8 3 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



be covered, it is mixed with, clayey water and dried, when a suffi- 

 cient quantity of clay adheres to prevent the grains floating off 

 when flooded. With the first method the water is again turned 

 on in the " sprout-flow," when the plants sprout " and appear like 

 needles above the ground " ; with the latter one flooding is suffi- 

 cient. When the water has been on the sprout from four to six 

 days, it is again drawn off ; and when the plants are six weeks old, 

 they are lightly hoed, and the hoeing is repeated in ten days. 



Now comes the stretch-flow, when the young plants, several 

 inches high, are flooded for two weeks and helped in their strug- 

 gle for light and air, and, strengthened and invigorated by their 

 native element, grow apace ; water kills the weeds, but nourishes 

 the rice. The water is now put down to the " slack-water " gauge, 

 and if, as is generally the case, the plants are longer than the 

 water is deep, the upper leaves float " in long, waving lines upon 

 the surface " — a pretty, refreshing picture, once seen not soon for- 

 gotten. The water is gradually drawn off, and eight days after, 

 when the field is dry, the ground is deeply hoed. 



Volunteer rice, which is treated as a weed, often springs up 

 with the regular crop. It is both hardy and prolific, and a great 

 pest to the rice-planter. It can generally be removed by the hoes ; 

 then again it necessitates replowing and sowing, while sometimes 

 the fields have to be thrown into dry crops for a year or two, or 

 to remain flooded for that length of time. When harvested with 

 the white, this red or volunteer rice greatly reduces its grade, 

 and also renders it unfit for seed. 



At hoeing-times a picturesque scene is presented, with say from 

 fifty to one hundred men and women abreast, busily plying their 

 hoes ; the former in the utmost neglige of a laborer, and the latter 

 with short, scant homespun dresses and leggins, all with broad- 

 brimmed straw hats, or, in the case of the women, the head ker- 

 chiefs of the olden time. In the mouth of each is a stick, on the 

 end of which is stuck, and smoking, a small piece of the punk 

 taken from the heart of the oak. This smoke is for the purpose 

 of driving away the myriads of " pesky " sand-flies that are more 

 than enough to drive one wild, sometimes so thick that they have 

 been known to cast a shadow. A young man, whiling away a 

 summer holiday by a visit to the rice-field, essaying the same but 

 to him untried expedient, and not understanding the manner of 

 procedure, kept puffing away as if smoking a cigar, and soon had 

 the punk in a bright blaze, so that he suffered the unpleasant 

 consequences that await the inexperienced ; there is something to 

 be learned even from an ignorant rice-field darkey. 



But in writing of rice and rice-fields I must not forget to give 

 some prominence to the ravaging army of birds that feast upon 

 the tender sprout and ripened grain, sometimes almost or quite 



