84 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



of the rivers, are well suited for the production of 

 rice ; and not only is the cultivation accomplished 

 with trifling labour, but the grain proves of a re- 

 markably fine quality, being decidedly larger and 

 handsomer than that of the countries whence the 

 seed was originally derived. 



It does not appear that this naturalizing of rice in 

 Carolina and Georgia was ever productive of much 

 effect in regard to the diet of the inhabitants of those 

 provinces. Their consumption of rice was doubt- 

 less increased by it, because the abundance and 

 cheapness of an article always influence persons to 

 its use. But wheat and maize continued, as before, 

 to be the bread-corn of the country, and the newly 

 introduced grain was cultivated principally because 

 it furnished an article in constant demand which 

 might be transmitted to the mother-country in re- 

 turn for British manufactured goods. 



Had a contrary effect followed upon the introduc- 

 tion of rice into the then British colonies of America, 

 and this grain had become, as in India, the universal 

 food of the inhabitants, it is not probable that their 

 condition would have been in any way ameliorated 

 by the change. In countries where rice forms the 

 chief article of food, dearths are not by any means 

 of uncommon occurrence. A failure of the usual 

 supply of rain, which is followed by evil conse- 

 quences where other descriptions of grain are raised, 

 is productive of tenfold misery where the chief 

 dependance is upon the crop of rice, which without 

 its due degree of moisture proves wholly unpro- 

 ductive. In such cases there can be found few 

 sources of relief, other objects of cultivation being 

 pursued to only a limited extent, and the means 

 of the people not enabling them to compass the 

 purchase of these scarcer articles of food, even when, 

 through the general abundance, they may be pro- 



