African American men on machines, and on the ground harvesting rice in Louisiana

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Date Created:

unknown

Format:

Still image

Genre:

card photographs (photographs)

Extent / Dimensions:

10.24 x 12.76 inches

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Description / Abstract:

Recto: Harvesting rice, Louisiana, U.S.A., The Philadelphia Museums; Verso: A1, Harvesting rice, Louisiana. Rice is one of the oldest cereals in cultivation and is, in southeastern Asia, the principal food of the inhabitants. The plant (Oryza sativa, Gramineae) is a grass which grows in swampy ground. It is cultivated in fields which can be kept flooded during the period of growth. There are hundreds of varieties of rice, varying in color, size, hardness, hairiness of the ears, and many other characters. The height of the rice plant varies greatly in different localities. In many places it grows to a height of only about three feet, as may be seen in this picture. In South Carolina, the Golden rice is usually from five to nine feet tall, and in cutting this, three feet or more of stubble are left on the ground. In India, in some districts where the water is deep, it may grow to a height of more than fifteen feet. While tropical Asia is the main producer of rice, that grown in the United States is of superior quality and commands a high price. Louisiana now produces half of the rice grown in the United States; Texas, South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia as well as others of our southern states are important producers. In Louisiana and Texas, the rice fields are on the coastal prairies extending from twenty to ninety miles inland from the Gulf. These are dry lands, situated above flood-level and can be worked by heavy modern farm machinery, such as is used on our western wheat fields. Large gang plows drawn by mules prepare the soil, the seed is sown by machines, self-binding mowers cut the ripe grain, and steam threshers working on the fields separate the grain from the straw. The fields are flooded during the growing season just as in other countries. Dams around the edges of the fields in earthen flumes raised above the level of the land. Before harvesting, the pumps stop work, the dams are cut, and in a few days the land is dry. The machines shown here are reapers and binders. They cut the grain (seen standing on the left), pass it automatically across the machines over a carrier to the right side, tie it in bundles and throw these from the fork to the ground to be picked up by the laborers. In the Carolinas and Georgia, the rice fields lie in the tide water belts which would naturally be overflowed at every high tide. There, the rivers are held between levees, which have sluices in them. Owing to the wetness of the land there, farm machinery can not be used. After rice is threshed, it must still be hulled and polished before it can be used for food. The hulling machine removes the husk, and the polishing machine takes off a thin dark skin from the grain, and rubs it until all the yellowish outside coat has been rubbed off, and the grain appears white and glossy