OCR Text |
Show Chance Brought Wild Rice to United States Rice came to America by accident. In the year lfi!)4 a rice-laden vessel from Madagascar bound for Liverpool put in to Charleston harbor In a raging storm. The captain, noting that the land and soil near Charleston resembled resem-bled thai where the rice was grown, gave the governor of the colony a handful, (piling him that it inigh! grow if planted, relates the Washington Star. The governot planted the rice anrt several months later harvested the first crop ever grown in America. Since that time rice has steadily advanced ad-vanced until now It is a leading product prod-uct of the southern states. It first spread into Georgia from the Caro-linus, Caro-linus, and with the beginning of the Civil war it entered Louisiana now ti e leading rice state of the Union It gradually found ils way to Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas and. final ly into Arkansas. Later its cultivation cultiva-tion was tried with success in California.' |