THE SMALL GRAINS 

 V. RICE 



173 



218. Where grown. Rice is the principal food of more than 

 half the people of the world. Where the population is most dense 

 and the struggle for existence most intense, rice, supplemented 

 by fish, beans, and peas, has become man's chief reliance. 



The principal rice-producing countries of the world are China, 

 Japan, India, and parts of Africa. Rice was introduced into the 



FIG. 84. Harrowing rice ground in the Philippines 



In tropical countries rice ground is cultivated under water, the water buffalo being 

 used as a work animal 



United States at Charleston, South Carolina, in 1694. The 

 production of rice in the United States is confined to the South 

 Atlantic and the Gulf states. We produce less rice than we 

 consume, although there is ample land well adapted to this crop 

 in the Gulf states. 



219. Cultivation. Rice is chiefly grown on low, level land 

 under irrigation (Fig. 84), although there are varieties which can 

 be grown on upland without irrigation. The surface of each rice 



