AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 309 



respecting the prospect of a crop until the period of flowering is past. It 

 ripens earlier than wheat, and if permitted to stand in a shower of rain 

 ■when quite ripe, it will sprout on the stem. It produces a much larger 

 quantity of straw than any other grain, grows higher, and is stronger than 

 wheat. Besides being cultivated for grain, it is grown as spring food for 

 cattle, and if permitted to come to maturity in a young orchard two years 

 in succession, will destroy it. 



INDIAN CORN— (Zefl Maize.) 

 This native of the American continent is the most noble of the cereal 

 grasses, and at the present time constitutes the bread corn of North Amer- 

 ica, Mexico, and a portion of Africa. It is not indigenous in any part of 

 the European continent ; it is probably nearly as extensively used for the 

 food of man as rice, and is celebrated for the large return it yields from a 

 given extent of land. 1 have raised one hundred bushels of shelled corn 

 to the acre. It is remarkably fattening when fed to pigs, poultry and cat- 

 tle, and the people who live upon it are hearty, healthy, strong, and think 

 no bread more strengthening. The athletic American Indians sufficiently 

 demonstrate its wholesomeness. It grows well, and prospers in low 

 swampy situations, where it dries up the superfluous moisture, and causes 

 the soil to become firm. It acquires the height of eight or ten feet in 

 favorable localities. I have grown it fifteen feet by the application of spe- 

 cific manures, and when ripe, all the roots of a hill might be placed in a 

 half peck measure. Give the roots of any plant the requisite manures for 

 its growth, and they will not extend themselves ; place them seventy feet 

 ofi", and they will be sure to find them if the season is long enough. 



RICE— (Oryza Sath-a.) 



This grain has formed the principal food of the inhabitants of India, 

 China and Japan, for centuries, and the enormous quantities they consume 

 annually, always surprises other nations. The reason, undoubtedly, is, 

 that it contains so minute a percentage of gluten, that small quantities 

 would be entirely insufticient to sustain the body, when no other food was 

 used, therefore inordinate quaatities are found necessary. It is, probably, 

 more extensively grown and consumed than any other species of grain. 

 It is light and exceedingly wholesome, but contains much less nutritive 

 principle than wheat. When in the husk, it is called paddy, that which is 

 exported from Bengal is called cargo rice. It is red, coarse, large grained, 

 and sweet, and is preferred by the natives to all other varieties. It is not 

 kiln-dried before exportation, but parboiled, in earthen vessels, to destroy 

 the vegetative principle, that it may be preserved better, and to facilitate 

 the husking process. Patna rice is much esteemed in Europe, but, never- 

 theless, that raised on the marshy flats of South Carolina, is, without 

 doubt, superior to any other, no matter where grown. 



Rice raised on land, artificially or naturally irrigated, produces twelve 

 times more than that on dry soil. Owing to droughts and other unex- 



