The origin and evolution of the southwestern Louisiana rice region, 1880-1920

Between 1800 and 1920, southwestern Louisiana was transformed from an economically poor region of subsistence agriculture and open range cattle ranching into the first mechanized commercial rice region in the world. The purpose of this study is to identify and analyze the processes which caused the rapid emergence of the rice region.

The development of the southwestern Louisiana rice region was predicated on nine major factors: the absence of a viable form of commercial agriculture in the region in 1880; the coming of the railroad; the condition of the American rice industry after the Civil War; the land speculators and the rise of the large land companies; the migration of the Midwesterners to the region; the mechanization of field operation; the development of new irrigation technologies; and the solving of the marketing and milling problems associated with mechanized rice production.

Analysis of these processes indicates that the land speculators were the most significant single factor in the origin and evolution of the southwestern Louisiana rice region.