-----Original Message-----
From: Jon Miller [mailto:atsf@...]

Was rice a big crop in California<

This is from memory and with me not to be trusted but thought CA was the
largest rice producing state for quite some time. Maybe not in the 50's
though.

National rice shipments by rail in 1950, per the ICC, shows California is a
distant 3rd place:

LA: 32%
TX: 29%
CA: 5%

FWIW, rice was the 4th most common outbound shipment on the Sacramento
Northern in 1956, totalling 832 carloads.

ANyway, today, the relative state standing looks like this (acres in
production)

Arkansas 1,290,000
Louisiana 680,000
California 560,000
Texas 290,000


Dave Nelson