RICE. 93 



in the lime-water, the fluid runs through in divided 

 portions over the plants. This practice is found to 

 be so efficacious, that the Chinese are said to hold its 

 first inventor in the highest veneration. 



' Towards April, when the plants cover thickly 

 the ground that has been sown, the greatest part of 

 them are pulled up with their roots and planted in 

 tufts, pretty far asunder in a quincunx form, in fields 

 prepared for their reception. A serene day is chosen 

 lor this operation, which must be performed quickly, 

 so that the plants are as short a time as possible out 

 of the ground. 



' After this, water is admitted to overflow the rice, 

 the grounds being, for this purpose, always situated 

 near a rivulet, pond, or great pool of water, from 

 which they are separated only by a bank which may 

 readily be cut. It sometimes happens, however, 

 that the water is below the level of the fields, in 

 which case the necessary quantity is conveyed in 

 buckets, which are worked chiefly by the aid of 

 ropes, a most laborious occupation. 



' Though a man cannot step in these rice-grounds 

 without sinking up to his knees, the Chinese weed 

 them three times during the summer, and that so 

 carefully j that every weed they can find is pulled up 

 by the roots. 



' When the rice is ripe, which is known in the 

 same manner as wheat, by its turning yellow, it is 

 cut down with a sickle, made into sheaves, and con- 

 veyed into a barn, where it is threshed with flails 

 very similar to those used among ourselves.'* The 

 husk and inner pellicle are removed by beating and 

 tritu ration, pretty much in the same manner as has 

 already been described. 



It is worthy of remark, that with the view of ob- 

 taining from the soil the largest produce it will yield, 



* Culture de Terres, torn, ii, p. 180. 



