This article from 1914 tells more about Sol Wright and his Blue Rose rice variety and how it affected the rice industry at that moment in time.

Sol Wright Here to Exhibit Rices - Creator of Famous Blue Rose Variety

Crowley Farmer Who Had the Patience and the Knowledge to Improve Quality of Rice

From the spectacular standpoint Sol Wright and his Blue Rose rice can not fairly be classed among the most striking exhibits at the Southeast Texas fair, but for the man who is interested in rice the Louisiana genius and his little exhibit of pure American types of rice are as important as Thomas A. Edison would be in an electrical show with a new and revolutionary method of lighting by electricity. For this plain Louisiana farmer has done for rice farming what Edison did for electrical science. He has been called the greatest living benefactor of the rice industry and it has been said that the Blue Rose rice bred by him has saved the American rice industry.

The importance of the Blue Rose rice to the American rice industry is indicated by the fact that 17 per cent of the rice acreage this year is of that variety, and this 17 per cent of the whole acreage will produce approximately 25 per cent of the total yield. It is now regarded as likely that the Blue Rose acreage will be at least doubled, and perhaps trebled next year. The American rice acreage in 1915 may be 50 per cent Blue Rose and the total production might be as high as 4,000,000 sacks, worth around $16,000,000.

Eight years ago there was no Blue Rose rice, but there was a demand for an American variety of rice that would be a superior yielder, possessing better milling qualities than Japan and Honduras. Both Honduras and Japan had begun to deteriorate in yield and quality. Even freshly imported seed from Japan and Honduras failed to produce high yields and there was less of the hard, crystalline characteristics highly valued in rice. A new variety was needed, for it had become evident that unless a better seed could be furnished American rice farmers it was only a question of time when short yields of steadily deteriorating rice would put an end to profitable rice raising in the United States.

Always great needs develop the men to supply them. The need of the rice industry for a pure bred American variety of rice with superior intrinsic merits and better yielding qualities developed Sol Wright and Sol Wright developed Blue Rose.

In 1914, Sol Wright, who was christened Salmon L. Wright, and who since childhood has been called "Old Sol," raised his twenty-fourth rice crop on his farm three miles from Crowley, LA. He has been a student of rice for twenty-four years, and for half of that time he was laying up a store of knowledge, preparing himself for his great task of making a new type of rice. Before he started to breed rices he studied out a system of his own for clearing his land of red rice, and it worked out successfully.

Twelve years ago he started in earnest to breed the great American type of rice. He had made up his mind that he wanted a rice something like Honduras in shape and size, with a pure crystalline bean and great yielding qualities.

For several years he sought in vain for the rice he wanted for his original type. Finally he found it on the farm of Col. J.F. Shoemaker of Crowley. Mr. Wright found a particularly fine stool of rice, and on shelling out the grains he found several grains that possessed some of the characteristics for which he was looking. He selected a few of the most promising grains and planted them. The next year he had perhaps a dozen stools of fine rice, which he carefully harvested preserving all the grains. These he culled carefully, selecting only those grains that possessed the characteristics he sought. For hours, and for days at a time he pored over his grains of rice, culling them carefully and rejecting all but the seeds containing the greatest promise. The result was that out of the rice from a dozen stools he selected no more than a small handful of satisfactory grains.

Again the indefatigable student planted his few grains of selected seeds and again he found at harvest time that he had a few dozen stools of rice bearing heads that showed a great improvement in crystallizing quality of bean and in yield. Again the long and laborious process of selecting only the perfect grains followed. Each grain in perhaps a bushel of rice was subjected to close scrutiny under a powerful microscope. Not only was each grain scrutinized once. All the imperfect grains being discarded, but the supply of seed was subjected to repeated examination. Day after day and night after night the enthusiast studied his rices until he knew each individual grain.

Only an enthusiast gifted with infinite patience could have stuck to his task as Wright stuck to the task of selecting his seed. He spent more time on each individual seed before he planted it than a rice millers rice buying force spends in the examination of a lot of 10,000 sacks.

For three successive years he found that his rice was uniform in size, shape, color and texture. There was no chalk in it. There were no imperfect graings. In the language of the scientific ceealists, it was true to type. There were no variations. Each grain, the hull having been removed was a perfect vegetable crystal.

By a purely scientific process of seed selection, Sol Wright had bred a new type of rice. In the process of breeding he had acclimated the rice. He had accustomed it to conditions of soil and climate. He had made it an American variety.

Then Mr. Wright began to distribute his seed. He sold it for a song. He could have made millions, but his mind was taken up with breeding rice, not with making money. Many individuals made more money out of Blue Rose than its originator did.

Blue Rose was found to be a great yielder at the threshed and millers found it to be a still greater yielder in percentage of "head" rice. It was more uniform than any other rice grown in America.

The clean rice trade took to Blue Rose and bought it even in preference to Honduras and Japan. It stood the heavy rains in 1913 and yielded both in quality and quantity better than any other rice.