RICE 



5007 



RICE 



tural progress the wonder of the world. Here 

 the seed is planted with a machine drill and 

 the ground kept in the condition of mud until 

 the young sprouts appear, when the water is 

 drawn off. When the plants are six or eight 

 inches high the field is plowed and hoed and 

 again put under water, remaining in that state 

 for approximately three months. 



In Oriental countries the seed is usually sown 

 broadcast in richly fertilized seed beds of half- 

 liquid mud, and the young sprouts transplanted 

 when they are two or three inches high. They 

 complete their growing in standing water, the 

 ground being kept soft by raking or by a proc- 

 ess of "hoeing with the toes," which is peculiar 

 but effective. Full-grown rice reaches a height 

 ranging from two to five feet. 



Enemies of the Rice Field. Drought is the 

 greatest enemy of rice. The spring freshets 

 which so often sweep away the young crop or 

 kill it with too much water come second in de- 

 structive power. Harmful weeds thrive in the 

 rice fields and must be carefully uprooted, a 

 wild rice with red prams being among the most 

 dangerous, since it spreads with amazing ra- 

 pidity and creatly lowers the value of the crop. 

 One of the dreaded bird enemies of the rice 

 crop in the United States is the bobolink, which 

 Southerners know as the riccbird; in Eastern 

 countries it is a certain species of weaver bird, 

 called the Java sparrow or paddy bird. 



Harvesting and Threshing. When the rice 

 straw begins to turn yellow the field is drained 

 to put it in shape for harvesting. In the 

 United States reaping machinery is used to cut 

 the fjrain ; in the Orient the primitive sickle or 

 a small knife docs the work. After stacking 

 and drying the sheaves, the rice must be 

 lied. In foreign rice-crowing countries 

 crude methods are employed which have been 

 handed down from generation to generation, 

 rice, the head 3 are separated 

 from the stalks by the tramping hoofs of oxen ; 

 in China, Japan and many other places, by the 

 alow and patience-trying process of drawing a 

 har.' :ivcs across an iron comb set in a 



frame, or by striking an antiquated flail upon 

 a thrcching floor. 



Mikicg Paddy into Rice. The threshed rice 

 is ct.ll paddy that is, enclosed in a hull and 

 'h "sticks cloccr than a bro;! 



<'fcrc the rice can bo cocked 

 cr mark the nativci u 



stcr ! rcc intended for homo con- 



sumption and clean small quantities r.s no 

 In some places the husks arc pounded off in 



stone mortars, sometimes worked by hand and 

 sometimes by crude machinery'. In other places 

 the paddy is stamped upon by animals or by 

 coolies, beaten by flails, or ground off between 

 millstones. The rice which is to be exported is 

 husked at the mills by machinery, and Ran- 

 goon, in Indo-China, the greatest rice market 

 in the world, has as modern a mill as any of 

 the great rice centers of America. During the 

 milling process the rough grains are smoothed 

 and polished between revolving bands of soft 

 chamois or moose-hide. After this they are 

 graded according to size and barreled for ship- 

 ment. 



The Food Value. The polishing removes an 

 exceedingly nutritious part of the grain the 

 fine flour put on the market as rice polish. The 

 natives of rice-growing lands are usually too 



Protein. 80 



ater, 12.0 

 at. 2.0 



! ^arboh>drates,77.0 



Ash 1.0 



COMPOSITION OF RICE 



It has a fuel value, when boiled, of 510 calories 

 per pound. This Is only about one-third that of 

 corn cr wheat, but 13 equal to that of chicken or 

 the average cut of veal. 



poor and too wise to insist upon the beauti- 

 fully lustrous, pearly-white prains that their 

 foreign customers demand, and the rice they 

 eat is therefore a far more substantial food than 

 our cereal. When they do eat the polished 

 grains they are liable to contract the disease 

 known in Japane . e as bcribcri-ka! 



Rice has net the food value of wheat or corn, 

 however, for it is deficient in fat and protein. 

 It is principally meal cr starch, and nceda to be 

 supplemented by other foods which arc richer 

 in fat and protein. Orientals usually combine 

 with it the sauce called soy, made from beans; 

 Americans cat it with milk, syrup or pjavy. 

 la cooking it chould not be boiled, but steamed 

 until pen. 



Ot' cr Uacs. The f.imous Japanese drink 

 Vr, cr rice-wine, is fcr :om 



the rice trains. I i *y distill a liquor 



from h they call arrack, and the Chi- 



nese also use it in preparing various intoxicat- 



