Arkansas Rice Farming
Rice and Arkansas are two things that go together like clouds and the sky. They are synonymous with each other. Rice farming has been a pivotal economical factor in the history of Arkansas, since its induction into the state in the early 20th century. Since then, Arkansas has become the rice capital of the world.
Although minute rice farming has been dated back to 1819 (for family consumption), it was 1902 when a farmer in Lonoke raised an acre of rice in the southwest Arkansas Grand Prairie region.2 That farmer?s name was Samuel McCormick. His first crop proved to people that there was a profit to be earned. Then in 1903, he experimented with an irrigation system on the John Morris farm, which is still in business today. That irrigation system was the first ever used in the state, and was extremely important.3 Morris? farm had run into bad luck a year earlier, but in 1903?s farming season, he brought in 100 bushels an acre for 20 acres, a very successful harvest. In 1904, the Alluvial Aquifer was created, which still is used today by many.4 By 1906, in the Grand
rice, farming, farmers, been, arkansas, water, very, now, crop, today, bran, state, much, made, industry, hull, germ, efficient, crops, better, world, tons, technology, riceland, removed, problem, months, milled, irrigation, great, grain, deal, countries, long
