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from Sacramento in the south to Hamilton City and Nord on the north. Only a few small areas of minor importance lay outside this region. The Rice districts on the west side of the stream were tributary in the main to Maxwell, Colusa and Willows, and on the east side centered in Marysville, Gridley and Biggs. Part of the land utilized was of good quality and was suitable for other crops. The greater part of the acreage however was on low lying tracts known as the "Alkali" lands or "Goose" lands that had in the [[inserted above]] not been [[/inserted above]] main/under cultivation previously. These tracts are not suited for other crops but with abundant water will produce two or three good crops of rice before inroads of weeds, rising alkali or other factors cause them to be abandoned. Because of the large profits made in rice culture due to the high price of rice extensive tracts of these lands had been put under water. Much of this was farmed by companies who controlled large holdings. Thus the Dodge Land Company below Chico had 4000 acres of rice and it was common to encounter tracts of 500 to 1000 acres under one control. The total area in rice in California in 1918 was given by the agents of the Pacific Rice Growers Association in Sacramento as 130,000 acres.
The most popular varieties of rice grown here at this time were a long headed late maturing Japanese rice known as Wataribune, and an early rice called 1600 (a form established here by the U. S. Department of Agriculture). A bearded rice called 1564 with long heavy beards like barley was also common and a thin hulled early Japanese variety known as Sue Hero that had been introduced recently was gaining in popularity. The heads of the early forms began to fill about September 1. Cutting began in the earliest fields near Maxwell on September 22, but this