RICE AND ITS CULTURE. 831 



appropriating the crop. The rice-bird proper of Georgia and Caro- 

 lina (Emberiza oryzivora), the reed-bird of the Middle States, and 

 the bobolink of the North and West, is one and the same. It is 

 abont the size of a sparrow, and, while of grave and somber color- 

 ing during some months of the year, again decks itself in livelier 

 plumage ; and the quick, merry songs which enliven the grassy 

 meadows during the breeding season, give place later to a " short, 

 sharp chirrup." They are migratory, spending their winters 

 mainly in the Western Isles. They come to the Southern States 

 in early spring, leave, and return to the rice-fields in September 

 and October. Continual war is waged against them by the rice- 

 planter, and they are annihilated by the hundreds by the rusty 

 muskets of the old darkey and the army of negro women ; and 

 one-garmented, short-skirted, dirt-besmeared urchins, who, by dint 

 of " cracking " whips, and a continual switching at them, manage 

 to at least mitigate the evil and give the persecuted rice a chance 

 to grow. These little darkeys are sometimes negligent, and one 

 of the old " drivers " used to say, " I gie um a licking, sah, f o dey 

 go in fuh mek show ob dere bein' fateful." 



Then, again, the rice-bird falls at the hands of the rapacious 

 sportsman, who frequently by one shot puts an end to a half- 

 dozen dozen little lives ; and sometimes weary of gathering the 

 plump little mouthfuls, so fat that they have been known to burst 

 in falling, leaves many in the field, at the same time bearing home 

 with him far more than " f our-and-twenty " rice-birds to be "baked 

 in a pie." 



But to return to our more special subject. When the plant 

 shows a joint the last hoeing is given, and the crop is " laid by " 

 by the opening of the flood-gates, and turning on of the "joint 

 water " or " harvest-flow," for the support of the plants, the field 

 remaining under water until the grain is fully ripe, which may be 

 two months. When matured, a few days before harvesting, the 

 field is finally drained, and the ditches cleansed by the " succeed- 

 ing tide." 



Harvest. — The rice is cut with sickles, the use of heavy ma- 

 chinery being impracticable in a rice-field. The crop is now left 

 to dry ; but the day after cutting, when free from dew, is tied in 

 bundles, which are piled in ricks or upon platforms on the canals 

 and rivers, so arranged as to shed the rain, until taken off by the 

 barges to the thrashing-mills ; these flats carry each the harvest 

 of from five to seven acres. 



After Harvest. — Now comes the gala day of the rice-field 

 laborer, when the crop is being taken to the mill to be thrashed. 

 The barges are numbered, say from one to ten, and great are the 

 excitement and rivalry of the men in command, the same state of 

 feeling pervading the whole force. With flags flying they bend 



