<P> These events can be seen in rice production statistics . In 1839, the total production was 80,841,422 pounds, of which 60,590,861 pounds were grown in South Carolina and 12,384,732 pounds in Georgia . In 1849, cultivation reached 215,313,497 pounds . Between 1846 and 1861, annual rice production in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia averaged more than 105 million pounds of cleaned rice, with South Carolina producing more than 75 percent . </P> <P> At the census of 1870, after emancipation, the production of rice decreased to 73,635,021 pounds . In 1879, the total area devoted to rice was 174,173 acres, and the total production of clean rice was up again to 110,131,373 pounds . A decade later, the total area devoted to rice cultivation was 161,312 acres, and the total production of clean rice equaled 128,590,934 pounds; this represented a 16.76 percent increase in the amount produced, with a decrease of 7.38 percent in the area under cultivation . </P> <P> Between 1890 and 1900, Louisiana and Texas increased rice crop acreage to such an extent that they produced almost 75 percent of the country's product . Between 1866 and 1880, the annual production of the three States averaged just under 41 million pounds, of which South Carolina produced more than 50 percent . After 1880, their average annual production approximated 46 million pounds of cleaned rice, of which North Carolina produced 5.5 million, South Carolina 27 million and Georgia 13.5 million pounds . </P> <P> The rice industry in Louisiana began around the time of the Civil War . For a number of years, production was small, but during the 1870s the industry began to assume large proportions, averaging nearly 30 million pounds for the decade and exceeding 51 million pounds in 1880 . In 1885, the production reached 100 million pounds, and in 1892, 182 million pounds . The great development of the rice industry in Louisiana after 1884 resulted from the opening up of a prairie region in the southwestern part of the state, and the development of a system of irrigation and culture which made possible the use of harvesting machinery similar to that used in the wheat fields of the Northwest, greatly reducing the costs of production . In 1896, yield from the Louisiana rice fields, where harvesting machinery was used, was good . However the milling process was not successful commercially in some rice varieties . The loss due to the milling process was considerable, particularly of the unbroken rice in the "head rice" variety . </P>

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