Hey hey Good Saturday to you all Do you like rice? You may know that Arkansas leads the nation in rice production but did you know why and how it got started? I just learned that Arkansas’s rice industry grew out of a hunting trip and one farmer willing to gamble on an idea. William H. Fuller of Carlisle saw rice growing in Louisiana and noticed how much the soil resembled Arkansas’s Grand Prairie. His first three-acre attempt in 1897 didn’t amount to much, so he went to Louisiana, learned how rice farming worked and came home to try again. In 1904, Fuller planted 70 acres and harvested 5,225 bushels more than enough to win a $1,000 challenge offered by Hazen businessmen. Other farmers took notice, and rice fields began spreading across eastern Arkansas. Arkansas went on to become the nation’s leading rice-producing state since 1973, and rice became our official state grain in 2007. All of that history traces back to a farmer who saw possibility in Arkansas soil where others saw pastureland.