Rice Farming

 

FARMING IN GLENN COUNTY

CALIFORNIA

1960 -1966

 

     The trottle was wide open on the old D-7 Caterpillar tractor as it pulled a 14-foot wide chisel plow through the burned rice stubble and heavy adobe soil.  The black dust would be blowing to the south by the north wind.  By the end of the day me and the other cat skinners looked like coal miners after we took off our eye goggles.  All night long I could hear the sound of the tracks clanging as I tried to sleep.  The next day was the same old thing as we raced to get the ground prepared for another rice crop.  The day started out with pumping diesel fuel into the tractor, giving it another quart or two of oil, greasing a few fittings, and cranking on the gasoline-starting engine in hopes of starting the diesel engine.  The most frequent breakdowns during the day usually involved breaking a hydraulic hose, or the hitch, or having engine troubles.  Hand tools, a cutting torch, welder, and an assortment of parts were always in the pickup truck for these repairs.

     After the ground was prepared and fertilized the fields were flooded.  Gates were opened along canals, and pumps were turned on to get the water through the contour levies winding through the fields.  The north wind and rat holes in the levies would cause breaks during flooding.  These were repaired with filling sacks with mud and placing in the broken dike.  Once the fields were flooded, planes called crop dusters sowed rice seed.  During the summer the water level was monitored and chemicals were applied by crop dusters to kill bugs and weeds.  (Many of these are no longer used due to environmental and health concerns)  As the rice would grow in the heat of the summer, we would work with other crops being raised in various fields scattered around the county.  There were beans and tomatoes to plant, barley and safflower to harvest, and fallow rice fields to work up for crop rotation. 

     By the first of September, an assortment of equipment was in the process of being prepared for the rice harvest in 2 or 3 weeks.  There were combines, bankout wagons and trucks to get into operating order for the big harvest.  Also, at this time the water level in the fields was lowered, and eventually shutoff as the heads of rice started to mature.  As soon as conditions permitted, the harvest was underway with man, machines, and some luck in order to beat the fall rains.