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under consideration and particular attention was given to the specific identification of such species as were implicated in damage to rice.

[[underlined]] GENERAL INFORMATION [[/underlined]]

Arkansas County, from which complaints of damage to rice by birds had come is located in southeastern Arkansas near the Mississippi River. The greater part of the entire county is level though the southern portion near De Witt and Gillett is somewhat indulating. In its original condition the County was about equally divided between extensive areas of open prairie and belts of hardwood timber. Rice culture was begun here first about fourteen years ago. Serious development of the industry began about eight years ago and since then there has been great increase in the acreage devoted to this crop. Water necessary for irrigation of the fields is secured from wells from 150 to 900 feet deep which furnish an abundant supply. During the harvest rice is handled in much the same manner as wheat. The fields are drained, the grain is cut and bound into sheaves with binding machines and then these sheaves are placed in shocks to await threshing. At the present time a large part of the original prairie land has been given to the growing of rice and in addition tracts of timber are being cut in order to make more arable land available. Some cotton and corn are grown near and below De Witt but rice is at present the staple crop for the entire County. The crop for 1917 was estimated at about two million bushels. The increase in acreage devoted to rice has been steady until ^[[in]] 1917 the land in this crop had reached a point where it had progressed more rapidly than means for