The need to protect rice
During the past eight or ten years there has been a steady growth of whites entering the wild rice beds. They have been greedy and paid no attention to the natural laws regarding plants reproduction. As a result many of the better wild rice beds have been ruined by whites gathering the crop in an immature state. The practice of the whites has forced the Indians to gather immature rice. This whole entire practice was ruining the wild rice in Minnesota and steps had to be taken to correct these practice.
from
Charles E. Chambliss, Wild Rice (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Circular 229, 1922), 4-5.