KICK. 



375 



live of Florence in the Parliament, and in 1866 he 

 wns again premier and minister of the interior, 

 though only for ten months. He died in his castle 

 Brolio near Sienna, Oct. 23, 1880. 



RICE is the common name of Oryza sativa, a 

 v TCTC P' ant f 'he orc ler Graminaceae or 



5S8 ID 5 3 E 1 ! 38868 ' Ae seed of which is more 

 Am Rep j. '' widely used as an article of nutriment 

 than that of any other cereal. The plant 

 has been known and cultivated for ages, particularly 

 in Eastern Asia. Its generic title, Oryza, used by 

 Theophrastus, and the Arabic aruz are not far 

 from the modern European riz, reis, or rice. The 

 rice plant is an annual, with a stem from one to 

 six feet high, its leaves lanceolate, and flowers borne 

 in a terminal panicle. In Asia two distinct species of 

 Oryza are cultivated, the lowland and the upland 

 rice, of which the latter rota if inundated and perishes 

 in sea water. The lowland rice, which is the species 

 cultivated throughout the world, bears more extensive 

 inundation than almost any other food pjant, though it 

 can be grown without inundation, and is the basis of 

 both the lowland and upland rice of the United States. 

 The rice plant furnishes more food to mankind than 

 any other grain, as it constitutes the principal food 

 supply of the teeming millions of India and China, 

 while largely used in other parts of the world. It is 

 the grain of the intertropical regions, as wheat is of 

 the temperate and oats and rye of the more northerly 

 latitudes. It is produced in immense quantities in 

 most countries of Eastern Asia, in some of the south- 

 ern countries of Europe, in parts of the West Indies, 

 Central America, and the United States, and supplies 

 perhaps one-third of the human race with its main 

 article of food. Fifty or more varieties of the plant 

 are cultivated in different countries, the principal dif- 

 ferences being in the size, shape, and color of the 

 grain, but these practically resolve themselves into 

 lowland ur aquatic rice and upland or mountain rice. 

 As regards the extent and methods of the cultivation 

 of rice in Japan, China, and India, see U. 8. Consu- 

 lar Reports, No. 96, August, 1888. 



As an article of nutriment rice falls below wheat, 

 containing less th?n half the amount of the gluten. It 

 has one-fourth mere starch, however, and this, with its 

 cheapness and large yield, renders it a preferable basis 

 for starch manufacture. 



The culture of rice in the United States began in 

 1694, in which year a vessel from Madagascar, which 

 put into Charleston in distress, had on board a small 

 sack of rice, which was given to the authorities of the 

 city, and was at once tried in garden culture. It 

 yielded abundantly, and the seeds were distributed to 

 planters, which process was continued until it became 

 the staple commodity of the colony. From South 

 Carolina its culture extended through other Southern 

 States, it being now raised extensively in Georgia and 

 Louisiana. It possessed the advantage that it could 

 l>e profitably grown on land too low and moist for other 

 useful plants, and that its culture required less labor 

 than the other grains. The swamp lands along the 

 South Carolina coast proved well adapted for ita cul- 

 ture, and yielded excellent returns, _but are now re- 

 placed in considerable part by the irrigation of tide 

 lands, which present decided advantages in the culture. 

 American rice has long borne a high reputation for its 

 excellence, its quality being far beyond that of any 

 other locality. This is perhaps partly due to favoring 

 conditions of soil, but largely to care in cultivation, the 

 grain being much sweeter, larger, and better colored 

 than that from Asia, the Bengal rice most nearly ap- 

 proaching it. 



The culture of rice in Louisiana was begun in 171 8, by 

 Law's French " Company of the West. ' Recently its 

 production there has greatly increased, the levees_ along 

 the Mississippi being opened by permission for irriga- 

 tion uf the fields in the adjoining alluvial bottoms. 

 The principal expense there is the ditching and other- 



wise preparing the land for irrigation, the seeding and 

 cultivation being comparatively inexpensive. The 

 process pursued is briefly as follows : The sowing being 

 completed, the river water is let on profusely, and kept 

 so until the growing plant appears above its surface. 

 Then the field is drained, and kept dry until the stem 

 begins to form joints, when it is flooded again and left 

 so for about six weeks, till the grain is mature. During 

 this period it is simply necessary to see that the water 

 is kept fresh, and to pull up such weeds as the water 

 fails to kill. Maturity is indicated by the grain turn- 

 ing yellow. The field is then drained, the grain cut, 

 threshed, and winnowed, and sacked for mill or mar- 

 ket. An expensive process, however, is necessary to 

 get rid of the inner hull of the rice grain, which it holds 

 more tenaciously than wheat. Special machines are 

 needed for this purpose, in which the grain is so 

 broken that after milling little more than half remains 

 prime rice, the remainder being partly broken rice, 

 partly flour. The upland rice yields a smaller grain 

 than the lowland, though with the advantage of being 

 harder and drier. It is cultivated much like the other 

 small grains, the crops being remunerative, though 

 smaller than that of lowland rice. One disadvantage 

 of the rice culture on the Atlantic is that it proves 

 very detrimental to the health of white men, from the 

 dangerous malarial exhalations from the irrigated soil. 

 The negroes, however, are rarely affected by malaria. 

 The Louisiana culture seems no more injurious to 

 health than in the case of any other crop raised there. 

 The rice crop of the United States has suffered con- 

 siderable fluctuations during the several recent decades, 

 as appears by the following statement : 



Year. Crop. 



1840 80,841,422 pounds. 



1850 215,312,710 " 



1860 187,140,173 " 



1870 73,635,021 " 



1880 110,131,373 " 



The decrease in production is made up by a very 

 considerable importation. During this period the pro- 

 duction of South Carolina has decreased, and that of 

 other States advanced, that State producing, in 1850, 

 159,930,613 Ibs., and in 1880, 52,077,515 IDs., while 

 Georgia and Louisiana have correspondingly increased. 

 At present rice is cultivated from near the Southern 

 Virginia line to Texas, and well back from the coast 

 lands into the upper country. In 1880, according to 

 the census reports, 174,'173 acres were under cultiva- 

 tion for rice, with the following yield in the four prin- 

 cipal States : 



Acres. Product. 



78,388 52,077,515 pounds. 



34,973 25,369,687 " 



42,000 23,188,311 



10,846 5,609,191 



In Asia rice is used to a considerable extent in the 

 making of intoxicating drinks, a rice beer or " sake t " 

 being extensively use J in Japan, while a strong spirit, 

 called "arrack," is distilled from rice and molasses, 

 and used throughout the East Indies. Rice sugar 

 yields in Japan a kind of confectionery called " ame." 

 Enormous quantities of rice are now consumed in the 

 manufacture of starch particularly in Great Britain. 



(c. M.) 



RICE, LUTHER (i {83-1 836), the organizer of 

 American Baptist missions, was born at Northbor- 

 oush, Mass., March 25, 1783. After graduating at 

 Williams College in 1810, he entered Andorra Theo- 

 logical Seminary, and there joined in the movement 

 ! already begun by Samuel J. Mills in advocacy of mis- 

 sions to the heathen. He was ordained with Judson. 

 Newell, and two others at Salem, in February, 1812, 

 and sailed to India. But on the voyage, from fresh 

 study of the New Testament, he adopted Baptist 

 views and was baptized soon after bis arrival in Cal- 



South Carolina 



Georgia 



Louisiana 



North Carolina 



