CHAPTER IX 



MISCELLANEOUS GRAIN CROPS 

 RICE 



299. Origin and History. Rice is one of the oldest of 

 cultivated plants, its cultivation in China dating back at 

 least 4,000 years. It is evidently a native of that country, 

 for it still grows wild in the southern portion. Rice was 

 carried from China into India, then into western Asia, Egypt, 

 and southern Europe. Its introduction into the United 

 States is said to date from 1694, when a small quantity was 

 brought to Charleston, South Carolina. Its cultivation 

 soon became quite general in the low lands along the Caro- 

 lina coast, but it was not grown on a large scale elsewhere in 

 North America until within the last thirty or thirty-five years. 



300. Botanical Characters. Rice does not differ materi- 

 ally in its growth from the other cereals. Botanically, the 

 rice plant is known as Oryza sativa. Its nearest relative 

 in a wild state in the United States is the wild rice of the 

 swamps, Zizania aquatica, which is used as food by the 

 Indians and to a limited extent by white men. The culms 

 of cultivated rice usually reach a height of from 4 to 5 feet, 

 several culms being produced from one seed. The flowers 

 are produced in compact panicles; the spikelets, which are 

 one-flowered, are on short pedicels. The outer glumes are 

 short scales; the inner or flowering glume, which incloses the 

 kernel, is sometimes awned. The flowering glume and palea 

 together make up the hull, or husk, which is usually yellowish 

 brown in color. The inner portion of the grain is hard and 

 white. Rice which is enclosed in the hull is known as paddy; 

 that from which the hull has been removed is known as 

 cleaned rice. 



