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Rice in Arkansas (2)


*By Holly Hope

(Cont’d)

George Sibley offered in the Rice Journal that “everybody is satisfied that the industry is profitable enough. Those not getting full crops knowing and saying that it was their own fault, not on account of any failure of the land, water or climate, all of which were good.”

The Southwest Trail, published by Rock Island Lines, claimed that their periodical was produced to further agricultural development of a “southwestern empire,” which included Arkansas. It was provided free of charge to farmers and any who might be interested in settling in the region. In the early twentieth century the publication featured several articles regarding the miraculous yields of Arkansas farmers and the ease with which they became rice barons.

Farming failures were easily accounted for and advice for the relatively simple correction of these malfunctions — usually attributed to water sources — was offered. Local and statewide newspapers in Arkansas spread the word about the Grand Prairie and the Arkansas Gazette credited the area as being “one of the richest agricultural sections of the state.” If one was worried about the neighbors The Rice Journal assured potential Arkansans that “the rice belt citizen is a wide awake up-to-date, hustling, public-spirited American.” Real estate agents joined the fray by serving as sponsors for excursion trains that would escort potential buyers free of charge to the Prairie to peruse the available land. The success of these efforts was evident by the numbers of newcomers lured from the Midwest who brought with them adequate capital to acquire inexpensive agricultural plots. Lonoke County land was purchased by men “from the far east and north,” including Frank S. Ganong, associated with the Boston Herald who was said to have obtained several tracts in the county for himself and other eastern investors.

The labor force

These men who arrived in the state to work the rice fields differed in several ways from the workforce in Arkansas’s cotton sections. Firstly, slavery was never a factor in commercial rice production within Arkansas. G.W. Fagan, a Stuttgart rice farmer, remarked in the early twentieth century that the tenancy system in the Grand Prairie lacked the brutality of cotton sharecropping. At the turn of the century many farmers were able to set up independent operations with a minimal workforce until harvest time, when crews would be required for the threshing procedure. Hired teams provided labor at harvest time and neighbors would often work together. With the increased use of mechanized harvesting during World War II the work force was reduced by an average of fourteen men and labor input per acre fell by eight hours; however, there was still plenty for wage hands to do on a rice farm. It was noted by Stuttgart rice farmer, J.M. Spicer that the rice section would be supplied with “droves” of workers imported from cotton areas after they had completed the picking process in the cotton fields.

Many newcomers to the Grand Prairie viewed sharecropping as just a step toward achieving landownership, a temporary situation. Many of these sharecroppers were able to transcend their beginnings and become planters but by 1920 a large number were driven completely out of farming or they reverted once again to tenancy due to a crash in rice prices. By the 1940s small family farms were being absorbed and replaced by large farms, many up to 1,000 acres. Twenty years before, five hundred-acre farms were considered unusual. Very little has been written about tenancy or other forms of labor on Arkansas rice farms. It was not a topic that Works Progress Administration writers explored. Perhaps due to the lack of drama connected with the relatively well-off rice tenants the documentation is decidedly lacking in comparison to that written about cotton tenancy.

Characteristics of Rice

The scientific name for rice – a member of the grass family – is oryza sativa. Early rice shoots are similar to oats and wheat, but they exhibit thinner leaves and stalks. Multiple shoots topped with grain displaying tasseled heads rise from a single seed forming a substantial cluster of stems at a height of three to four feet. Varieties of rice were limited in the early twentieth century but there were three categories under which they were classified. The long grain category, which had a length of four to five times longer than its width, was light and fluffy and separated when cooked. Honduras was a long grain rice that had been grown in the U.S. since 1890 and it was the most popular variety available in the early years of Arkansas rice cultivation. Short grain and medium grain categories exhibited short, fat grains that clung together when cooked and were moist and tender. Japan was a short grain variety introduced by American agriculturalist Seaman A. Knapp in 1902. Blue Rose, a medium grain variety engineered in 1909, addressed the problems of low yield eventually experienced by those who raised Japan and Honduras rice exclusively. Other medium grain varieties such as Early Prolific, Lady Wright and Edith displaced Honduras as the primary grain by 1920. The number of rice varieties continued to grow through the years and by the mid-1970s there were a total of 7,000 known varieties.

(to be cont'd)




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Photo: Rice harvesting in Stuttgart, Arkansas.
Harvest has started on the 3rd week of August and expect to end by the middle of September. The total rice production for this year is not yet available but last year Arkansas ranked #1 nationwide in rice production, producing 48.7% of the U. S. crop. The state’s 2005 rice crop was valued at $810,500,000.


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