66 FOOD-GRAINS OF INDIA. 



The grains are separated from the maize cobs by thrashing. 

 There are three ways of preparing them for food : 



a. The grains are roughly ground and made into a kind of 

 porridge or pudding. 



b. The grains are parched, pounded, winnowed, sifted, and 

 ground into meal in hand-mills. The dough is made into cakes. 



c. The grains, parched in hot sand, become " pop-corn "- 

 chebana, bhuna, kori. This is eaten with giir or salt by labourers 

 and travellers at their midday meal. 



In the United States of North America, and in Peru and 

 Chili, many varieties of maize are in cultivation. Some of 

 the best kinds have large fruits with thin skins and are very 

 prolific, the heads of corn or "cobs" being of considerable size. 

 The pale or white-grained sorts are generally superior to those 

 which have much colour. Esteemed American varieties are- 

 Minnesota Early, Crosby Early, Eight-Row Early, Concord, 

 and Stowell's Evergreen. It is very desirable that more attention 

 should be paid to the selection of the best varieties of maize 

 for cultivation in India. 



RICE. 

 Oryza saliva, L. 



Hind. Ben*. -Dhan (cleaned rice is Chauwal, Chawal, Chaol, in Hind.}. Tamil 

 Arisi. Telugutiri, Cheni, Matta-Karulu. Sind Sari. Sinhalese Goyang. 

 Sanskrit Vrihi, Arunya, Dhanya. 



Rice is an annual grass belonging to the tribe Oryzeae of 

 the natural order Graminese. It grows from 2 to 10 or more 

 feet in height ; the panicles vary from 8 inches to a foot or even 

 more in length, and become drooping; the fruit or grain is 

 enclosed in but does not adhere to the pales. 



The several rice-crops of India may be termed spring, 

 summer, autumn, and winter-rice, from the seasons in which the 

 different varieties are harvested. Winter-rice is the most impor- 

 tant, constituting as it does about three-fourths of the entire 

 amount. Only in Pun, Maldah, Rajshahi, and Sylhet does spring- 

 rice attain even so high a percentage of the entire crop as 12 



