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A REPORT ON DAMAGE TO RICE BY BIRDS IN COLORADO, WHARTON, AND MATAGORDA COUNTIES, TEXAS.

In accordance with letter of authority 212-Bi and written instructions, after completing an investigation of damage by birds to rice in Arkansas I left Little Rock, Arkansas, on Sunday December 23, and proceeded to Eagle Lake, Texas, arriving there on Christmas day. Field work was carried on in this region as follows: Eagle Lake, December 25 to 27; Wharton, December 28; El Camp^[[o]], December 29; Bay City, December 30 to January 2. From Bay City, Wadsworth and Matagorda were visited on January 1 and a trip made by automobile on January 2 covered regions devoted to rice culture near Markham, El Maton, Ashby, Citrus Grove, Simpsonville and Wadsworth. On January 3 some information regarding bird damage was secured in Houston at the office of the Southern Rice Growers Association. This last area lies outside the region assigned at the head of this report.

GENERAL INFORMATION.

In the counties under consideration rice is one of the most important crops. The land surface is level and formerly was mainly open prairie with occasional oak motts scattered through it. Rice is grown by irrigation, mainly by means of water drawn by pumping stations from the Colorado River. At Eagle Lake water is pumped from the river into Eagle Lake and then drawn out again on the opposite side into raised irrigation canals. At the time of my visit Eagle Lake, normally a body of water three miles long by one mile broad was dry save for a narrow canal through the center that connected two pumping stations on opposite sides of the