneers who soon turned the great pine forests into a profitable lumber business. The success of this industry attracted people from all sections of the country.

        By 1840, these early settlers, having grown tired of the inconvenience of going to Opelousas, their county seat in Saint Landry, petitioned the legislature for better accommodations. On March 24, 1840, the Louisiana legislature created the Parish of Calcasieu with the following boundaries:

Commencing at the mouth of the River Mermentau, thence up said River to the mouth of the Bayou Nezpique, thence up said Bayou to the mouth of Beaver Creek, thence due north to the dividing lines between the Parishes of Saint Landry and Rapides, thence along said line to the Sabine River, thence down the Sabine River to its mouth, thence along the sea Coast to the place of beginning. (22) 

        Since it creation, Calcasieu Parish has had its area twice reduced by legislative acts; in 1870, it was diminished by the loss of Cameron Parish and again in 1912, by the parishes of Allen, Beauregard, and Jefferson Davis. (23) The present parish of Calcasieu is bounded on the north by Jefferson Davis; on the south by Cameron, and on the west by the Sabine River. (24) Its total area is 1,086 square miles which is about equal to the size of Rhode Island.

        In 1840, after learning that their new parish had been created, the people began planning the location of their seat of justice. Before a definite site could be decided upon, it was necessary to have the permission of the police jury, the local legislative and executive body which had evolved from earlier French and Spanish forms. In 1807, when civil parishes were established, the county system gave way to the “parish assembly,” which soon came to be known as the “police jury,” (25) corresponding to the commissioners’ court generally used in other states. At the first meeting of the Calcasieu police jury, held on September 14, 1840, a resolution was passed establishing a courthouse at the small town of Marion. (26) In 1852, however, the seat of justice was moved to a small community on the east bank of Lake Charles, the lake that had previously been named in honor of one of the town’s earliest settlers, Charles Sallier; this new seat, like the lake, was also called Lake Charles. (27) This parish seat was incorporated as a town in 1867. (28)

Period of Early Settlement.

        The oldest ordinance book, a record of municipal activities, for the city of Lake Charles dates back to July 6, 1868. On that date a group of interested citizens held their first meeting for the purpose of electing town officials. The men chosen were: J. W. Bryan, mayor; Jacob Ryan, treasurer; John A. Spence, secretary; M. J. Rosteet, collector; Patrick Fitzgerald, constable; and George Wells, attorney. (29)

        In the eighties and nineties the city officials, aided by the newspaper men, sponsored a widespread advertising program, in which the climate and resources of Lake Charles and Calcasieu were praised highly - all for the purpose of encouraging rapid settlement in the area. The following is a sample of the current advertising.

Lake Charles, our parish site, is a town of about 3,500 population. Lake Charles is built on a lake, which is almost round in shape, which has a width of about two miles, and an average depth of about ten feet … The lake, being a part of Calcasieu River, affords water transportation for our lumber products to the coast of Texas and Mexico.

There are in the town some forty or fifty business houses. You will find here one bank, the J. B. Watkins Banking Company; one theatre, the Fricke Opera House, which has a seating capacity of about 600; four excellent hotels - the Lake House, the Haskell House, the Howard House and the Central Hotel; four churches - one Baptist, one Methodist Episcopal, one German Methodist and one Catholic; four schools for young ladies, and two for boys; two weekly newspapers - the Lake Charles Echo and Lake Charles Commercial; one steam and fire company and two hook and ladder companies. There are also many commodious residences here. As a home, this town is the most desirable in the state, having the advantages of being extremely healthy and of already being made up of a cosmopolitan population, endowed with energy, enterprise, liberality, hospitality, and high social and moral standing. (30)

Lake Charles is located on the Southern Pacific Railroad, 217 miles west of New Orleans; it is a rapidly growing town of some 4,000 inhabitants. The town is situated upon the eastern shore of the lake, on an elevated bank, bordering an immense prairie, stretching towards the south and east. The lake is nearly two and a half miles in diameter. Through the lake flows the Calcasieu River, navigable for 135 miles from the Gulf of Mexico. Lake Charles is 35 miles in direct line from the Gulf.

The lumber of this section is considered the best in the state. Immense mills are cutting and manufacturing lumber for Texas and Mexico. This trade ranges from six to ten million [feet?] per annum, mostly in the hands of the northern capitalists, who have introduced northern machinery into this section. Lake Charles is also the headquarters of the North American Land and Timber Company, a syndicate of American and English capitalists, who are at present improving the coast lands by irrigating methods.

It has been supposed that most of this section of the state is marsh, but in a true sense, there is very little marsh. The land, commonly called marsh land, is really firm and rich. Government land can be obtained on the usual terms, just a short distance from the railroad. All the government lands of much value will probably be taken this season, but excellent farms can be purchased just now at a very low rate.

Native grasses and clovers do well here; corn, Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, oats, peas, beans, rice, millet and vegetables of all kinds are produced abundantly. It is a natural fruit country for peaches, pears, grapes, apricots, oranges and figs. It does not require any irrigation to produce crops; rains are as in Iowa, only more abundant.

Along the rivers there is some malaria, but the open prairies, the sea marshes and the pine woods are a healthy as any country. Northern people are healthier than the natives because they take better care of themselves. The winters are very mild, and the heat in the summer is not at all oppressive.

The ante-bellum condition of things is entirely gone. Speech on all matters is as free as in Iowa. There are good schools in the town, but no country schools.

Some have written to know what men could do with small capital. Fuel is free, timber of the best variety is abundant and there is excellent water and rail transportation. Thus far the disadvantages seem to be lack of improved machinery, skilled labor, and good schools. These are rapidly disappearing with northern immigration. The advantages are cheap lands, cheap fuel, low cost for supporting a family, the possibility of conducting farm operations in all seasons and the great variety of products. (31)

Statistical Progress of Lake Charles.

        In order that the reader might have some kind of gauge for estimating the progress of Lake Charles over a period of years, the following data on population, building permits, postal receipts, bank deposits, and tonnage values is given for Lake Charles.

POPULATION REPORT 

        The above tabulation shows a steady increase in population for Lake Charles. Below are the building permits from 1929 to 1939 inclusive.

BUILDING PERMITS

                The building permits issued in Lake Charles for the month of May, 1941, passed the $100,000 mark. This unusual record was the result of granting permits to the Trinity Baptist Church for a $45,957 edifice and the Louisiana State Rice Milling Company for a $40,000 rice elevator. The city building inspector reported the total permits for the month of May as $131,618. (35)

POSTAL RECEIPTS

        Postal receipts frequently serve as a valuable barometer of the city’s growth. The statistics listed above show that the business of the post office had increased $50,000 during the past six years. (36)

BANK DEPOSITS

        There are three banks in Lake Charles: the Calcasieu-Marine National Bank, the First National Bank and the Lake Charles Bank and Trust Company. The Calcasieu Building and Loan Association, with assets in excess of two million dollars, also serve the community. (38)

Forces That Enabled Industrial Progress.

        The statistical reports just given express in concrete form the progress that has been made by Lake Charles, a town no longer solely dependent, as in the nineteenth century, on the lumber industry. We shall now consider certain forces that helped bring about the apparent progress that was expressed in the preceding records: the transportation system; the lumber, cattle, and rice industries; the school system; and the newspaper organizations.

The Transportation System.

        Since Lake Charles prides itself on being fundamentally a port town, this discussion will deal with only the water transportation service. As early as 1848 legislative interest was expressed in the navigation of the Calcasieu River, the state engineer being instructed to make a survey of the river in order to report the probable cost and public utility of clearing the river of obstructions to navigation. (39) In 1850 the engineer was ordered to proceed with the removal of obstructions in the river. (40) Successive acts to the same effect were passed until 1886, when the state sought aid from the federal government. (41)

        An item in 1895 written by Dr. Seaman A. Knapp expressed the importance of a good waterway to Lake Charles:

A glance at the map of America carries the conviction that in the near future the commerce of favored cities upon the northern border of the Gulf of Mexico must assume immense proportions. With the Nicaragua Canal completed, the southern border of the gulf would be upon the highway of nations. Upon the south are the Latin American countries full of undeveloped possibilities. The nearest harbor on the Gulf of Mexico to the valley of the Mississippi is Lake Charles. With the jetties, now in process of construction, completed, the waters of Calcasieu will easily maintain a depth of 25 to 30 feet of water at the bar, making one of the best harbors on the Gulf. (42)

        An editorial of 1916 indicates that the people of Lake Charles were still determined to have a clear and direct waterway to the Gulf.

Napoleon has said, “The people who will control the Mississippi River and it tributaries will control the commerce of the world.” He was right. To control its share of commerce it is necessary that Lake Charles have a clear waterway to the Gulf of Mexico, and thus to the world beyond. The ambition of Lake Charles to become a great manufacturing center as well as a distributing point for foodstuffs, lumber, oil and sulphur rests almost entirely on deep water. (43)

        On December 14, 1931, Secretary of War Patrick J. Hurley, submitted to the Speaker of the House a report containing information about the Lake Charles Channel. The army engineers had just completed a survey of the Lake Charles Channel with the view of maintaining it with it enlarged dimensions, and of reporting the amount of contributions in land and money heretofore furnished by local interests for its maintenance. Excerpts from this report read:

The Lake Charles Deep Waterway is a channel of capacity suitable for ocean-going vessels which has been excavated to the city of Lake Charles from the channel dredged by the United States in the Sabine River. It was formed by enlarging the Intracoastal Waterway, previously dredged by the United States, from the Sabine River to the Calcasieu River, a distance of 24 ¾ miles, and enlarging and straightening the Calcasieu River to the southerly end of Lake Charles, a distance of 13 miles …. The waterway was excavated by the Calcasieu Parish police jury, at a cost of $2,750,000 exclusive of interest, and exclusive of prior contributions of local interests in land and money for the construction of the Intracoastal Waterway. It was completed in 1927. Local interests now request that the Federal Government assume the maintenance of the channel and reimburse the Parish the cost of construction.

The commerce of the waterway in 1930, three years after the opening of the port of Lake Charles, amounted to nearly 1,100,000 tons, about half of which was carried in ocean vessels. The commodities transported included oil, vegetables, food products, lumber, paper, cotton, chemicals, and miscellaneous commodities. The district engineer estimates that the savings in transportation costs on the commerce carried in 1929 were in excess of $100,000 based on freight rates through the nearest competing port. The waterway may be regarded as a highly successful undertaking, and a further growth of commerce is anticipated ...

The connection of the Sabine and Calcasieu Rivers by the channel has served to maintain a stable fresh water level, and the encroachment of salt water from the Gulf at normal low water periods had largely been prevented. This condition is of great value to the rice industry in that section which secures its fresh water from the two rivers through irrigation canals. Agriculture in the Lake Charles district is devoted extensively to rice culture - over 60% of the rice grown in America being produced in this district - and much acreage is under irrigation by water pumped from irrigation canals. The fresh water supply of the canal is estimated for the average drought year at the saving of one million dollars …

For the reason that the United States expended $670,279.08 during the period 1890-1930 in the effort to give the Lake Charles territory an outlet to the Gulf of Mexico through the Calcasieu Lake, River, and Pass, it is apparent that the importance or necessity for such an outlet was recognized. (44)

        This lengthy report to the House of Representatives on December 14, 1931, proved effective in securing the completion of the ship channel as is evidenced by the next statement taken from an address that was delivered by I. V. Maurer, General Manager of the Mathieson Alkali Works, Inc., at Westlake, Louisiana.

I have endeavored to show that fundamentally, the motive forces behind both the original project and the beginning of the work which we are celebrating are industrial forces, manifested by industry either here or elsewhere …

Prerequisite to the manufacture of any article of commerce is raw materials. These may be either the products of other industry or the products of nature. The latter are of the most importance and will, therefore be considered briefly. This community offers ready access to vast and increasing quantities of crude oil. Thus is suggested an oil refinery with its unlimited possibilities for valuable by-products which the science of physical chemistry has barely touched … Salt exists in our immediate territory in unlimited abundance and is easy to mine for industrial purposes; limestone, or a natural substitute, is available here either as quarried stone or oyster shells; sulphur is mined in the state in its pure form …

Of second importance as a location for industry the prospect looks for markets. In this respect, let it be said that Lake Charles is the gulf port nearest the center of the vast consuming territory comprised in central United States … Distribution follows closely in the wake of markets, and in this respect Lake Charles offers a major advantage. It has three of the best railroads in the country directly reaching all parts of the interior and the Pacific Coast... We should mention here also that Lake Charles is connected with all the principal consuming centers by paved highways, which greatly facilitate truck transportation. Thus no possibility has been overlooked. (45)

        In 1924 the Lake Charles Harbor and Terminal District was created by an act of the legislature. It is a political subdivision of the state, located entirely within the limits of Calcasieu Parish. Its governing authority is a board of five commissioners appointed by the governor for six year overlapping terms of office. The board elects a president, vice-president, secretary, and treasurer from among its own members, and is directed to maintain offices in the city of Lake Charles. The board has the power to regulate commerce and traffic of the Lake Charles harbor; it is empowered to own and operate wharves, warehouses, landings, docks, elevators, and other structures and facilities necessary for the development of business, including buildings and equipment for the accommodation of passengers and for handling freight, express, and mail. The duties of the board are to examine and investigate all questions relating to the interest and welfare of the district, to control and regulate the same, and to make annual financial and statistical reports to the governor. (46)

        The Dock Board in 1941 includes the following members; Sam M. Richard, president; Harry G. Chalkley, vice-president; Clement M. Moss, secretary; Rudolph Krause, treasurer and Frank Roberts. Besides these five regular members, the Board is assisted by Elmer E. Shutts, port engineer, and A. A. Nelson, port director. (47) This Dock Board deserves much credit for the port’s recent improvement in which a more direct contact with the Gulf of Mexico has been gained by shortening the distance from eighty-five to thirty-five miles. (48) The port engineers have stated that this direct ship channel will be open to sea-going traffic about July 15, 1941. (49)

The Lumber Industry.

        About forty years ago lumbering was the chief industry in Calcasieu Parish. Since Lake Charles was located on various water courses, distributed throughout the pine forest area, the town quite naturally became a lumber center. Capitalists from the North, and even from England, invested in the mills already established, or they erected new ones. At one time there were seventeen lumber mills in operation at Lake Charles or in its immediate vicinity. Rapid depletion of the timber reserves forced the abandonment of most of the mills by 1910; since that time lumbering has been of minor importance. (50)

        Some of the nineteenth century sawmills were: the Norris Mill., The Bradley-Ramsey Lumber Company, the Perkins and Miller Mill, and the Drew Mill. One of the earliest of these mills was built by Captain D. J. Goos in 1853; it was later reorganized under the name of Calcasieu Lumber Company, which is still in operation. Nearly all of those early mills had good machinery, including such equipment as circular saws, band saws, and planers; several of the mills were combined with shingle and hoop factories. (51) The following newspaper item further reveals the magnitude of the lumber industry in the late eighties:

Calcasieu’s forests cover an area of over half a million acres, and a total of over 6,000,000 feet of various kinds of wood. The predominating kind, and which is her mainstay of wealth and prosperity, is the long leaf pine. There are now in the parish eleven saw mills in operation, cutting over 3,000,000 feet of lumber per day. To supply theses mills, three narrow gauge railroads have been built and are busily engaged; besides all our creeks and streams are utilized for transporting logs to them. In addition to this pine lumber business, shingle making from cypress is no small affair. Three mills are at work, and turn out from 150,000 to 200,000 feet per day. The machinery and the appliances used in the milling is of the latest improved pattern, and the product of the best quality. The lumber markets are Texas, the northern territories, and Mexico. (52)

        Another account summarizes the industry briefly.

Calcasieu has the largest timber interest of any portion of the state. Calcasieu has about thirty miles of steam log railway; she has some 3,000 men engaged in timbering alone. She has thirteen sawmills, thirteen planing mills, and five shingle mills, turning out 350,000 cypress shingles per day. (53)

        The following statistics readily show how the lumber industry has declined in Lake Charles during the last few years:

TOTAL LUMBER PRODUCTION IN LOG SCALE FEET

        While the yellow pine supply has been virtually depleted in Southwest Louisiana there is still an excellent supply of hardwood. At present there are located in Lake Charles two hardwood mills, two sash and door factories, and eight lumber yards. (55)

The Cattle Industry.

        About the turn of the present century some writers predicted that cattle raising in Calcasieu Parish, although not the leading industry, promised to be a future rival to lumber. (56) Today the cattle industry is one of the fastest growing and most valuable adjuncts to both the city and port of Lake Charles. There are ranches in the parish with more than 15,000 head of cattle on them. (57)

        An explanation for the general interest in stock raising is found in this quotation:

Stock raising has been exclusively occupying the attention of the inhabitants because of the rich range, and consequent cheap rearing of cattle. The main expense comes from branding and marking. No such thing as feeding and sheltering stock during the winter has ever been done with the native cattle. (58)

        The following newspaper item shows that cattle raising near the end of the nineteenth century, had reached a position of prominence:

Texas is not the only cattle country, as witnesses yesterday can say. For ten days, herders in the marshes of Cameron have been bunching cattle together, and for several days they have been on their way to Lake Charles. Yesterday some 1800 cattle were placed in the Newhouse corral. This morning the cattle were being loaded on 75 cars on the Watkins road. This cattle deal will bring a lot of money into this vicinity. The people in the lower country will have spending money for some time. (59)

        Several factors in the twentieth century contributed to the rapid growth of the livestock industry in Calcasieu Parish. The first great impetus to the industry was given indirectly by the Mexican fever tick, which entered Louisiana about 1900. Shortly thereafter the cattlemen of the state entered upon an intensive program for tick eradication. This plan involved the frequent use of dipping vats for all cattle, and the strengthening of herds through the importation of several thousand Brahma bulls, cattle that are immune to the fever tick. Another vital aid to the cattlemen was the construction of the Swift Packing Plant at Lake Charles in 1938. (60) The importance of this plant is given by Arthur L. Gayle, President of the Louisiana Cattlemen’s Industry.

Concrete expression of confidence in Louisiana’s future as a cattle raising state was the establishment of a modern $1,000,000 meat packing plant in Lake Charles by Swift and Company… In addition to the immediate source of supply represented to the local cattle raisers, the Swift Company draws on the entire state of Louisiana and a part of southeastern Texas, thus providing a new source of income to many farmers outside the Lake Charles area. The establishment of this packing plant has resulted in stock raisers of the Lake Charles area substantially increasing the production of cattle to supply its needs. (61)

        In 1938 the Louisiana Experiment Station entered into an agreement with Swift and Company in Lake Charles, whereby that concern furnished the livestock, feed, and equipment for livestock experimental work. Feeding tests were made on sixty-six yearling steers that were divided into six lots of eleven steers each - each group being as nearly uniform as possible in age, weight, breed, and condition. The report proved that cattle could be fattened as quickly on rice or its by-products as on ground shelled corn and cottonseed meal, and much more economically. (62) These experiments have shown the farmers of Calcasieu how they can profitably rotate rice and cattle on the vast tracts of cut-over prairie lands.

The Rice Industry.

        As one of the major industries of Calcasieu, rice has had a long and useful history. Its introduction into the parish was contemporaneous with the lumber industry, which it has outlived. (63) In 1889 Louisiana became, and still is, the leading state in rice production, raising more than one half of the total production of the United States. This first-ranking position came to Louisiana chiefly as the result of discovering, in 1887, that rice could be grown profitably by machine methods on the prairies in the southwestern part of the state. (64)

        The rice acreage in Calcasieu was 2,934 in 1884, and 8,655 in 1889; over a period of five years, the acreage had tripled. About this time, as a result of the large crops, Dr. Seaman A. Knapp helped organize the farmers into an association whose purpose was the establishment of a rice mill in Lake Charles. The association was successful in 1892 in getting Gustave A. Jahn of New York City to build the first rice mill. (65) At the present time there are three rice mills in Lake Charles which handle annually about 800,000 barrels (162 pounds each) of rice, or 13 percent of the state’s crop. These mills use the Port of Lake Charles for shipping approximately 2,000,000 pockets (100 pounds each) of clean rice each year to Cuba and Puerto Rico. (66)

        Some recent figures on the rice production of Calcasieu Parish are given in a letter from Jenkin W. Jones, Senior Agronomist in Charge of Rice Production and Improvement in the United States Bureau of Animal Industry.

According to the preliminary report of the 1935 Federal Farm Census, 35,000 acres of rice were grown in Calcasieu Parish. The average yield was 35.2 bushels per acre and the total production was 1,233,114 bushels. (67)

        The data just listed shows that Calcasieu has increased its rice acreage more than four times since 1889. In 1939 the Louisiana rice production was 5,991,649 barrels; of this amount the Lake Charles district raised 559,640 barrels, or approximately one-tenth of the total state production. (68)

        In general, the rice industry holds a prominent position in Lake Charles for two reasons: the commercial importance of the industry itself; and the industry’s relation to the development of other industries. The rice industry involves several phases - the planting and harvesting of the crop, followed by the milling and marketing of the grain. By assuring the federal government in 1931 of a large shipping business, the rice farmers were instrumental in securing further development of the port of Lake Charles. One of the main reasons for cattle raising becoming an important industry in Lake Charles was the proof, arrived at by government experiments, that cattle could be fed economically on rice by-products. The rice growers materially aided the school system in Lake Charles by the supporting of school taxes, and by encouraging the work of progressive educational leaders like Professor Alexander Thompson (Thomson) and Dr. Seaman A. Knapp. The newspaper men, as a result of the influx of farmers to the rice area from the northwestern section of the Mississippi Valley, had the opportunity of being able to increase newspaper circulation.

The School System.
 
        There were no public schools in Calcasieu at the time that it was carved out of Saint Landry in 1840. The earliest record of the public school system appeared in the 1854 when the State Superintendent of Education, in his Annual Report to the General Assembly of Louisiana, stated that there were 13 school districts with 784 public schools in Calcasieu Parish. (69) By recalling the fact that Calcasieu, in 1840, was four times its present size, one can understand how so many schools existed in one parish. In 1871 the district boards were superseded by a parish board of at least five school directors, appointed for a term of two years by the state board of education. (70) The Constitution of 1879 gave the parish school board the power to appoint a parish superintendent who was to be ex-officio secretary of the board.

        The schools of Calcasieu and what now constitute the parishes of Allen, Beauregard, and Jefferson Davis owe much of their progress to the work of John McNeese, who became parish superintendent in 1884. (71) In 1885 Superintendent McNeese submitted the following report to the parish school board: “With the increase in population and wealth, the interest in our schools has increased proportionately … We had in 1884 a total of 2,983 white children and 903 colored children of scholastic age.” (72) In 1888 the Calcasieu School Board had the following members: Alexander Thompson (Thomson), president; John McNeese, secretary and superintendent; W. H. Harris, C. D. Welsh, J. W. Bryan, John H. Poe, Thomas Kleinpeter, and Austin Nichols, board members. (73)

        It is interesting to note that the president of the parish school board in 1888 was then a recent settler in Lake Charles. About 1885 the success of commercial rice growing in southwestern Louisiana attracted a great number of grain farmers from various sections of the upper Mississippi Valley, particularly from the state of Iowa. Nearly all of those farmers were progressive people who were keenly interested in a good educational system. Among the newcomers was Alexander Thompson (Thomson), brother-in-law of Jabez Watkins, and a former professor of mechanics at Iowa Agricultural College. It was chiefly Thompson (Thomson) who was instrumental in bringing the president of Iowa Agricultural College, Dr. Seaman A. Knapp, to Lake Charles. It was Thompson’s (Thomson's) suggestion that caused Watkins, owner of more than one million acres in Southwest Louisiana, to invite Dr. Knapp to come to Calcasieu to make a study of the country’s possibilities. As Congressman A. F. Lever, of South Carolina, said of this interesting man years later:

If Dr. Knapp came to Louisiana to enrich himself, he was not long in finding that he was to enrich mankind. Not by argument or rhetoric, but by persuasive influence of practice, he taught the settlers in the new domain the essential values of their new possessions. (74)

        A provision was made in Article 232 of the Constitution of Louisiana, 1898, for levying special taxes in school districts and municipal corporations for the erection of buildings and the maintenance of schools. (75) As a result of this provision, a meeting of the Calcasieu Parish Police Jury was held on June 6, 1899, in which a motion was made and carried that a special election be called for the purpose of placing a special three-mill tax on the dollar in order that better support might be given the schools. (76) Naturally to get this tax passed, the first of its kind in Calcasieu, required some personal contacts with the people; one example of such an appeal is:

Superintendent McNeese was in Iowa on Saturday, July 1, for the purpose of consultation with the people of surrounding districts relative to their rights concerning the special tax for school purposes. (77)

        Iowa is one of the towns, some ten miles from Lake Charles, originally settled entirely by wheat farmers, that is now a rice community. (78) The three-mill tax, after receiving the approval of the parish, was passed on July 10, 1899. (79)

        Since 1899, many taxes have been passed in Calcasieu for the purpose of erecting more efficient school plants. Today, Calcasieu Parish and Lake Charles, through building up their corps of teachers, and using efficient administration and careful supervision, have developed one of the best public school systems in Louisiana. (80)

The Newspaper Organizations.

        The various newspaper organizations have kept records of nearly every phase of life in Calcasieu Parish for almost a century; it is quite appropriate, therefore, that a brief account of the organizations themselves should be given. The first newspaper, the Calcasieu Press, published from 1855 to 1865, was owned by Judge B. A. Martel and edited by John A. Spence. For a short three-year period following the Civil War, the people of Calcasieu were without a paper. Then in 1868, the Lake Charles Echo was begun by Judge J. D. Reed and Louis Leveque; in 1871, the original owners sold their paper to Captain J. W. Bryan who published the Echo until 1890. (81) In 1895 the Lake Charles Daily Press reviewed briefly the history of contemporary newspapers:

The present papers of the city are: the Lake Charles Commercial, established by John McCormick in July, 1891; the Lake Charles Daily American, begun by J. B. Watkins in 1885; the New Road, a populist journal; the Calcasieu Blade, colored; and the Lake Charles Daily Press, established by Guy Beatty in 1893. In politics the Echo and Commercial are democratic, the American and Press are independent. (82)

        The Christian Visitor appeared in 1890, published by Rev. G. B. Rogers, but in 1891 it was consolidated with the Lake Charles Daily American. In 1898, Watkins sold the Lake Charles Daily American to Guy Beatty, publisher of the Lake Charles Daily Press. On January 1, 1910, Guy Beatty, William Krebs, and Albert Jones bought the Weekly Press from C. A, McCoy and combined all of the papers into the present Lake Charles American Press. (83)

        Although all of the newspapers that have just been discussed played an active role in the progress of Calcasieu Parish, special attention is given here to the Lake Charles Daily American as it afforded such an excellent example of high-powered salesmanship in the eighties. Once a month the editor of this paper, Jabez Watkins published some 40,000 copies of the paper, praising the climate and resources of Calcasieu, and sent them broadcast throughout the northwestern section of the Mississippi Valley. (84) This advertising scheme worked so successfully that a period of immigration, made up chiefly of Michigan lumbermen and Iowa wheat farmers, set in. The newspapers, however, did not long enjoy the financial contributions of the loudly proclaimed lumber industry because, by the close of the nineteenth century, the sawmills had come and gone, leaving behind them a treeless prairie; however, the newspaper men were not greatly disturbed by this loss as they realized that they had a steady source of income from the circulation of their newspapers among the farmers, and the advertising of harvester companies, irrigation canal organizations, and rice mills. The vacuum left behind by the lumber industry was soon filled by the rice industry, the agricultural product that occupies the most conspicuous place in the industrial program of Lake Charles today. (85)

CHAPTER II

THE HISTORY AND CULTIVATION OF RICE

History of rice.

        Rice holds an important place among the food grains of the world. Considered from the standpoint of its general use as a food, and its almost exclusive use by many people in parts of the Orient, rice is truly the staff of life. (1) The chief rice-producing countries of the word are all located in Asia - India, Japan, China, Java, Indo-China, Siam, and Korea; in 1920 those seven countries produced 90 percent of the world’s crop. Outside of Asia the principal areas of rice production are in the United States, Spain, Italy, and Egypt; of these four, the United States produces the most. Although rice in the United States holds a comparatively unimportant position among the cereal grains, still in some portions of the Coastal Plain of the South Atlantic and Gulf States, rice is the most important grain crop grown (2)

        There is much speculation about the origin of rice. The oldest reports of it are Chinese, which fact has been construed by some people to mean that the culture of rice originated in China; whereas, in reality, history simply reaches farther back in China then elsewhere in the East. It is rice which underlies Chinese civilization. “Because they were rooted to their soil by their rice the Chinese have outbred and outlived their conquerors.” (3) The cultivation of rice, which began somewhere in the area between southern India and Cochin-China, spread to Iran, Arabia, Egypt, and ultimately to Europe. (4) It is believed that rice was introduced into Europe in the fifteenth century, when it was taken to Italy and Spain from northern Africa where it had been planted by the Mohammedans in their migration from Asia Minor. (5)

        In America, as in Asia, there is some question about the exact time and place of the introduction of cultivated rice. It is generally conceded, however, that Governor Berkeley planted some rice seed in Virginia about 1642, but, for some undetermined reason, he did not repeat the operation. (6) About half a century later, in 1694, the American Rice Industry began when Governor Thomas Smith, who had secured some good quality seed from the captain of an English ship, grew a successful rice crop in Charleston, South Carolina. The Carolina colony planted its rice with such great care that rice growing soon became its chief industry. From South Carolina, rice cultivation has spread gradually along the coastline into North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, and California. (7)

        As early as 1712 the South Atlantic colonies shipped abroad over 3,000,000 pounds of cleaned rice. By 1870, the export trade of these states had increased to 76,000,000 pounds. In 1839, about 90 percent of the rice crop in the United States was grown by the states of South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia; and, of the total production, South Carolina raised over 70 percent, and Louisiana less than four percent. South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia continued to lead in rice production up to the Civil War; after that time, as a result of having incurred such heavy property losses and not being able to apply successfully the new type machines to their tidal lands, the people in the South Atlantic states decreased their acreage until it has practically become a negligible matter. (8)

        While South Carolina, in the eighteenth century, was developing its rice industry and establishing foreign trade, Louisiana was contentedly producing small quantities of rice for home consumption. Rice was probably introduced into Louisiana about 1718, when Bienville founded the city of New Orleans. Before the Civil War, Plaquemines Parish, located on the Mississippi River near New Orleans, produced about two-thirds of the rice grown in the state, (9) in this southeastern section of Louisiana the lands lie beneath the Mississippi River, from which the people are protected by embankments called “levees.” Proceeding the irrigation era, begun in the eighties, the rice planters got the necessary supply of water for their crops by tapping the levees on the Mississippi River, through which they ran pipes called “rice flumes.” The chief objection to this system was that the rice flumes frequently broke, resulting in destructive crevasses, which often times caused losses many times as great as the total value of the rice crop of the state. This naturally caused a prejudice against such practices; therefore, laws were finally passed prohibiting the placing of rice flumes on levees. (10)

        As late as 1850 Louisiana was chiefly known for its production of sugar cane and cotton; rice was still a minor crop. J. D. B. DeBow, editor of the Commercial Review in New Orleans, published in 1850, a frank estimate of the rice situation in Louisiana.

Large quantities of rice are produced in Louisiana, though of an inferior character to that of Carolina. The culture and machinery used by us is of the most primitive kind… We can little doubt that rice will one day become an important staple of Louisiana, for which we have abundant soil, but then we shall have to borrow from the experience of our Carolina friends. (11)

        During and after the Civil War, rice-growing increased slowly in the southeastern section of Louisiana, but here, as in South Carolina, the planters found that, because of the nature of the soil, heavy machines could not be used. (12)

        The rice crop did not become commercially important in Louisiana until 1887, when it was learned that rice could be grown profitably by machine methods on the prairies in the southwestern part of the state. In 1889, as previously stated, Louisiana became, and still is, the leading state in rice production. (13) For over two hundred years, from about 1642 until 1889, the rice crop of the United States was produced largely on the delta lands of the South Atlantic States. Then came one of the major shifts that sometimes affect agricultural products - very little rice is now grown in the original area as the commercial crop is produced far to the westward in Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, and California. (14)

Natural Factors.
 
        In the United States the acreage on which rice crops can be grown successfully is much more limited than the acreage adapted to other cereals. (15) The important natural factors that have contributed to the successful development of rice culture in southwestern Louisiana are suitable soils, underlain by an impervious subsoil, topography, precipitation, and temperature. (16) The type of soil best adapted for the growing of rice is a medium loam, the materials of which posses enough clay so that resistant levees can be formed during the irrigation period, and support can be given the heavy machinery in the harvesting stage. (17) The typical rice soil of southwestern Louisiana is an ash-gray loam, containing 69 percent of silt, 23 percent of clay, and 4 percent of fine sand. The subsoil, which lies at an average depth of sixteen inches, is a mixture of blue and yellow clay that is extremely impervious. The loss of irrigation water by seepage through the clay is quite small. (18) The flatness of surface in Southwest Louisiana permits the application of irrigation water over large tracts of land with a limited number of field levees. The level lands, allowing the construction of low, broad levees, make it possible to use heavy machinery in the preparation of the soil and in the harvesting of the crop. (19) The quantity of water used for the irrigation of the rice crop is dependent upon the precipitation within the area under cultivation and upon the watershed of its streams. The average annual precipitation recorded for Lake Charles, Louisiana, for the period 1910 to 1922 was 61.57 inches. This precipitation, which is sufficient to meet the water requirements of the rice crop, is fairly well distributed throughout the year. (20) The annual mean temperature for Lake Charles is 59.7 F. (21) The proximity of the Gulf of Mexico and the numerous streams and lakes in southwestern Louisiana affect the temperature conditions to such an extent that excessive heat in summer and extreme cold in winter seldom occur. (22)

        Today the largest acreage of rice in the United States, grown in one area, is located in southwestern Louisiana. (23) This prominent position was not true, however, in 1755, when this section was settled by the Acadians after their expulsion from Nova Scotia by the English. The early French settlers, recognizing the natural advantages of Southwest Louisiana for the growing of rice, began the raising of small crops; therefore, the Acadians paved the way for the rice industry in this area. These people selected for rice growing the low places on the prairies where water would accumulate after rains, or the lowlands along the bayous. (24) This was the era of “providence” rice, so-called because the amount of water necessary for the crop was dependent on the elements. (25) The Acadians planted their crops by hand, cut them with a sickle, and threshed them with a flail. The commercial production of rice could not be developed by such primitive methods without an unlimited supply of cheap labor, characteristic of the Oriental countries. Since this kind of labor was not obtainable in the United States, it was necessary to find other means for the development of the rice industry. (26)

        The commercial rice era began in Southwest Louisiana largely as a result of the possession of certain natural factors, previously discussed; and the influence of the human element that caused the introduction of new farm machinery, irrigation canal systems, and cultural science.

Machinery.
 
        It was the outside people from Illinois, Iowa, and Kansas, who, about 1885, having learned of the natural resources of the South, came to Southwest Louisiana to live, and there awakened the native people to the importance of producing rice on a large scale. The newcomers applied so far as possible their methods of wheat culture to the growing of rice, and, even without experience in rice cultivation, produced crops at a comparatively low cost. (27) These northwestern farmers replaced the hand method of sowing rice by the modern drill, the sickle by the binder, and the pounding of grain with a club by the thresher. (28) Expressing, in 1892, the importance of the new farm machinery to the rice industry, Goodspeed said:

A revolution has occurred in the rice business of Louisiana in the last two years … This result had been brought about by the energy of some enterprising and progressive western men who settled in southwestern Louisiana about half a dozen years ago … The western farmers drained the rice fields and used the agricultural machinery familiar to them - the twine binders, threshers, and mowers … Calcasieu, another rice parish, has trebled its wealth in five years. (29)

        The Lake Charles American Press, in 1916, gave its evaluation as to the number of machines used in Calcasieu: “During the period from 1897 to 1904 the number of binders increased from 3,000 to 10,000.” (30) The following tabulation represents the sales made by only the International Harvester Company: during the period 1908 to 1940 - 511 tractors and 216 seeders; the period 1908 to 1940 - 3,655 binders. (31) The tractors and engines represent the unit for tilling the soil and pumping water in the growing of commercial rice; the drills for fertilizing the soil; the seeders for planting the rice seed; and the binders and threshers for harvesting the crop.

        It is seen from the information just given that rice-growing is a highly mechanized type of farming. According to the 1925 census there were about 1600 tractors on farms located in the four leading rice-producing parishes of Louisiana: Acadia, Jefferson Davis, Vermillion, and Calcasieu. The intensive use of tractors and trucks in the rice area is made possible by the high gross income per worker on rice farms and by the suitability of the rice crop’s cultural requirements. In 1929 the Louisiana Department of Agriculture made an impartial survey of 124 rice farms in Acadia and Jefferson Davis in order to determine the use of machinery on farms. The investigation showed that out of the farms studied ninety percent of the farmers owned one or two tractors, the choice types being McCormick-Deering and John Deere; also that the farmers used the tractors ninety-six percent of the time on their own lands, and, and, the remainder of the time, they used the tractors to do contract threshing on other farms. (32)

Irrigation.

        One of the first requisites for a profitable rice crop is access to a continuous supply of fresh water for a period of about three months. (33) The value of irrigation to the rice farmer in southern Louisiana is given by M. L. Fuller in a report, made in 1904, to the United States Geological Survey:

In 1888 lowlands near the bayous suitable for growing sugar cane, corn, cotton, and rice could be purchased for $3.50 per acre, while the prairies back from the bayous could be bought for $1.00 per acre. With almost the first rice crop under irrigation, the values showed a
marked rise, and have continued to increase to the present time. In the first five years the value of the best rice lands rose to $10 per acre; while in 1901, the values reached $30 to $50 per acre. (34)

        Another view on the importance of irrigation, given in 1905 by G. G. Harris, director of United States Geological Survey:

Irrigation in a region where the rainfall is more than six feet annually will strike most people as a superfluity, but the results which have followed its application in Florida and in the coastal prairies of Louisiana and Texas offer abundant evidence of its value. In five years irrigation has changed this country from an importer to an exporter of the important cereal rice. It has transformed hundreds of thousands of acres of land, long regarded as valuable only for grazing, into cultivated rice fields, producing crops netting $20.00 an acre annually. (35)

        The history of irrigation in southwestern Louisiana began in 1896 in Crowley, Louisiana, where David Abbott was successful in introducing a vacuum pump that could raise water from the bayous to the rice fields. This discovery opened a new era in rice cultivation, making the farmer independent of the elements for his water supply. (36)

The newspapers of Lake Charles give the following interesting items on the progress of irrigation in Calcasieu:

Lake Charles Daily American, August 19, 1897:

About 75 prominent Calcasieu farmers met at Iowa on Saturday and formally discussed a movement which may prove of greatest interest to rice growers... The object of this meeting was to discuss the possibilities of complete and inexpensive irrigation of rice fields by artesian wells. At present there are many such wells in the parish. In the past the great drawback to rice farming has been uncertainty of rainfall. The experiments of the last two years have shown conclusively that there is little hope for providence rice. (37)

Lake Charles Daily American, March 2, 1899:

The surveyors have finished running lines for an extension of the Lake Charles irrigating ditch southwest of town. The extension is about one mile long and will flood land purchased last spring by Edgar Hazzard. (38)

Lake Charles Daily American, March 16, 1899:

Dr. A. J. Perkins will construct an irrigating canal on his farm... A fifty-horse power engine and a twelve-inch pump will be installed this season; other engines will be put in as needed … His lands lie west of the lands for the North American Land and Timber Company. (39)

Lake Charles Daily American, March 16, 1899:

The agents of the North American Land and Timber Company acting for other parties [English capitalists] have purchased a water front on English Bayou [two miles out of Lake Charles] and the right of way needed for the construction of an immense irrigating plant. The lands to be flooded belong to the company and to those who have purchased land of the company. For the most part the land is situated on the Southern Pacific and Watkins tracks between this city and Iowa.

The main canal will be over seven miles long … Large laterals will be constructed to the west, north and south of the canal …The pumping plant at the bayou will be fifteen feet. Then one and one-half miles south another pumping plant will be installed which will have a lift of eight feet; the second lift is necessary because of the low level of the Southern Pacific tracks.

The settlement of this large area will add wealth to the parish and city. The marketing of the crops here will mean business for the mills and for all the merchants. (40)

Lake Charles Daily Press, February 2, 1904:

Louisiana’s present prominent position among rice growing states is due to the discovery of the peculiar adaptability of the coastal prairies to the cultivation and irrigation of rice. This adaptability was first demonstrated by the large yield of irrigated rice in 1897, which immediately caused a great influx of immigrants and capital.

The prairie is under laid with an impervious subsoil which plays a very important part in economy for rice irrigation. The subsoil not only holds the water on the land but gives a compact base so that when the irrigation season is over and the levees are opened the water runs off rapidly, leaving the ground firm enough for the use of the latest improved machinery. (41)

Lake Charles American Press, November 9, 1916:

In 1897, there was only one plant within ten miles of the canal. Seven years later there were no less than eighty plants in operation, each capable of irrigating from 160 to20,000 acres. (42)

        The irrigation canal companies of Calcasieu Parish are almost an industry within themselves since so many thousands of dollars are invested in them. The average cost for the construction of one of these plants is $60,000. The power used for operation is mainly electrical. The average pump is designed to deliver 8 gallons of water an acre per minute; some of the larger pumps might raise as much as 140,000 gallons per minute. (43) The source of water supply for the canal companies is the Deep Waterway Channel. A stable fresh water supply is maintained by the connection that the channel makes between the Calcasieu and Sabine Rivers. (44)

        In order that the evaluation might be arrived at for a rice farm, some figures are given here on the cost of production and the value received for the average crop of rice in Calcasieu Parish. The average farmer in the parish rents water, land, and threshing machines for the cultivation of his 100-acre rice farm. (45) The farmer gets the water for his rice crop from one of the irrigation companies by paying one-fifth of his total acreage production. The Calcasieu farmer not only cultivates 100 acres in rice but also, with an additional plot of land of equal size, raises cattle. The rotation of cattle and rice permits the rice lands to be used for two years and to lie fallow for two years; this practice enables the rice soil to restore its fertility. This farming system requires a large acreage which makes it necessary for the farmer to rent rice lands at the usual cost of 3.00 an acre. The average crop produced in Calcasieu is 35.2 bushels to the acre (45 pounds to the bushel), or 9.8 barrels. (46) The farmer usually harvests his rice in bags weighing 210 pounds each, giving him about 8 bags to an acre. The price for threshing a bag of rice is 30 cents, or $2.40 an acre. (47) These are the major expenditures of the farmer; naturally there are additional items to be considered like seed, taxes, and warehouse storage. In 1897 a report was made by the Ways and Means Committee of the House which estimated the average production in southwestern Louisiana at 32 bushels an acre, and the average cost at $24. (48) This information is interesting because, according to the 1940 report, the acreage yield is still about the same; however, the cost of production, according to H. G. Chalkley, Jr., Manager of the Sweet Lake Land and Oil Company in Lake Charles, is now $22, including all major and minor expenditures. This reduction in cost of production is probably the result of machine labor replacing man labor. The farmer is now receiving from $5 to $5.50 per barrel for No. 1 Blue Rose grade rice. (49) Considering the acreage production is about 10 barrels and the price received at $5 per barrel, the farmer gets $50 an acre, less $22 for general expenditures, leaving him a profit of $28 an acre, or $2800 on the 100-acre rice farm. In addition to the revenue from rice, the farmer gets a good income from the cattle that are fed rice by-products.

Cultural Science.
 
        The progressive farmer today, realizing that his land is limited by governmental acreage laws, tries to get the best production possible from each acre by taking advantage of new cultural methods. Farming was certainly not considered a science in the nineteenth century according to DeBow:

The cultivator of the soil is too often contented to pursue his own chance-directed processes unaided by the light of science …. You must conduct experimental researches for yourselves, and upon these, guided by the willing hand of science, you may erect a system that will elevate the agriculture of our country to the position that nature has plainly indicated the South should enjoy. (50)

        Scarcely any rice varieties were introduced into the United States for testing during the period from 1694 to 1889 as the growers seem to have been satisfied with the yields and quality of Carolina White and Carolina Gold. (51) When Dr. Knapp came to Lake Charles in 1885 from Iowa Agricultural College, he found the farmers of Calcasieu cultivating varieties of rice that broke easily in milling, and therefore were not commercially satisfactory. Rice cultivation was not greatly improved until 1899, when Dr. Knapp, having made a trip to China, Japan, and India in the interest of the federal Department of Agriculture, became acquainted with some new varieties of rice which he introduced to the farmers of Calcasieu. These new types of rice - Kuishu and Shinriki - were the best that Louisiana had until other varieties were introduced by Sol Wright of Crowley, Louisiana, in 1907. (53) By 1934, 75 percent of the rice grown in the United States consisted of varieties developed by Wright; two of the most important varieties introduced by him are Blue Rose and Early Prolific. (54) The Rice Millers’ Association estimate that there are now nine principal kinds of rice grown in Louisiana: Blue Rose, Early Prolific, Fortuna, Rexora, Lady Wright, Edith, Nira, Japanese, and Shoemed. (55)

        The wise farmer, in addition to careful seed selection, increases his crop production by using commercial fertilizers, rotating the rice crop with other crops, or combining rice growing with cattle raising.

        Most fertilizer plants, as Kelly-Weber and Company, Inc., at Lake Charles, carry brands of fertilizer, suitable for the soils of different rice sections. Since the rice crop uses a great deal of the soil’s nitrogen, it is a good policy to enrich the earth by some kind of fertilizer. “Fertilizer statisticians have proven that fertilizer used on rice, returns to the farmer from two to four dollars profit on every dollar he invests.” (56) The Bureau of Plant Industry conducted a series of experiments on the relative importance of fertilizers at the experimental station in Crowley, Louisiana, during the years 1909 to 1916 and learned that, through the use of phosphate fertilizer, five profitable crops of rice could be produced on land generally considered worn out; also that cowpeas would make a good rotation crop with rice. (57)

        As already stated, most of the farmers of Calcasieu prefer to restore the fertility of the rice soil by combining rice growing and cattle raising. The farmer usually divides his land into two divisions for farming and grazing purposes; every two years he rotates cattle and rice on the separate sections of land. In this way the soil is materially improved in physical condition by the accumulation of organic matter on its surface during the period that it is lying fallow. (58) Rice lands are generally deficient in organic matter because the high temperature and available moisture lead to a rapid decomposition of organic materials incorporated in the soil. (59) Another important function performed by the cattle is the destroying of weeds. (60) The farmers find the combination of cattle and rice to be profitable for two reasons: the rice lands are enriched and beef cattle are produced. The Swift Packing Plant at Lake Charles encourages the marketing of cattle grown on rice farms. Experiments at Louisiana State University have shown that sometimes annual incomes of $32.50 an acre can be obtained through the production of beef on the fallow rice lands. (61)

The Production of Rice.

        The rice farmer, like the wheat farmer, naturally tries to grow a commercial rice crop that obtains high acre yields of high milling quality that may be sold at a profit. The term “milling quality,” as used in the rice trade and in official standards for rough rice, refers to the percentage of whole kernels and of total milled rice that can be obtained under average milling conditions from a given quantity of rough rice. The factors that reduce the value of rough rice for milling purposes are largely within the control of the growers. (62) It would be poor economy for the farmer to spend time and money in producing a crop of rice and then lose part of the quality and profit through poor handling of the crop. The grower can reduce defects in rough rice or eliminate then entirely by careful consideration to details throughout the process of crop production. (63) Since southwestern Louisiana possesses the natural factors that contribute to the raising of a profitable rice crop, there is sometimes a tendency among the farmers to grow their crops with a minimum of preparation. There are, however, certain necessary functions to be performed, even in this section, in order to secure the best results. (64)

        Essentially, rice culture is like wheat culture; the two crops differ only in factors pertaining to irrigation. The harvesting, milling, and marketing processes are remarkably similar. It was probably these similarities that made rice growing such a simple task for the northwestern wheat farmers who entered Calcasieu in 1885.

        An essential step that the scientific rice farmer does not neglect is proper preparation of the seed bed. Usually the farmers in Calcasieu plow the rice fields to a depth of about seven inches in the late autumn or early winter. Winter plowing permits free circulation of air in the soil, and the winter rains help wash out any alkali that has accumulated on the earth’s surface through irrigation. In the spring, about the last part of April, the field should be dragged, double disked, and harrowed. Soils that have been properly prepared greatly increase the chances of germination and the quick growth of the young plants. (65)

        The next step in rice cultivation is the selection of the seed and the preparation of the seed bed. In choosing the seed the rice grower must remember that uniformity of the kernel is more important in rice than in wheat because of the polishing process that rice must undergo at the mill. Another matter to be considered is that a good variety of clean seed insures a good stand of rice and decreases the weed problem. (66) The Rice Experiment Station at Crowley distributes seed to Louisiana farmers with the understanding that the seed will be produced in accordance with some plan approved by the station. The outcome of this arrangement so far has been to introduce new varieties to the farmers. In 1929, as a result of this plan, it was estimated that 30,000 acres of Fortuna rice were grown in Louisiana, an increase of 10,000 acres over 1928. (67)

        Various seeding tests at the Crowley station have proven that the best time for sowing rice seed in Southwest Louisiana is about the first of May; previous to that time weather conditions are too unsettled and the temperature is too low to supply the necessary warmth to the soil for quick germination. The Crowley experiments have shown also that the seeds should be planted by a drill or sown broadcast to an average depth of about one and one-half inches at the rate of eighty pounds per acre. (68)

        After sowing the crop, the farmer must supply his rice field with large quantities of fresh water; this is the most distinctive feature of rice culture as contrasted with that of wheat. In southwestern Louisiana, in order to insure uniform ripening on the prairie lands, the water must be sufficient to cover the cultivated field to a depth of about four inches over a period of ninety days; in general, the water supply should be available from May through September. Usually irrigation water is supplied approximately fifteen days after the emergence of the plants, or when they have reached the height of three or four inches. After the rice plants have once been submerged, they must be kept continuously under water until they have reached their period of maturity in the fall. (69)

        Around August 25 the rice field passes into the “boot stage,” a flowering period, which lasts about ten days. It is at this period of rice cultivation that the fields are drained. The rice crop next changes into the “milk stage,” in which condition, within the space of twenty-four hours, the grains begin forming, averaging about 350 to 400 grains to a stalk. When the grains have become hardened, the rice field has reached the “hard dough stage,” or the final period of maturity. By September 7 the grain is ready to be harvested. (70) Before cutting the rice crop, however, the farmer should have a scientific test made at any rice growers’ cooperative organization, rice mill, or rice experiment station. Scientific experiments have proven that the stage of maturity at which rice should be cut to obtain the best milling quality is when the moisture content of the kernels in the standing grain is between 23 and 28 percent. If the crop is harvested when immature, or when overripe, the yields per acre will be decreased and breakage in milling will be increased, resulting from the presence of light, chalky kernels. (71)

        The harvesting season, which lasts about three weeks, begins approximately 120 days after the planting of the seeds. For this reason it is best to have the land as dry as possible; however, it is better to cut a good crop in mud, using mules to pull the threshing machines, than a light crop on dry land, assisted by tractor power. The binder used in cutting rice is very similar to the grain binder; the principal difference being in the heavier construction of the machines and the lugs on the bull wheel. Both the bull wheel and the grain wheel are incased in galvanized iron in order to prevent mud from gathering on the rim and spokes and thereby clogging up the machinery. The lugs are made long enough that the bull wheel will get traction on any rice land, no matter how wet it may be. The binder, which is pulled by mules or tractors, cuts from 4 to 10 acres of rice a day, depending upon the stand of the crop and the condition of the land. (72)

        As soon as the rice is cut, it should be placed in shocks where it is allowed to dry for a period of about two weeks. The farmer should pay a great deal of attention to the kind of shocks for the grain as there is a direct relation between proper shocking and good milling quality. Dr. Knapp has given the following directions for making the shocks:

First, shock on dry land; second, brace the bundles carefully against each other so as to resist wind or storm; third, let the shock be longest east and west, and cap carefully with bundles, allowing the heads of the capping bundles to fall on the north side of the shock to avoid the sun. Exposure of the heads to sun and storm is a large factor in producing sun-cracked and chalky kernels, which reduce the milling value. (73)

        After the rice has been cured in the shocks, it is ready to be threshed. The rice thresher needs a better separating capacity than the wheat thresher, and it should work slower in order to prevent hulling the rice. The threshed grain is placed in jute sacks, holding about 162 to 210 pounds each, and hauled by trucks to the nearest public warehouse where it is stored until it is sold to the rice mills. Some rice mills, as the Louisiana State Rice Milling Company at Lake Charles, have grain elevators for storing rice in the bulk, which is a great saving in the time and labor usually required for sacking the grain. Since the rice grower usually sells directly to the rice miller in his vicinity, it is seen that the processes for growing and milling of rice are completed in one territory. (74)

History of Rice
(Photographs not good enough quality to view.)

A. Rice matured in the field

B. Cutting rice

C. Shocking rice

D. Threshing rice

E. Loading rice for shipment to the mill

F. Loading rice from the barges to the docks for export
 

CHAPTER III

THE MILLING OF RICE AND RICE BY-PRODUCTS

Composition of Rice.
 
        The rice grower brings the unhusked grain known as “paddy” or “rough” rice to the mill to be converted into a commercial article for use as human food, animal feed, or some type of by-product. In its original form, a grain of rough rice is enclosed in a hard shell, which is filled with small needle-like points that are high in silica content. Removing the hull, one finds the starchy kernel of the grain covered by a light-brown seed coat in which seven distinct layers of bran may be seen with a microscope; and at one end of the kernel, he locates the germ or embryo. (1)

        In general, the milling processes, with a minimum amount of breakage, remove the husk and polish the surface of the grain. (2) To accomplish this purpose it is necessary to remove the germ, six of the bran layers and a part of the seventh layer, leaving only the kernel surrounded by a part of the last seed-coat layer, which is very rich in protein. (3) Although the general processes for milling rice are old in principle, a marked improvement in the industrial machinery has been made during the past two decades. (4) In order that one can be better prepared to appreciate the improved mechanical devices used today in the manufacturing of rice and its by-products, a brief account is given of the primitive methods used in milling.

Primitive Methods of Milling Rice.

        The earliest records on the processing of rice show that a small quantity of rough rice was placed in a hollow stone and pounded with a pestle, a club, until the husk cracked, and the cuticle rubbed off and was winnowed out. (5) Naturally this practice resulted in a poor grade of rice, which contained broken, unclean grains. The first improvement over this primitive procedure was the making of a receptacle for rice out of a short section of a hollow log and the using of a heavy wooden pounder, bound to a six-foot horizontal beam, which rested on a fulcrum four feet from the pounder. By stepping on the short end of the beam, the operator raised the pounder; then, by getting off quickly he permitted the pounder to drop abruptly into to a tub and to crack the rough rice.

        In time, human power was supplanted by water power which was used to operate an overshot wheel, geared to a long horizontal shaft and equipped with arms at distances apart equal to that of the rice pounders. The rice pounder was a vertical beam about ten feet long and six inches square, containing a pin projecting at a point to be caught by the rounded end of the arm of the revolving shaft which, after raising the pounder a short distance, slipped past the pin and allowed the pounder to drop into the tub of rough rice. The procedure was repeated until most of the hulls and bran had been removed from the rice grains. This further advancement made a better grade of milled rice possible. The process just described, with few alterations, is the kind used in most Oriental countries today. (6)

Modern Methods of Milling Rice.

        The reader, now armed with a general knowledge of the physical make-up of rice and the principles involved in the milling of it, is given a description of the types of machinery, their operations and functions, in a modern rice mill, in particular the Louisiana State Rice Milling Company, Lake Charles, Louisiana. If the reader will refer to the diagram following he will find it to be a great aid in helping him visualize the set-up for a rice mill. Note the numerous pipes connecting each of the machines.

Graphic diagram of a typical rice mill.       

        On the top floor of the factory, the fifth floor at the Louisiana State Rice Milling Company, are seen a great number of bags containing rough rice. Preparatory to the actual milling processes, the rough rice is thoroughly cleaned by the removal of all foreign matter like dust, stubble, grass seeds, and similar refuse. (7) Such substances, if they remained in the rice grain, would probably damage the machinery and introduce impurities into the finished product. This cleaning process begins by placing the rough rice in a machine called a “scalper,” which gets rid of the coarse material by screens, and the fine material by suction. From the scalper, the rice goes to the “clipper,” which eliminates the long beard and stems; and, from the clipper to the “monitor,” which removes the blighted rice grains. The product obtained, termed “cleaned rough rice,” is now ready to be milled. (8)

        The intricate milling processes of a modern rice mill can be divided into four phases: the removal of the rice hulls by stones; the scouring of the rough rice by hullers; the polishing of the kernels by brushes; and the segregation of the cleaned rice into classes by government grading machines. (9)

        First Phase: The first step involves the shelling of the rough rice between a pair of milling stones, called “hulling stones,” and similar to the old-time flour mill buhrstones. These stones, the top one of which revolves, are set some distance apart so that the turning of the upper stone causes the grains to assume a somewhat vertical position. In this condition, a pressure, exerted on the ends of the grain, cracks or splits the hull, allowing the kernel to drop out. The factory operators take great care in setting the stones at a sufficient distance apart so that there will be as little breaking of the kernel as possible. (10)

        From the first set of stones, the rice mixture goes, by means of the connecting pipes, to the “stone reel,” a large revolving, octagonal-shaped framework, which is covered with wire screens, the square meshes of which are usually fourteen to a square inch. The fine material passing through this screen consists of broken bulls, germs and true bran called “stone-reel bran.” The rice and hulls passing over the stone reel are conducted to a monitor which revolves the loose hulls by a suction process. (11)

        The rice stream continues on to another machine called the “paddy machine,” consisting of a large mechanically-operated box shaker with zigzag divisions, formed by vertical plates, which separate the rough from the hulled rice. The rough rice grains gradually move upward from the center feed and pass over the machine into a trough, while the heavier, hulled grains are collected under the lower side. The unhulled grains go to a pair of auxiliary stones, similar to the first set of stones, but set somewhat closer together; the stream from these stones reenters the main stream going to the stone reel. (12)

        Second Phase: The next step in milling is scouring the brown rice by specially designed machines - two sets of hullers and a pearling-cone - which remove all seven layers of the rice bran, leaving a whitened kernel. The first hulling machine, sausage-shaped and about nine feet in length, has a grooved tapering cylinder, which revolves within a hollow funnel. The cylinder, covered by a wire screen, contains a set of ribs, adjusted so that the revolution of the shaft creates the friction necessary to remove the cuticle from the rice kernel. As the cylindrical reel revolves, the rice constantly falls from side to side, forcing the bran through the wire covering. The loosened bran, separated in its passage through the first-break reel, constitutes the “first-break bran.” The second set of hullers is similar to the first, except that the parts are more closely adjusted in order to remove a further portion of the bran coat. The rice bran that passes through this second reel is known as “second-reel bran.” (13)

        The pearling-cone, an oval-shaped machine, is covered with composition stone and surrounded by a mantel of heavy iron wire. The rice, fed through the top of this hopper, is rubbed thoroughly between the cone and the sieve before it passes out at the bottom. The severity of the scouring is varied by raising or lowering the cone and thereby decreasing the cone’s distance from the wire screen. The product obtained from this machine is “pearling-cone meal.” (14)

        Third Phase: While the rice is being thoroughly scoured, it becomes very warm; therefore it is necessary to place the rice in cooling bins for a period of about nine hours. A further reason for collecting the grain in bins lies in the fact that a uniform flow of rice to the brushes is necessary for good milling. (15)

        From the cooling bins the rice, which is now practically white in color, but more or less rough and unsightly in appearance, is conveyed to the brushes, which remove more of the seventh bran coat and give the rice kernel a smoother finish. The brush, which is a vertical framework covered with overlapping pieces of soft moose hide or sheepskin, revolves at a high speed within a cylinder of wire screen. The rice, which enters at the top of the brush, is rubbed smooth by the friction between the brush and screen as it passes to the bottom of the machine. During this particular operation the brush, which develops a considerable amount of heat, is cooled by the passage of a cold air stream through it. The air current carries with it a small amount of polish, composed of the inner bran layer and part of the starchy kernel, which, recovered in dust collectors, is know as “rice polish.” (16) After the polishing process, the cleaned white rice is conveyed to a revolving cylinder where it is steamed and coated with glucose and talc, which materials help preserve the rice and give it a better finish. (17)

        Fourth Phase: The final process of milling is the segregation of the whole and broken rice, through the use of automatic graders, into classes according to the respective sizes and the cleanliness of the grains. These classes are commercially termed Head Rice, Second Head Rice, Screenings, and Brewers' Rice. (18) The unbroken kernels of cleaned rice, known as head rice, commands the highest price on the market. The broken kernels may be sold as ordinary rice, screenings, or brewers' rice. The lowest grade is composed of very fine particles of the kernels. (19) Throughout the American rice milling processes, scrupulous cleanliness is maintained, and at no stage is the rice touched by human hands nor is it harmed by injurious substances. (20)

Rice and Rice By-Products.
 
        Rice, like wheat, is used chiefly for human consumption. Although rice varieties vary in size, texture of grain, and cooking quality, they all yield practically the same fuel value, 1600 calories to the pound. (21) The bulletin, Miscellaneous Publication Number 132, United States Department of Agriculture, shows that rice has a higher carbohydrate content and less fat then wheat. This publication lists the digestible carbohydrate of rice as 73.1 and of wheat as 63.3; and the fat extract of rice as 0.8, and of wheat as 1.8. (22) Rice ranks first of all cereal grains from a standpoint of digestibility. Since the starch cells of rice are extremely small, the stomach juices can act upon the cereal quickly. Rice can be assimilated by the digestive organs in one hour, while corn and wheat breads, meats, milk, and potatoes require two to three and one-half hours.

        Rice is the principal article of diet for two-thirds of the earth’s population, and where it is used regularly dyspepsia and other forms of indigestion are seldom found. (24) The most common use of rice is as a starchy food to accompany meats and similar dishes; in addition to being eaten as a vegetable, rice is served in various forms for breakfast food and desserts. (25) Dr. Henry Sherman, Professor of Chemistry at Columbia University, considered as one of the outstanding authorities on the chemistry of food and nutrition, makes the statement that rice far surpasses other cereal grains in popularity and in the contribution which it makes to the feeding of the human race. The fact that rice is now, and has been for centuries, the staple food of the greatest number of people, and the main article of diet for over half of the population of the world is a good testimonial of its excellent qualities. (26)

        The principal feeds that are obtained as by-products in the milling of rice are bran, meal, and polish. The following table lists the average yield of cleaned rice and the by-products obtained from the milling of one barrel (162 pounds) of rough rice:

        For every barrel of rough rice, taken from the field, the farmer gets 200 pounds of straw which he retains on the farm for feeding the livestock. The following chart contains an analysis of rice straw and Timothy hay:

        A comparison of the composition of the two grains given in the chart above shows that rice straw, which usually sells for $6.00 a ton, is almost as nutritious as Timothy hay, which generally sells for $28.00 a ton. (28)

        Many manufacturers utilize rice straw in making mats, sacks, sandals, brooms, hats and ropes. (29) The $500,000 Pacific Coast Pulp and Paper Mill, located in the center of the rice area in California, uses straw exclusively in making paper. (30)

        In the first milling process - shelling the rice between stones - the by-product obtained is “rice hulls.” An average lot of No. 1 Blue Rose rice will give a milling yield of about 31 pounds of rice hulls. (31) The hulls, which constitute the principal by-product when considered in terms of weight and volume, are the least in importance of all the by-products from a monetary standpoint. An analysis of rice hulls shows the product to contain: 41. 3 per cent crude fiber; 30.3 percent digestible carbohydrate; 27.8 percent nitrogen; 19.5 percent ash; 7.9 percent moisture; 2.7 percent crude protein; 0.8 percent fat; 0.2 percent digestible protein. (32) Government tests have shown that hulls are very high in both ash and fiber, but are low in protein and fat content; therefore, they have practically no feeding value. (33)

        Hulls, however, may be used effectively for fuel, packing material, bedding for poultry, insulating material, fertilizer, cleaning fluids, and cellulose. (34)

        The Lake Charles Products Company, owned by H. J. Heinz of Pittsburg, uses hulls, obtainable from the Louisiana State Rice Milling Company, to make cellulose. The process used making cellulose is that the hulls are cooked for several hours with caustic in order to dissolve the silica and remove other non-cellulose organic compounds. After the hulls have been cooked, they are treated with diluted sulphuric acid, given a thorough washing, dried, and ground to a fine powder. The average annual production of cellulose of the Lake Charles Products Company is about five carloads. Since the cellulose manufactured at he Lake Charles plant is practically 100 percent pure, although not possessing any food value, the product is used as a bulking agent in foods. (35) There are, however, many articles that factories can make from cellulose: cardboard, rayon, celluloid, and other plastics. Cellulose treated with sulphuric acid forms dextrin and glucose, which on fermentation, produces ethyl alcohol. When treated with acetic acid, cellulose forms cellulose acetate, from which article silk, films, plastics, and rubber substitutes may be derived. (36) Rice hull “ash,” the burned fuel that was formerly considered a waste product is now finding extensive use for insulating purposes. The ash is a granular silica refractory insulator with low thermal conductivity and possesses sound-deadening qualities. It is believed to be fireproof, decay proof, and odorless. (37)

        In the second phase of milling, the scouring process which removes most of the seven bran layers, the by-product received is “rice bran,” approximately nine percent of a barrel of rough rice. Extensive tests have proven conclusively that rice bran is an excellent feed for cattle, hogs, mules, and chickens. Bulletin Number 128, issued by the University of Arkansas, states that experiments have shown rice bran to be more valuable than corn chops for fattening hogs, especially in cases where only one foodstuff was used. (38) Other experimental stations have demonstrated that dairy cows gained in weight and produced more milk when fed on mixed feed, the greater part of which was rice bran. (39) Owing to the high moisture and fat content, rice bran is liable to become rancid unless it has been kiln-dried. Rice bran and wheat bran compare about equally in water, protein, carbohydrates, and mineral content; on the other hand, they differ widely in the matter of fat content as rice bran contains 12.0 percent, and wheat bran only 3.50 percent. Recently conducted experiments have disclosed that after the moisture has been extracted from bran, 30 percent of the remaining substance is oil, which is a good substitute for olive oil. (40)

        The third process, the milling stage, produces “rice polish,” about two percent of the weight of rough rice. The polish contains less fat and protein but more starch then the bran. Rice polish can be used as a food in the form of a thickening in gravies, sauces, and puddings. (41) A limited amount is sold to manufacturers for reprocessing into cosmetics, beverages, coloring pigment, and buttons. (42)

        The chief use for rice polish is as a feed for fattening swine. The Texas Department of Agriculture has experimented with various lots of hogs with the following objects in view: to study the degree of softness and the quality of the port produced by hogs finished on different portions of rice polish; to study the relative economy of rice bran, rice polish, and corn chops when fed in combination with tankage; to determine the shrinkage in shipping and dressing percentage of the different lots. The results have been favorable for rice polish, showing that hogs fed on the rice by-product made greater gains than those fed on corn. The redeeming feature of rice polish is that it seldom ever sells as high as corn meal. (43)

        American grown and American milled rice is the highest quality to be found in the world. The degree of superiority has been growing greater in recent years as more improvement has been shown in the American Rice Industry in the quantity of yield, represented by the rice grower, and the quality of the product, represented by the miller. (44) Notwithstanding the advancement of this industry, the accepted law of economics requires that production, in any field, must be counter-balanced by consumption. It is obvious, therefore, that the commercial rice production must be disposed of by some kind of marketing system.

CHAPTER IV

THE MARKETING OF RICE

Importance of the Rice Industry.

        The rice industry aided by scientific methods in cultivating and milling rice, is now assuming a recognized economic position among the other important industries of the United States. However, since rice cultivation is confined to such a small area, a knowledge of the industry’s monetary value is limited to a few people. It is not generally known, for instance, that outside of the Asiatic countries, the United States is the most important rice producing country; that the southern rice belt, composed of Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas, produces annually over 35,000,000 bushels of rice, approximately 80 percent of the total crop of the United States, valued at about $40,000,000. (1) These favorable factors of the industry are offset by a most unfavorable one, which is, that rice production, since 1914, exceeds domestic consumption. (2) This excess is not due to the great volume of production but to the low degree of consumption. Considering the fact that the per capita consumption in the United States is estimated at only 6.8 pounds as contrasted to 324 pounds for Japan and 13.8 pounds for Italy, one can readily understand that rice associations are faced with a serious problem of distribution.( 3) Naturally some of the surplus can be exported; yet the rice industry does not forget that, important as foreign trade may be, the most certain and secure of all markets is the domestic market. (4)

        The rice industry in southwestern Louisiana was not considered as possessing any degree of importance until about 1885. From that date to the present time, the industry has steadily progressed, changing its position from that of local international recognition. Some of the agents contributing to the industry’s miraculous growth in the half century of its lifetime have been: the new cultural methods introduced by the northwestern farmers; the economic protection assured the industry by a tariff; the construction of rice mills and irrigation canal systems; and the progressive marketing schemes of the rice associations.

Northwestern Immigration.
 
        At the time that Dr. Seaman Knapp came to Lake Charles from Iowa in 1885, Louisiana ranked next to South Carolina in the rice production of the United States. (5) The migration of the Knapp family to Louisiana was simultaneous with that of the Upper Mississippi Valley grain farmers who came South because of the attractive low prices for lands and the large acreage yields. (6) The fact that Louisiana four years later, in 1889, became the leading state in rice production can be traced directly to the influence of the immigrant farmers. Goodspeed, in 1892, said: “About five or six years ago a serious revolution took place in the Louisiana rice business …. This result has been brought about by the energy of some enterprising and progressive western men from Iowa, Illinois, and Kansas who settled in southwestern Louisiana.” (7) The newcomers were welcomed in the Lake Charles district as exemplified in the following news paper item:

Newest evidences of advertising Calcasieu are seen by a settlement, ten miles from Lake Charles, known as Iowa station, settled by people from Iowa state. These people are successfully and scientifically growing rice, cotton, and tobacco on the plains. We welcome such energetic people. (8)

The Tariff.

        In addition to the introducing of new cultural methods of farming, the northern people brought South their belief in a protective tariff for agricultural products. Dr. Knapp, selected as representative of the immigration group, justified a tariff for the rice section on these grounds:

First, the question of economic distribution has not been settled. Second, many things are to be learned about rice in connection with machine production … Another thing to be learned is better cultivation, as necessary to the quantity and quality of the product. Third, rice farming on our system is in its infancy. Many farmers have recently commenced with small means, and are not in circumstances yet to make a crop at the greatest profit, which requires ready capital. Fourth, the greatest danger from Oriental competition is what is know as “dumpage,” that is, after home consumption has been supplied, the remainder is sold for what it will bring, regardless of cost of production. This occasional dumping of a surplus on our markets utterly demoralizes home prices. (9)

        In order to secure the passage of a tariff favorable to rice, it was necessary for Dr. Knapp to make several trips to Washington. In 1897, he gave the following report of one of his trips to a Lake Charles Daily American correspondent:

My visit to Washington during the past month has been exclusively in the interest of the rice schedule by the request of the New Orleans Board of Trade, the Savannah Rice Association, the rice interests of Charleston, South Carolina, and the citizens of Crowley and Lake Charles. I remained in Washington until it was absolutely certain that the Senate rates upon rice would practically be the same as the rates on the Dingley bill.

The rice producers can remain perfectly assured that the rates will be as reported, that is, 2 cents on cleaned rice, 1 ¼ cents on un-cleaned rice, and 75 cents on paddy per 100 pounds … I believe the tariff will be an aid in restoring prosperity to Louisiana. (10)

        The Senate’s approval of the rice tariff in 1897 marked the initial step in the transferring of rice from the position of a minor agricultural product to that of a major one.

Investment of Capital.
 
        Northern capitalists, impressed with Louisiana’s rank as the first rice-producing state in the Union, and assured by the passage of the tariff that financial investments would be protected, sought locations for rice mills in the state. One of the first mills built in Louisiana outside of New Orleans was the Wall Rice Mill at Lake Charles. (11) This rice mill, constructed in 1897, by Adolph and Christian Meyer, former residents of New York City, is the present Louisiana State Rice Milling Company.

        The success of one industry in a locality usually attracts related industries to that same area. In this case, the Wall Rice Mill was almost immediately followed by an irrigation canal company. On March 16, 1899, the North American Land and Timber Company, sponsored by a group of English capitalists, began the construction of a large irrigation system, located on English bayou about two miles from Lake Charles. (12) Thus, only two years after the adoption of the tariff of 1897, the rice industry had become a center for the financial interests of the Lake Charles district.

Marketing Associations.

        The rice industry, like any important business, needed efficient organization in order to make any great degree of progress. This need of the industry was met by the formation of special organizations among the growers and millers for the general purpose of increasing rice consumption and stabilizing rice prices.

        The rice millers were the first to organize. In 1899, representatives from the mills in the three southern rice states met in New Orleans and organized the Rice Millers' Association . When the Association was first formed, its activities were limited to the supplying of a nominal amount of basic statistical information. Today the Association performs many other services. It issues, at regular intervals, letters and bulletins containing such detailed material as the acreage and production by district and variety, stocks by ownership, and the marketing price of rice at home and abroad. Therefore, the rice miller, thoroughly informed of any facts pertinent to his industry, can efficiently market all rice products. (13)

        The general procedure for marketing rice is for the rice miller to contact his broker, located in some central place, and to permit the broker through reference to type samples of rice, to sell bulk goods direct to a wholesaler. After repackaging the goods, the wholesaler sells to retailers, who distribute the products among the consumers. The wholesaler, for instance the Kellogg Corporation, puts the bulk rice up in attractive packages of varying sizes—cartons of twelve ounces and a pound; cellophane bags, from one pound to three pounds; paper bags of three pounds and cotton bags, five to ten pounds. (14)

        By the beginning of the present century, the southern rice farmers had become cognizant of the fact that their agricultural problems were not simply those which affect individual farmers or the rural community, but that the industry had implications which extended beyond state lines and into the whole rice area. The rice growers, therefore, like the millers, recognized the need for a safe, sound, and progressive organization which would promote the policies beneficial to the whole industry. On February 14, 1901, about two hundred delegates from the southern rice district met at Lake Charles to discuss plans for some kind of organization that would forestall the evils of under consumption. (15) At the first meeting, one of the enthusiastic delegates, H. L. Gueydan, editor of a newspaper at Gueydan, Louisiana, said:

I hope a permanent organization of rice growers will be effected. All classes, large and small, should have equal recognition. Branches should be established in all the towns in the rice belt, and weekly reports should be published, giving the exact state of the markets in different locations. (16)

        On the second day of the meeting, February 15, 1901, the American Rice Association was formed, having its central office at Lake Charles and local offices throughout the rice district. The original officers for the Association were: Dr. Seaman A. Knapp, Lake Charles, president; Oswald Wilson, Houston, secretary; and H. D. Wheeler, Galveston, treasurer. (17) The resolutions adopted in 1901 were:

Whereas, until rice is recognized as a staple article of food and the cost of handling from the producer to the consumer is placed on the same basis as the other great staples whose equal, if not superior it is, rice is being discriminated against, preventing its maximum of consumption in the United States which is essential to the prosperity of industry. Therefore, be it resolved by the A. R. A., that the milling and transportation charges be placed on a parity with other staple grains and that retail stores recognize rice, and that it be handled on the same basis as other staple foods are.

Whereas, under the present system the rice crop is forced on the market as soon as harvested, causing a lowering of prices and a consequent loss to the consumer. Therefore, be it resolved that the A.R.A. hereby endorse and approve the formation of warehouse companies to erect and operate bonded warehouses in each rice producing district in which the rice producer can store his crop and secure advances under the same conditions as cotton, corn, and wheat.

Whereas, the time has come when the American farmer cannot depend on “provident” farming and must call to his aid science practically applied; and,

Whereas, the United States Department of Agriculture is a great and most beneficent institution, solving problems, introducing new plants and new methods of cultivation, protecting new crops from destruction by insects and disease, and thereby increasing the wealth and comfort of the nation;

Be it resolved that we heartily endorse its work and demand more liberal appropriations. (18)

        Although the American Rice Association accomplished a great deal for the farmers, it was finally dissolved about 1909, chiefly as a result of the prejudice that some of the rice farmers had to any kind of pooling organization. (19) In 1910 it was succeeded by the Southern Rice Growers’ Association, a stock company, which had its central office at Beaumont, Texas. This organization helped maintain a uniform sales price over the southern rice district. This second organization of the rice growers was not permanent either, as it ceased operations in 1920. This time, the Association’s failure was caused by the rice farmers objecting to an agreement that the company officials made with the rice mills, whereby it was decided that the rice growers should be charged a one-dollar milling fee. (20)
In 1921 the American Rice Growers’ Association was established, having its central office at Lake Charles. In 1928 this association was reorganized under its present name of American Rice Growers’ Cooperative Association. The Association is financed by receiving seven cents for each member for every barrel of rough rice produced. In return for the payment of the Association dues, amounting approximately to seven dollars a year, the rice grower receives many valuable services. An important function of the organization is the maintenance of laboratories for the grading of rough rice according to the United States Grain Standards Act. These laboratories, established and supervised by the Rice Investigation Office of the United States Department of Agriculture, located at New Orleans, are provided for by a joint agreement between the state and federal departments of agriculture. The grading equipment consists of sampling devices, moisture testers, shelling devices, scales, laboratory scourer for removing bran from hulled rice, and various other machinery. The tests that are applied to each lot of rough rice graded include a determination of moisture content, odor, temperature, general appearance, milling quality, foreign material, and heat damage. After the analyses are made and the grade is determined, the licensed grader issues an official Federal-State certificate of grade. In this way the grower who owns the rice and the manager who sells the grower’s rice know definitely the grade of rice offered for sale. Another service that the rice grower receives is a weekly report showing the prices that rough rice of each grade and milling quality has been sold for at the most recent sales in each of the other districts. Thus, the rice grower, possessing a grade certificate and knowing the actual sale prices, can determine intelligently the market price of his grain. The Rice Growers’ Cooperative Association, therefore, is providing the machinery whereby the marketing requirements of the farmer many be carried out in the most effective manner. (21)

        Although rice growers and millers may sometimes differ among themselves, both groups agree that their common welfare depends upon public approval of the rice products placed upon the market. Therefore, both rice organizations cooperate with each other and with the different governmental agencies in trying to discover new uses for rice and rice by-products and in attempting to discover better publicity schemes.

Scientific Research.
 
        For several years the Rice Millers’ Association has maintained a Rice Research Fellowship at Louisiana State University. One of the problems undertaken by the Rice Research has been to provide a means of cooking rice for canning. After many scientific tests, a satisfactory method has been perfected, and a patent has been granted for the process. At present, efforts are under way to exploit the canned rice process for the general benefit of the rice industry. (22) At the spring meeting of the American Chemists’ Society in 1940, the scientists reported the discovery of a heretofore unknown vitamin essential for the maintenance of vitality. This new vitamin, called Vitamin B1, may be obtained from rice polishings. (23) Taking advantage of this new discovery, and tying in with the current interest in vitamin-enriched foods, the Southern Rice Sales Company, in Albany, New York, increased its advertising for River Brand Puffed Brown Rice by calling attention to the product’s B1 content. (24)

        As demand grows for rice by-products, each barrel of rough rice, even if there is no great demand for clean rice, becomes more valuable. (25) In connection with the milling processes of rice, the various kinds of by-products were named. The value of the by-products will now be considered.

        As early as 1900, Dr. Knapp was calling attention to the importance of rice by-products.

The by-products of rice are fully as valuable as those of wheat. The rice straw is superior as a stock food. Thousands of tons of straw have been sold this year in Louisiana for $4 to $6 per ton to stockmen. Rice bran and rice polish rank for feed with wheat bran and wheat middlings. (26)

Like other grains and feedstuffs, rice and rice by-products fluctuate in price. Being seasonal products, prices are lower during high production periods and higher during low productive periods. It is difficult, therefore, to give exact prices. The following evaluation was given in the Rice Directory and Manual, published in 1935:

Rice farmers are asking only $6.00 a ton for rice straw. Rice bran ordinarily moves within a price range from $15.00 to $22.00 per ton. Rice polish from $20.00 to $30.00 per ton. Brewer’s Rice is usually quoted by the pound, and stays within a price range of from 1 ½ to 2 cents. These quotations are based on car lot quantities and F. O. B. the mill. (27)

Publicity Schemes.

        The rice industry was given considerable publicity in 1902 when the Southern Pacific Sunset Route, assisted by the rice associations, published a Rice Cook Book, containing two hundred recipes for preparing rice foods and a general discussion on rice culture. In 1909 the railroads in general agreed to observe Rice Day on September 30. On that day the railroads promised to serve rice in attractive ways in all dining and eating stations. (28)

        In 1908, the Rice Industry, published in Houston, included an article in its June issue praising a newspaper which was helping to popularize rice.

The Lake Charles Daily American issued a very handsome magazine supplement about May 20, in connection with their regular issue. This supplement contains forty-six pages, about equally divided between illustrations and descriptive articles, exploiting the city of Lake Charles and its environs... Naturally a great deal of space is devoted in this paper to the rice industry in the Gulf States, and the three rice mills in Lake Charles. Statistics on the growth of rice farming in that vicinity are given, with handsome illustrations of rice fields. (29)

        Possibly the most influential experiment, tried by the rice associations in their attempts to awaken public interesting their industry, has been the displaying of exhibits at fairs and on special trains. In 1897 the Lake Charles Commercial Club, a civic organization, was instrumental in getting the farmers of Calcasieu to send a rice exhibit to the St. Louis Exposition. The following letter which the Club received from J. Y. Leming, who had charge of the rice booth, tells how the exhibit was received in St. Louis:

The exhibit is well arranged and freely admitted to be the most attractive. I have a diagram of an irrigated rice farm, showing levees, main canals and laterals. I have also an irrigation pump in position - all this helps explain rice in Southwest Louisiana.

I need, however, more rice heads for souvenirs. They are more sought after than all the other things in the building. Please hurry another shipment of clean and of rough rice. (30)

        After participation in the St. Louis Exposition, some of the progressive leaders of Lake Charles asked the public these questions: “What is the reason that Calcasieu Parish does not have a Fair Association? While encouraging interest in better trade relations with St. Louis, would it not be a good idea to cultivate more intimate relations with ourselves?” (31) The local people welcomed so wholeheartedly the idea of a parish fair that, on September 6, 1897, Adolph Meyer, owner of the Wall Rice Mill, was selected as chairman of the Calcasieu Fair Committee; that October the first parish fair was held. (32)

        In 1901 the American Rice Association sponsored a rice kitchen at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. For this particular advertising scheme the rice planters raised over $8000 to be used for the engaging of a separate building at the Exposition, a manager, and a corps of Creole cooks. In connection with the rice kitchen, lectures were given on the nutritious and economical values of rice. Also special agents demonstrated how rice should be properly cooked. (See the rice recipe below). Evidently the rice kitchen was a success, judging by the fact that the receipts aggregated more than $20,000, and, that after paying all expenses, the Association still had $3000. (33)

        It is not necessary, however, for Louisianans to have a demonstration rice kitchen in order to express pride in one of their favorite foods. Once a month, in Washington D. C., the Jambalaya Club, made up of those people who admire the rice dish, meets for dinner in the Speaker’s Dining Room. Among the leading members are: Representatives Jared Y. Sanders, Jr., of Baton Rouge; F. Edward Hebert, of New Orleans; and Vance Plauché, of Lake Charles. Mr. Plauché believes definitely in the southern slogan for cooking rice: “Each grain must be separate.” (34)

COOKED RICE SHOULD BE SNOWY-WHITE, DISTINCT GRAINS, FULL-FLAVORED AND DELICIOUS
Rice Cookery
Boiled Rice

1 cup rice
2 qts. boiling water
3 tsps. salt

Wash the rice thoroughly in several waters until all the loose starch is removed. Drain. Having the boiling water ready in a deep sauce pan, add the salt, slowly drop in the rice, and allow to boil for 12-25 minutes, or until a grain when pressed between the thumb and finger is entirely soft. In order to prevent the rice from sticking to the pan, lift, if necessary, from time to time with a fork, but DO NOT STIR it, DO NOT OVERCOOK.

When sufficiently cooked, turn the rice into a colander or sieve. A little hot water may be run through the rice to wash off extra starch. After the water has drained off, cover with a cloth and set over a pan of hot water on the back of the stove or in the oven; or turn the rice into a shallow pan, and place in the warm oven for a short time. Treated in this way, the grains swell and are kept separate.

Rice cooked in hard water is not as white as that cooked in soft water. One teaspoon of lemon juice, one-half teaspoon of cream of tartar, or one tablespoon of vinegar may be used in hard water to insure a snowy-white cooked rice.

        On July 12, 1941, the American Rice Growers' Cooperative Association reserved a space for a rice exhibit on the Greater Louisiana Special Train, which went on a good-will tour through Texas to Mexico City. The vice-president of the Association, Thomas S. Plunket, had 6000 cellophane bags of rice included in the train's exhibit for general distribution on the tour. (35)

        On May 21, 1941, when Texas, the third and last one of the three southern rice states, adopted the “Rice Advertising Bill,” sponsored by the American Rice Growers’ Cooperative Association, another advertising plan became effective. As all three states - Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas - passed similar laws, a few excerpts from the Texas bill will give a clearer understanding of this new program for the southern rice industry.

An act to promote, encourage, increase, and stimulate the use and sale of Texas rice; …

Section 1. That economic waste and loss of property and natural resources of the State of Texas are being suffered in the rice industry of the State of Texas by lack of proper research for additional uses of rice and the by-products of rice and by the lack of proper dissemination of information and proper advertising necessary for the prevention of waste, finding new uses and the development and promotion of the sale of rice grown in the State of Texas;...

Section 3. That there is hereby created a Rice Development Commission for the State of Texas, which shall be composed of five persons, not less than three of whom shall be rice growers and two of whom may be rice millers, to be appointed for two year terms as hereinafter provided, with the advice and consent of the Senate …

Section 5. That there is hereby levied a processing tax of two cents per hundred pounds on all milled rice which is milled or processed in the State of Texas …

Section 7. That the Texas Rice Development Commission hereby created shall have authority to check and examine the books and records of all rice millers at all reasonable times during business hours and take copies of the same, in order that it may collect the full amount of the tax hereunder, and shall have power to file any suit or suits or take any other actions necessary to force collection or payment of the same …

Section 8. That the Texas Development Commission hereby created shall have full authority to spend said funds so collected in the administration of this Act, in the promotion of sales and advertising of Texas rice and rice by-products, and for research in the development of new uses for rice and rice by-products… (36)

        The southern states are not the only ones officially recognizing the importance of the rice industry. Today the American rice crop, produced in the four states of Arkansas, California, Louisiana, and Texas, is considered in the Administration’s farm policy as composing one of the major crops. In 1938 Congress designated as worthy of special treatment the crops of cotton, wheat, corn, tobacco, and rice. It is interesting to note, although somewhat surprising, that Congress omitted any reference to rye, barley, and oats. (37) It is possibly even more amazing to learn that Dr. Knapp, in 1900, prophesied this major position for rice.

To affirm that rice in the South can occupy the vantage ground of wheat in the North, both in extent and in economy of product is equivalent to a declaration of Agricultural independence. It means that we shall feed our own people with a home-grown cereal, and that with the by-products we shall produce the pork, the beef, the butter and milk required for home consumption. (38)

        In contemplating the history of the ice industry over a period of forty years, it seems almost an impossibility that a crop could make such rapid progress, changing its position from that of local recognition to that of national. The rice associations can feel justly proud of the assurance given the rice industry in the farm bill of 1938: “The marketing of rice constitutes one of the great basic industries of the United States, with ramifying activities which directly affect interstate or foreign commerce at every point, and stable conditions are necessary to the general welfare.” (39)

        Rice has long been recognized in all nations and among all peoples as the especial symbol of good luck. From the lowly Oriental who sends his deceased relatives to the great beyond equipped with a goodly supply of cereal, to the guests at a fashionable Occidental wedding who shower rice upon the newly married couple, all share in the belief that rice is the sign of good fortune. To the energetic people of Calcasieu Parish, possessing both the natural factors necessary to the successful cultivation of rice - suitable soil, topography, precipitation, and temperature - and the sources in Lake Charles essential for the milling and marketing of the crop, rice is truly a concrete symbol of good fortune.

APPENDIX A

MAPS (not included in this text, not good enough quality to reproduce)

Calcasieu Parish
Lake Charles

APPENDIX B

DESCRIPTIVE TERMS FOR RICE

Classification Terms:
Rough rice - Rice with the hulls on it.
Brown rice - Rice from which the hulls only have been removed.
Milled rice - Rice which has had the hulls, germs, and bran layers removed.
Rice hulls - The outer covering for the rice kernel.
Rice bran - The outer bran layers and germs.
Rice polish - The inner bran layer and part of the starchy interior.
Uncoated rice - Rice which has not had any foreign substance applied to it as a coating.
Coated rice - Rice which has been coated with glucose and talc.

Measurement Terms:
Bag - 210 pounds
Barrel - 162 pounds
Bushel - 45 pounds
 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

PRIMARY SOURCES

1. Governmental Publications: Federal. Washington (United States Government Printing Office).
       
        a. Department of Agriculture.
            Agricultural Outlook Charts: 1940 (Rice, Dry Beans, and Broom Corn), 1939.
            Agricultural Statistics: 1938.
            By-Products of Rice Milling (Bulletin No. 570), 1917.
            Climatic Summary of the United States: Southern Louisiana (Weather Bureau), 1930.
            Effect of Date of Harvest on Yield and Milling Quality of Rice (Circular No. 484), 1938.
            Experiments in Rice Production in Southwestern Louisiana (Bulletin No. 1356), 1925.
            Factors Affecting the Price of Rice (Technical Bulletin No. 297), 1932.
            Handling Rough Rice to Produce High Grades (Farmers’ Bulletin No. 1420), 1924.
            Importance and Character of the Milled Rice Imported into the United States (Bulletin No. 323), 1915.
            Improvement in Rice (Yearbook Separate No. 1573), 1937.
            Irrigation Practice in Rice Growing (Farmers’ Bulletin No. 673), 1915.
            Oats, Barley, Rye, Rice, Grain, Sorghums, Seed, Flax, and Buckwheat (Yearbook, 1922), 1923.
            Prairie Rice Culture (Farmers’ Bulletin No. 1092), 1920.
            Rice and Its By-Products For Feeding Livestock (Miscellaneous Publication No. 132), 1931.
            Rice Culture (Farmers’ Bulletin No. 417), 1911.
            Rice Culture in the Southern States (Farmers’ Bulletin No. 1808), 1938.
            Statistics of Grains (Separate from Agricultural Statistics, 1939), 1939.
            When to Cut Rice (Leaflet No. 148), 1937.

        b. Department of Commerce.
            Census of the Manufactures: 1905 (Bulletin 61), 1906.
            Thirteenth Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1910, Statistics for Louisiana, 1914.
            Fifteenth Census of the United States: 1930, Population Bulletin, First Series, Louisiana, Number and Distribution of Inhabitants, 1930.
            Fifteenth Census of the United States: 1930, Population Bulletin, Second Series, Louisiana, 1931.
            Fifteenth Census of the United States: 1930, Agriculture, Louisiana, Statistics by Parishes, First Series, 1931.
            Fifteenth Census of the United States: 1930, Agriculture, Louisiana, Statistics by Counties, Second Series, 1932.
            Sixteenth Census of the United States: Agriculture, Louisiana, First Series, 1941.
            Monthly Meteorological Summary, Lake Charles, Louisiana, June, 1940 to May, 1941.

        c. Department of Interior.
            Underground Waters of Southern Louisiana (U. S. Geological Survey), 1904.

        d. House Documents.
            Lake Charles Deep Water Channel, Louisiana (Document No. 172), 72nd Congress, 1st Session, 1932.

2. Governmental Publications: State.
 
        a. Legislative Documents.
            Constitution of Louisiana, 1898. Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
            Louisiana Acts, 1812; 1840; 1848; 1850; 1867; 1870; 1871; 1886; 1912; 1924; 1932; 1934. Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
            Orleans Territorial Acts, 1804; 1807; 1808; 1811. Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
 
        b. Louisiana State Department and Louisiana State University Bulletins.
            Biennial Report of the Rice Experiment Station, Crowley, Louisiana, 1930 to 1931. Baton Rouge (Louisiana State University and Agricultural and
                Mechanical College), n.d.
            Biennial Report of the Rice Experiment Station, Crowley, Louisiana, 1937 to 1938. Baton Rouge (Louisiana State University and Agricultural and
                Mechanical College), n.d.
            Educational Reports, I. State Department of Education, Baton Rouge (Report of the State Superintendent of Education to the General Assembly
                of Louisiana, January, 1855).
            General Bulletin Handbook (Minerals Division). State Department of Conservation, Baton Rouge (Ramires-Jones Printing Co.), 1932.
            Handbook of Louisiana, Giving General and Agricultural Features. Baton Rouge (State Board of Agriculture and Immigration), 1910.
            Louisiana Commerce and Industry. Baton Rouge (Department Commerce and Industry), May, 1940.
            Louisiana’s Resources and Purchasing Power. Baton Rouge (State Department of Commerce and Industry), 1938.
            Preliminary Report Upon the Florida Parishes of East Louisiana, and the Bluff, Prairie and Hill Lands of Southwest Louisiana. Baton Rouge
                (State Experiment Station), 1896.
            Report of the Rice Experiment Station for the Years, 1928 to 1929. (Louisiana Bulletin No. 205). Baton Rouge (Louisiana State University and
                Agriculture and Mechanical College), 1930.
            Rice. Compiled by J. Mitchell Jenkins. Baton Rouge (State Department of Agriculture and Immigration), 1941.
            Rice Farm Irrigation Systems in Louisiana, 1929.(Louisiana Bulletin No. 216). Baton Rouge (State Experiment Station), 1930.
            Rice Investigations. (Louisiana Bulletin No. 172). Baton Rouge (Gladney’s Print Shop), 1920.
            Rice and Rice Products for Fattening Cattle, II. (Animal Industry Circular No. 38). Baton Rouge (State Experiment Station), n.d.
            Rice Products and Molasses for Fattening Steers in Dry Lot, II (Animal Industry Circular No. 39). Baton Rouge (State Experiment Station), 1940.
            Supplementary and Final Report of a Geological Reconnaissance of the State of Louisiana. New Orleans (Picayune Steam Job Print), 1873.
            Tractors and Trucks on Louisiana Rice Farms: 1929. (Louisiana Bulletin No. 218). Baton Rouge (State Experiment Station), 1930.
            Works Progress Administration, Inventory of the Parish Archives of Louisiana, No. 10. (Calcasieu Parish, Lake Charles). University,
                Louisiana (Department of the Archives of Louisiana State University), March, 1938.

3. Interviews.

        Chalkley, Henry, Jr., Manager of the Sweet Lake Land and Oil Company, Lake Charles, La., May 3, 1941; May 5, 1941.
        Foster, S. Alton, Manager of the Louisiana State Rice Milling Co. at Abbeville, La., June 3, 1941.
        Guillory, Patrick, owner of Rice Warehouse, Eunice, La., March 15, 1941.
        Hereford, Lee, publisher of the Rice News, Lake Charles, La., April 28, 1941.
        Knapp, S. Arthur, banker and son of Dr. Seaman A. Knapp, Lake Charles, La., May 7, 1941.
        Leake, Robert, assistant-manager of the American Rice Growers’ Cooperative Association, Lake Charles, La., June 2, 1941.
        Moore, C. A., manager of the Farmers’ Land and Canal Co., Lake Charles, La., May 24, 1941.
        Porter, W. K., resident manager of the Lake Charles Products Corporation, May 24, 1941.

4. Letters.

        Foss, G. A., Manager of the Kelly Weber and Co., Inc., Lake Charles, La., to Alice Levee, June 26, 1941.
        Himel, Carl, manager of the Farmers’ Rice Milling Co., Lake Charles, La.., to Alice Levee, July 11, 1941.
        Jones, Jenkin W., Senior Agronomist in Charge of Rice Production and Improvement at Crowley, La., to Alice Levee, March 9, 1940.
        Ledet, J. H., manager of the International Harvester Co. at New Orleans, La., to Alice Levee, May 19, 1941.
        Malloy, J. A., assistant-manager of the Louisiana State Rice Milling Co., Lake Charles, La., to Alice Levee, July 15, 1941.
        Powell, John M., manager of the Swift Packing Co., Lake Charles, La., to Alice Levee, June 25, 1941.

5. Manuscripts. 

        Brinkley, Homer L., “History of the Cooperative Marketing of Rice in the United States.” Lake Charles, La. (American Rice Growers'
            Cooperative Association).
        Chalkley, Henry G., Jr., “Agriculture in Southwest Louisiana.” (Address at Directors’ Board Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia), November 10, 1939.
        Maurer, I. V., “Lake Charles As An Industrial Location.” (Address at Fort Celebration), November 30, 1938.
        Reid, W. M., “The American Rice Industry.” (Report at the Southern Chemurgic Association, Lafayette, La.), October 17, 1936. New Orleans
            (The Rice Millers' Association).

6. Miscellaneous.

        Agriculture. Lake Charles (Association of Commerce), 1938.
        “Calcasieu Parish and the City of Lake Charles,” reprinted sheet from Louisiana Police Jury Review, April, 1939.
        Commerce and Industry. Lake Charles (Association of Commerce), 1938.
        Estimate of the Rice Crop for the Year, 1939. New Orleans (Rice Millers’ Association).
        Foodstuffs Round the World, III, No. 43, October 27, 1939. (Weekly Publication containing foreign food trade new by the U. S. Department
            of Commerce).
        Funderburg, J. H., Financial and Other Facts Relative to the City Government of Lake Charles, Louisiana: 1940. (Compiled by J. H. Funderburg,
            City Commissioner).
        Laney, Rex, (ed.), Do You Know Louisiana? Baton Rouge (State Department of Commerce and Industry), 1939.
        Louisiana the Finest, 1937 to 1938. Baton Rouge (Department of Agriculture and Immigration), n. d.
        Lure of the Southwest. Dallas (Magnolia Petroleum Company), 1934.
        Mayo, A. M., Records of Calcasieu Parish, in possession of the Mayo Title Guaranty Company, Lake Charles, La.
        McLean, Beth Bailey, (ed.), The Story of Rice. New Orleans (Southern Rice Industry), 1934.
        Martinez, Raymond J., (ed.), The Rice Directory and Manual: 1935. New Orleans (The Rice, Sugar and Coffee Journal), n.d. (or) [1935].
        “Minutes of the Policy Jury,” A, 14ff, 1840. Lake Charles, Louisiana (Calcasieu Parish Archives).
        “Police Jury Proceedings,” Book F. Lake Charles, La. (Calcasieu Parish Archives).
        Popular Port Edition: 1935. Lake Charles, La. (Association of Commerce), 1935.
        Record of School Board Proceedings for Calcasieu Parish, 1888-1892. Lake Charles, La. (Calcasieu Parish Archives).
        Rice By-Products, Vitaminized Stock Feeds. New Orleans (Southern Rice Milling Industry), n.d.
        Rice Cook Book. Houston (Compiled by the Passenger Dept. of the Southern Pacific Sunset Route), 1902.
        “Rice Culture in Calcasieu,” (Mimeographed paper taken from the Lake Charles Daily American, dated 1902.
        Rice, 200 Delightful Ways to Serve It. New Orleans (Southern Rice Industry), 1937.
        Rough Rice for Fattening Cattle, Sheep, and Hogs (Bulletin 386). Columbia, Missouri (University of Missouri Agricultural Experiment Station), July, 1937.
        Smith, Frank W., First Directory of the City of Lake Charles, 1895 to 1896. Lake Charles (Compiled by Frank W. Smith), n.d.
        Squires, Emma H., Scrap Book, (kept on file at the Lake Charles City Hall).
        Texas and Louisiana Rice. New Orleans and Houston (Passenger Dept. of  The Sunset Route), n.d. (or) [1910].
        “Texas Rice Advertising Bill,” adopted on May 21, 1941. Austin, Texas (State Capitol).
        Weekly Rice Market Review. Lake Charles (American Rice Growers’ Cooperative Association), May 8, 1941; May 22, 1941.

7. Newspapers.

        Crowley Daily Signal (Crowley, Louisiana), November 2, 1939.
        Beaumont Enterprise (Beaumont, Texas), June 1, 1941.
        Lake Charles American Press, 1916; 1932; 1939; 1940; 1941.
        Lake Charles Commercial, 1886.
        Lake Charles Daily American, 1895; 1897; 1899; 1900; 1901; 1905.
        Lake Charles Daily Press, 1895; 1904.
        Lake Charles Echo, 1884; 1885; 1886; 1890.
        Lake Charles Weekly Press, 1905; 1906.
        Morning Advocate, (Baton Rouge, Louisiana), January 22, 1939.

SECONDARY SOURCES

1. Books.

        Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Louisiana: Embracing an Authentic and Comprehensive Account of Chief Events in the History
            of the State and Parishes. Two Volumes. Chicago (Goodspeed Publishing Co.), 1892.
        Brasher, Mabel, Louisiana: A Study of the State. Dallas (Johnson Publishing Co.), 1929.
        Chambers, Henry E., A History of Louisiana. Three Volumes. Chicago and New York (The American and Historical Society), 1925.
        Copeland, Edwin Bingham, Rice. London (Macmillan and Co., Limited), 1924.
        Fortier, Alcée, A History of Louisiana. Four Volumes. New York (Goupil and Co. of Paris, Manzi Joyant & Co., Successors), 1904.
        Fortier, Alcée, Louisiana: Comprising Sketches of Parishes, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form.
            Madison, Wisconsin (Century Historical Association), 1914.
        Perrin, William Henry, (ed.), Southwest Louisiana: Biographical and Historical. New Orleans (The Gulf Publishing Company), 1891.
        Martin, Francois-Xavier, The History of Louisiana. New Orleans (James A. Gresham), 1882.
        Read, William A., Louisiana-French. Baton Rouge (Louisiana State University Press), 1931.
        Thorpe, Francis Newton, The Federal and State Constitutions, Colonial Charters, and Other Organic Laws of the States, Territories
            and Colonies Now or Heretofore Forming the United States of America. Four Volumes. Washington (Government Printing Office), 1909.
        Williamson, Frederick W., Yesterday and Today in Louisiana Agriculture. Baton Rouge (Louisiana State University and Agricultural and
            Mechanical College), 1940.

2. Periodicals.

        “Advertising Puffed Brown Rice,” in the Rice News, May, 1941. Lake Charles, La. (American Press Company, Inc.)
        Aiton, Arthur S., “The Diplomacy of the Louisiana Cession by France to Spain,” in the American Historical Review, XXXVI, July, 1931.
            New York (Macmillan Co.)
        Albrecht, Arthur E., “Development of the American Rice Industry,” in the Journal of Geography, XXI, November, 1922. Chicago (A. J. Nystrom).
        “American Rice Growers’ Cooperative Association to Advertise Rice in Mexico City,” Rice News, May, 1941.
        DeBow, J. D. B., “Calcasieu Parish,” in the Review and Industrial Resources, Statistics, Etc., XXVI. New Orleans (J. D. B. DeBow, Publisher), 1859.
        “Exploits Rice Industry,” in the Rice Industry, X, June, 1908. Houston, Texas.
        Fortier, Alcée, “Centennial Celebration of the Louisiana Transfer, December, 1903,” in the Louisiana Historical Society, III. New Orleans
            (Louisiana Historical Society), 1904.
        George, Lawrence J., “Reports from the Crowley Rice Experiment Station,” in the Rice News, May, 1941.
        Reid, W. M., “Annual Report of the Vice-President at the Rice Millers’ Association, May 16, 1940,” in the Rice News, May, 1940.
        “Southwest Louisiana Has a New Industry  - Cattle Raising That Fits In Well With Rice Crops,” in the Rice News, January, 1940.
        Smith, Beverly, “Capitol Fare,” in the American Magazine, August, 1941. Springfield, Ohio (Crowell – Collier Publishing Co.).
        Surface, G. T., “Rice in the United States,” in the American Geographical Society, XLIII, 1911. New York (American Geographical Society).
        “What Price Rice?” editorial, in the Saturday Evening Post, January 8, 1938. Philadelphia (Curtis Publishing Company).
        Whitaker, Arthur P., “The Retrocession of Louisiana in the Spanish Policy,” in the American Historical Review, XXXIX, April, 1934,
            New York (Macmillan Co.).

3. Theses.

        Bayne, Irman D., “History of Education in Calcasieu Parish.” Master’s Thesis. Louisiana State University. Baton Rouge (University Press), 1933.
        Ginn, Mildred K., “A History of Rice Production in Louisiana to 1896,” in the Louisiana Historical Society, XXIII, April, 1940.
        Steinhagen, Edward Harvey, “The Milling and Exportation of Rice in the United States.” Master’s Thesis. The University of Texas, Austin, Texas, 1925.
        Ulmer, Grace, “Economic and Social Development of Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana.” Master’s Thesis. Louisiana State University. 1935.

FOOTNOTES

CHAPTER I
THE HISTORY OF LAKE CHARLES, LOUISIANA

1. Henry E. Chambers, A History of Louisiana, I, xi.
2. Magnolia Petroleum Company, The Lure of the Southwest, 27.
3. Alcée Fortier, A History of Louisiana, I, 32-51.
4. Arthur S. Aiton, “The Diplomacy of the Louisiana Cession by France to Spain” in the American Historical Review, XXXVI, 701-20.
5. Arthur P. Whitaker, “The Retrocession of Louisiana in the Spanish Policy” in the American Historical Review, XXXIX, 454-76.
6. Alcée Fortier, “Centennial Celebration of the Louisiana Transfer, December, 1903,” in the Louisiana Historical Society, III, 15-18.
7. Francois-Xavier Martin, The History of Louisiana, I, xvii.
8. Francois-Xavier Martin, The History of Louisiana, I, xxii.
9. Francois Newton Thorpe, The Federal and State Constitution, Colonial Charters, and Other Organic Laws of the States, Territories, and Colonies Now or Heretofore Forming the United States of America, III, 144-208.
10. Rex Laney, (ed.), Do You Know Louisiana? 76-77.
11. W. A. Read, Louisiana French, 18.
12. Mabel Brasher, Louisiana: A Study of the State, 25.
13. State of Louisiana, Department of Conservation, General Bulletin Handbook, (Minerals Division), 7-16.
14. Mabel Brasher, Louisiana: A Study of the State, 47.
15. Lake Charles Association of Commerce, Agriculture: 1938, 1.
16. Eugene Hilgard, Supplementary and Final Report of a Geological Reconnaissance of the State of Louisiana, 15-17.
17. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Weather Bureau, Climatic Summary of the United States: Southern Louisiana, 1-3.
18. U.S. Department of Interior, Geological Survey, Underground Waters of Southern Louisiana, 15-17.
19. Data from United States Weather Bureau in Mabel Brasher, Louisiana: A Study of the State, 387 and 392.
20. U. S. Department of Commerce, Weather Bureau, Monthly Meteorological Summary, Lake Charles, Louisiana.
21. J. D. B. DeBow, Review and Industrial Resources, Statistics, etc., XXVI, 602-603.
22. Louisiana Acts, 1840, 72.
23. Ibid., 1870, 168; Ibid., 1912, 8, 10, 13.
24. Alcée  Fortier, Louisiana Comprising Sketches of Parishes, Towns, Event, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form, I, 147.
25. Orleans Territorial Acts, 1807, 2; Ibid., 1808, 42; Ibid., 1811, 180.
26. Calcasieu Police Jury “Minutes,” v. A, 14ff.
27. Fortier, Louisiana, I, 147.
28. Louisiana Acts, 1867, 155.
29. Emma H. Squires, Scrap Book of Lake Charles.
30. Lake Charles Commercial, February 6, 1886, 1.
31. Lake Charles Echo, April 24, 1886, 1.
32. Fifteenth Census of the United States: 1930, Population Bulletin for Louisiana, 456.
33. U. S. Census Report in the Lake Charles American Press, May 26, 1941, 4.
34. Lake Charles American Press, April 1, 1940, 6. (The figures on building permits are official ones, derived from the city building inspector’s records.)
35. Beaumont Enterprise, June 1, 1941, 10.
36. Lake Charles American Press, April 1, 1940, 7.
37. Lake Charles Association of Commerce, Commerce and Industry, 1938, 6.
38. Ibid., 5.
39. Louisiana Acts, 1848, 17.
40. Ibid., 1850, 110.
41. Ibid., 1886, 104.
42. Lake Charles Daily Press, September 11, 1895, 1.
43. Lake Charles American Press, November 9, 1916, 5.
44. House Documents, 72nd Congress, First Session, Document Number 172, 1-26.
45. I. V. Maurer, “Lake Charles as an Industrial Location,” (Address at the Port Celebration), November 30, 1938, 1-3.
46. Louisiana Acts, 1924, 93; Ibid., 1932, 577; Ibid., 1934, 475.
47. Lake Charles American Press, March 24, 1941, 9.
48. Lake Charles American Press, March 24, 1941, 9.
49. Beaumont Enterprise, June 1, 1941, 10.
50. State Department of Commerce and Industry, Louisiana Commerce and Industry, May, 1940, 3.
51. W. H. Perrin, Southwest Louisiana, 156-158.
52. Lake Charles Echo, January 3, 1885, 2.
53. Lake Charles Commercial, February 13, 1886, 1.
54. Department of Commerce and Industry, Louisiana’s Resources and Purchasing Power, 135.
55. Lake Charles Association of Commerce, Commerce and Industry: 1938, 3-4.
56. See Fortier, Louisiana, I, 147; Goodspeed (pub.), Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Louisiana, I, 223; Perrin, Southwest Louisiana, 121.
57. Lake Charles Association of Commerce, Agriculture: 1938, 4.
58. Lake Charles Echo, January 10, 1885, 2.
59. Lake Charles Daily American, April 19, 1899, 3.
60. “Southwest Louisiana Has a New Industry - Cattle Raising” in the Rice News, January, 1940, 17-18.
61. Arthur L. Gayle, “Cattle Growing in the Lake Charles Area” in Louisiana’s Commerce and Industry, May, 1940, 6.
62. Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station, Animal Industry Circular No. 38, “Rice and Rice By-Products for Fattening Cattle," II, 1-5.
63. State Department of Commerce and Industry, Louisiana Commerce and Industry, May 1940, 3.
64. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Farmers’ Bulletin Number 1808, 2; Agricultural Statistics, 1938, Statistics of Grains, 86.
65. A. M. Mayo, Valuable records of Lake Charles in the possession of the Mayo Title Guaranty Company organized in 1887.
66. Department of Commerce and Industry, Louisiana Commerce and Industry, May, 1940, 3.
67. J. W. J. to A. L., March 9, 1940.
68. The Rice Millers’ Association, Estimate of the Rice Crop for the Year: 1939.
69. State Department of Education, Educational Reports, I, 65.
70. Louisiana Acts, 1871, 42.
71. I. D. Bayne, “The History of Education in Calcasieu Parish,” Master of Arts Thesis, Louisiana State University, 19.
72. Lake Charles Echo, January 17, 1885, 2.
73. Record of School Board Proceedings, Calcasieu Parish; 1888-1892, 85.
74. F. W. Williamson, Yesterday and Today in Louisiana Agriculture, 71-73.
75. Constitution of Louisiana, 1898, 60-61.
76. Police Jury Proceedings, Parish of Calcasieu, Book F, 179-180.
77. Lake Charles Daily American, July 3, 1899, 1.
78. F. W. Williamson, Yesterday and Today in Louisiana Agriculture, 74.
79. Police Jury Proceedings, Parish of Calcasieu, Book F, 198.
80. Lake Charles American Press, April 1, 1940, 7.
81. W. H. Perrin, Southwest Louisiana, 158-159.
82. Lake Charles Daily Press, September 11, 1895, 1.
83. Lake Charles American Press, April1, 1940, 7.
84. W. H. Perrin, Southwest Louisiana, 159.
85. Lake Charles American Press, July 12, 1939, 6.

CHAPTER II
THE HISTORY AND CULTIVATION OF RICE

1. U. S. Bureau of the Census, Bulletin 61, Census of the Manufactures: 1905, 55.
2. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Yearbook of 1922, 512-514.
3. Edwin Bingham Copeland, Rice, 292.
4. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Farmers’ Bulletin Number 1808, Rice Culture in the Southern States, 1.
5. U. S. Bureau of Census, Census of the Manufactures: 1905, 55.
6. Raymond J. Martinez, (ed.), The Rice Directory and Manual: 1935, 1.
7. Edwin Bingham Copeland, Rice, 207-218.
8. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Yearbook Separate Number 1573, 418-419.
9. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Farmers’ Bulletin Number 1808, 21.
10. Goodspeed, (publisher), Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Louisiana, II, 210-211.
11. J. D. B. DeBow, “Agricultural Report on Louisiana” in F. W. Williamson, Yesterday and Today in Louisiana’s Agriculture, 29- 33.
12. Edwin Bingham Copeland, Rice, 208.
13. U. S, Department of Agriculture, Farmers’ Bulletin Number 1808, 2.
14. Louisiana State Department of Agriculture and Immigration, Rice, compiled by J. Mitchell Jenkins, 5.
15. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Farmers’ Bulletin Number 1808, 3.
16. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Department Bulletin Number 1356, “Experiments in Rice Production in Southwestern Louisiana,” 3.
17. U. S. Department of the Interior, U. S. Geological Survey, Underground Waters of Southern Louisiana, 93.
18. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Farmers’ Bulletin 1092, “Prairie Rice Culture,” 5.
19. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Department Bulletin Number 1356,  4.
20. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Department Bulletin Number 1356,  4.
21. U. S. Department of Commerce, Weather Bureau, Monthly Meteorological Summary, Lake Charles, Louisiana, June, 1940, Through May, 1941.
22. Louisiana State Department of Agriculture and Immigration, Rice, compiled by . Mitchell Jenkins, 6-7.
23. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Department Bulletin Number 1356, 31.
24. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Department Bulletin Number 1356, 31.
25. Department of the Interior, U. S. Geological Survey, Underground Waters of Southern Louisiana, 82.
26. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Department Bulletin Number 1356, 1.
27. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Department Bulletin Number 1356, 15.
28. Louisiana State Board of Agriculture and Immigration, Handbook of Louisiana, Giving General and Agricultural Features, 181.
29. Goodspeed, (pub.), Biographical and Historical Memoirs, II, 211.
30. Lake Charles American Press, November 9, 1916, 4.
31. J. H. L. to A. L., May 19, 1941.
32. Louisiana State University Agricultural and Mechanical College, Tractors and Trucks on Louisiana Rice Farms, 3-13.
33. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Farmers’ Bulletin Number 673, “Irrigation Practice in Rice Growing,” 1.
34. Department of Interior, U. S. Geological Survey, Underground Waters of Southern Louisiana, 82.
35. Lake Charles Weekly Press, December 22, 1905, 5.
36. U. S. Geological Survey, Underground Waters of Southern Louisiana, 83.
37. Lake Charles Daily American, August 19, 1897, 4.
38. Lake Charles Daily American, March 2, 1899, 4.
39. Lake Charles Daily American, March 16, 1899, 4.
40. Lake Charles Daily American, March 16, 1899, 3.
41. L. G. Powers, “Chief Statistician’s Report to the United States Census Bureau” in the Lake Charles Daily Press, February 2, 1904, 2.
42. Lake Charles American Press, November 9, 1916, 4.
43. Interview, C. A. Moore, manager of Farmers’ Land and Canal Company, May, 24, 1941.
44. House Documents, 72nd Congress, First Session, Document Number 172, 25.
45. Interview, H. G. Chalkley, Jr., manager of the Sweet Lake Land and Canal Company, May 5, 1941.
46. J. W. J. to A. L., March 9, 1940.
47. Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, Louisiana Bulletin No. 172, 85.
48. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Farmers’ Bulletin Number 417, 21.
49. American Rice Growers’ Cooperative Association, Weekly Rice Market Review, May 22, 1941.
50. J. D. B. DeBow, “Why the Farmer Should Give Heed to the Man of Science,” in F. W. Williamson, Yesterday and Today in Louisiana Agriculture, 34.
51. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Yearbook Separate Number 1573, 426.
52. Ibid.,  429.
53. Interview, S. Arthur Knapp (Son of Dr. Seaman A. Knapp), May 7, 1941.
54. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Yearbook Separate Number 1573,  429-430.
55. Louisiana State Department of Agriculture and Immigration, Rice, compiled by J. Mitchell Jenkins, 8.
56. G. A. F. to A. L., June 26, 1941.
57. Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, Louisiana Bulletin No. 172, 37.
58.  “Southwest Louisiana Has a New Industry  - Cattle Raising,” in the Rice News, January, 1940, 18.
59. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Farmers’ Bulletin Number 1808, 8.
60.  Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, Biennial Report of the Rice Experiment Station, Crowley, Louisiana,
        1930 to 1931, 13.
61. Arthur L. Gayle, “Cattle Growing in the Lake Charles Area” in Louisiana Commerce and Industry, May, 1940, 6.
62. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Leaflet Number 148, "When to Cut Rice," 1.
63. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Farmers’ Bulletin Number 1420, "Handling Rough Rice to Produce High Grades," 4.
64. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bulletin Number 1356, 11.
65. Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, Louisiana Bulletin No. 172, 65-67.
66. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Farmers’ Bulletin Number 1092, 13.
67. Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, Louisiana Bulletin No. 205, "Report of the Rice Experiment Station for the
        Years 1928-1929," 10.
68. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Farmers’ Bulletin Number 1092, 14-15.
69. Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, Louisiana Bulletin No. 172, 74-75.
70. Interview, C. A. Moore, manager of Farmers’ Land and Canal Company, May, 24, 1941.
71. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Leaflet Number 148, 1.
72. Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, Louisiana Bulletin No. 172, 76-82.
73. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Farmers’ Bulletin Number 417, 19.
74. H. G. Chalkley, Jr., "Agriculture in Southwest Louisiana," (Address at Board of Directors' Meeting, November 10, 1939), 5.

CHAPTER III
THE MILLING OF RICE AND RICE BY-PRODUCTS

1. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Miscellaneous Publication Number 132, 2.
2. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Farmers’ Bulletin 1092,  25.
3. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Miscellaneous Publication Number 132, 2.
4. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bulletin Number 570, 1.
5. E. H. Steinhagen, “The Milling and Exportation of Rice in the United States,” M. A. Thesis, University of Texas, 2.
6. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Farmers’ Bulletin 417, 21-22.
7. W. M. Reid, “The American Rice Industry,” (Report at the Southern Chemurgic Conference, Lafayette, Louisiana, October 17, 1936), 3.
8. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bulletin Number 570, 1.
9. Interview, S. Alton Foster, Manager of the Louisiana State Rice Milling Company, June 3, 1941.
10. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bulletin Number 570, 1.
11. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bulletin Number 570, 2.
12. Ibid., 2.
13. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Farmers’ Bulletin 417, 25.
14. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bulletin Number 570, 4.
15. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Farmers’ Bulletin 417, 25.
16. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bulletin Number 570, 4.
17. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Farmers’ Bulletin Number 1808, 27-28.
18. W. M. Reid, “The American Rice Industry,” (Report at the Southern Chemurgic Conference, October 17, 1936), 4.
19. Louisiana State Department of Agriculture and Immigration, Rice compiled by J. Mitchell Jenkins, 12.
20. Beth Bailey McLean, The Story of Rice, 15.
21. Ibid., 21.
22. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Miscellaneous Publication Number 132, 3.
23. Dr. W. O. Atwater, “Chemistry and Economy of Foods” in the Southern Pacific Sunset Route, Rice Cook Book, 7.
24. Raymond J. Martinez, (ed.), The Rice Directory and Manual: 1935, 64.
25. Louisiana State Department of Agriculture and Immigration, Rice compiled by J. Mitchell Jenkins,14.
26. W. M. Reid, “The American Rice Industry,” (Report at the Southern Chemurgic Conference, October 17, 1936), 5.
27. Louisiana State Department of Agriculture and Immigration, Rice compiled by J. Mitchell Jenkins, 12.
28. Raymond J. Martinez, (ed.), The Rice Directory and Manual: 1935, 62 and 64.
29. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Farmers’ Bulletin Number 1808, 28.
30. Raymond J. Martinez, (ed.), The Rice Directory and Manual: 1935, 63.
31. U. S, Department of Agriculture, Miscellaneous Publication Number 132, 3.
32. Ibid., 3.
33. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bulletin Number 570, 15.
34. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Farmers’ Bulletin 1808, 28.
35. Interview, W. K. Porter, Resident Manager, Lake Charles Products Corporation, May 24, 1941.
36. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Farmers’ Bulletin 1808, 28.
37. W. N. Reid, “The American Rice Industry,” (Report at the Southern Chemurgic Conference, October 17, 1936), 3.
38. R. J. Martinez, (ed.), The Rice Directory and Manual: 1936, 62.
39. Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, Animal Industry Circular Number 39.
40. Raymond J. Martinez, (ed.) The Rice Directory and Manual: 1935, 62.
41. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Farmers’ Bulletin 1808, 28.
42. W. M. Reid, “The American Rice Industry,” (Report at the Southern Chemurgic Conference, October 17, 1936), 4.
43. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Miscellaneous Publication 132, 5-8.
44. W. M. Reid, “The American Rice Industry,” (Report at the Southern Chemurgic Conference, October 17, 1936), 5.

CHAPTER IV
THE MARKETING OF RICE

1. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Yearbook of 1922, 658.
2. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Technical Bulletin 297, 4.
3. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Farmers’ Bulletin Number 1808, 1.
4. W. M. Reid, “Annual Report of the Vice President to the Rice Millers’ Association,” in the Rice News, May, 1940, 6.
5. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Yearbook of 1922, 516.
6. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bulletin Number 1356, 15.
7. Goodspeed, (pub.), Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Louisiana, II, 210.
8. Lake Charles Daily American, July 31, 1897, 2.
9. Dr. Seaman A. Knapp, “Rice Culture in the South,” in the Southern Pacific Sunset Route, Rice Cook Book, 15.
10. Lake Charles Daily American, June 29, 1897,  4.
11. Morning Advocate, (Baton Rouge), January 22, 1939, 13.
12. Lake Charles Daily American, March 16, 1899, 3.
13. W. M. Reid, “Annual Report of the Vice President at the Rice Millers’ Association,” in the Rice News, May, 1940, 6-7.
14. J. A. M. to A. L., July 15, 1941.
15. Lake Charles Daily American, February 14, 1901, 2.
16. Ibid.,  1.
17. Lake Charles Daily American, February 15, 1901, 1.
18. Lake Charles Daily American, February 15, 1901, 1.
19. Interview, S. A. Knapp, Lake Charles banker and son of Dr. Knapp, May 7, 1941.
20. Homer L. Brinkley, “History of the Cooperative Marketing of Rice in the United States,” 4. (Rice Growers’ Cooperative Association, Lake Charles, Louisiana).
21. Homer L. Brinkley, “History of the Cooperative Marketing of Rice in the United States,” 5-8.
22. W. M. Reid, “Report of the Vice President at the Rice Millers’ Association” in Rice News, May, 1940, 7.
23. Ibid., 8.
24. “Advertising Puffed Brown Rice” in the Rice News, May, 1941, 4.
25. Raymond J. Martinez, The Rice Directory and Manual: 1935, 62.
26. Dr. Seaman A. Knapp, “Rice Culture in the South,” in the Southern Pacific Sunset Route, Rice Cook Book, 14.
27. Raymond J. Martinez, The Rice Directory and Manual: 1935, 62 and 69.
28. G. T. Surface, “Rice in the United States,” in the American Geographical Society, XLIII, 504.
29. “Exploits Rice Industry,” in the Rice Industry, X, 27.
30. Lake Charles Daily American, September 15, 1897, 4.
31. Lake Charles Daily American, August 17, 1897, 2.
32. Lake Charles Daily American, September 6, 1897, 4.
33. “Rice Culture in Calcasieu,” reprint from the Lake Charles Daily American, dated 1902.
34. Beverly Smith, “Capitol Fare” in The American Magazine, August, 1941, 116.
35. “American Rice Growers’ Cooperative Association to Advertise Rice in Mexico City,” in the Rice News, May, 1941, 12.
36. “Texas Rice Advertising Bill,” adopted May 21, 1941.
37. “What Price Rice?” editorial in The Saturday Evening Post, January 8, 1938, 22.
38. Lake Charles Daily American, December 10, 1900, 2.
39. “What Price Rice?” editorial in The Saturday Evening Post, January 8, 1938.

VITA

Date of Birth: February 7, 1906.
Place of Birth: Melville, Louisiana.
Father’s Name: Edward Boudinot Levee, Sr.
Mother’s Name; Grace Catherine Shepherd Levee.
Schools and Colleges Attended:
Graduated from Texas High School, Texarkana, Texas, in January, 1925; from Louisiana College, Pineville, Louisiana, in June, 1928. Have attended several six-week summer sessions at the University of Texas, Austin, Texas.

Degrees Awarded:
B.A. degree from Louisiana College, June, 1928.
M.A. degree from the University of Texas, Austin, 1941.

Teaching Experience:
Have taught various subjects - History, French, and English - over a period of thirteen years in the high schools of Calcasieu Parish. My present position - English teacher - at Westlake High School, Westlake, Louisiana.
Permanent Address: Texarkana, Texas.
Typist: Mrs. Louise Humphrey.

 

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