Photos

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I came back to Stuttgart when local farmers started their rice harvest. This picture has been captured along State Highway 11, halfway between Interstate 40’s exit 193 and “The Rice and Duck Capital of The World”.

Although I sent two correspondences to the Chamber of Commerce asking for assistance, my requests have been bogged down. Without the advice and help from local authorities, my findings about RICE on this location maybe limited, outdated or incorrect. Please help me to correct my notes if you have accurate or updated information. Thanks.


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Rice in Arkansas (1)


Accounts of subsistence crops of rice raised in swampy areas of Arkansas had been recorded prior to the advent of commercial growth in the Grand Prairie. Accounts of the French occupants of Arkansas in 1721 recorded that new settlers could pay for slaves with notes reimbursable in installments of rice or tobacco. The use of Arkansas rice in exchange for various commodities was noted in other early eighteenth-century evidence as well.

Thomas Nuttall’s observations of Arkansas included the presence of small amounts of rice in 1819 and reports of the census bureau in the early nineteenth century submitted that surplus rice marketed from Arkansas totaled several thousand pounds. Captain Robertson of the steamer Sallie told of several farmers along the Arkansas River raising rice in 1844 and in that year, rice was included in cargo from Van Buren on the side-wheeler Cherokee Belle.

The early twentieth century was the commencement of recognition by a few individuals that the Arkansas soil and climate was similar enough to that of Louisiana that the state could become a mass producer of the crop. An initial late nineteenth century effort by Carlisle, Arkansas, farmer W.H. Fuller to establish rice in Lonoke County using his observations of a crop in Louisiana, did not provide the results desired.

Realizing that the environment in the state should have produced the same level of yields, Fuller spent four years immersing himself in a study of the Southwest Louisiana rice industry in order to obtain the same results at home. In his absence his brother-in-law, John Morris, experimented with rice in the Carlisle area. Upon his return to Arkansas in 1904 Fuller persuaded some Lonoke County businessmen to give him $1,000 if he were able to successfully cultivate seventy acres of rice and turn out thirty-five bushels per acre, which he accomplished in that year. Fuller considered this crop the advent of the commercial rice industry in Arkansas.

The Morris family claimed to be the true arbiter of successful rice growth on the Grand Prairie as they stated that they had brought to maturity an entire twenty-acre stand of rice planted in 1903. From the examples of the Morris and Fuller farms, other Lonoke County farmers gained confidence and by 1905 four hundred fifty acres of rice had been planted in the area. Political recognition of the suitability of Arkansas soil for rice came with the turn-of-the century organization of an agricultural experiment station devoted to observation of the rice culture in Lonoke County. Fiscal shortages led to the termination of the station in 1910; however, it was reauthorized by the General Assembly in 1923 and work was begun anew in 1926. The new station located between Stuttgart and Almyra continued in its initial purpose, which was to further agricultural research and experimentation, but it also examined modern alternatives to traditional fertilization, guidance in grass and weed control and development of new rice strains.

Spreading the word of Arkansas Rice

The magic combination of Arkansas’s climate and soil seemed to provide profitable results in a timely manner for most who tried rice farming. The common yield for farmers in the years immediately after Fuller’s 1904 crop was fifty-five to sixty bushels to the acre and total acreage in rice had reached 28,000 by 1909. Accounts on the amazing spread of rice culture in Arkansas contained estimates of a rise to 55,000 acres within the next year. Most early failures were attributed to inexpensive wells and pumps that deprived rice plants of the required water.

However, once these problems were resolved A.A. Kaiser stated in The Rice Journal and Southern Farmer that those with 160 acres in rice had “a perfect mint.” Prior to 1909, land prices in the rice counties of Arkansas, Prairie and Lonoke, stood at about $1 an acre but when the fertile properties of the Prairie became known the price rose to from $60 to $100 an acre.

The enthusiasm of local farmers who had discovered the earnings to be obtained were responsible in large measure for the increase in Delta acreage devoted to rice but once the railroads and newspapers began distributing positive publicity about the region and offering land for sale, the area was flooded with hopeful farmers. Editorials in the Rice Journal declared that “Although there are now thousands of acres devoted to rice production, the prairies seem exhaustless and many thousands of acres are simple awaiting working.”
(By Holly Hope)

(To be cont'd)


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