STARCHY FOODS 145 



heads may be laid upon the butts of the straw, thus facili- 

 tating the process of curing. The grain heads when dry are 

 tied into bundles and shocked, after which the material is 

 removed from the field on the backs of laborers. Threshing 

 is accomplished largely by tramping with horses and the 

 grain is cleaned by winnowing. The justification for all this 

 hand labor on the part of the Chinese and other Orientals is 

 the fact that transplanted rice gives a yield fully double that 

 of rice planted directly in the field. The tedious method of 

 planting, harvesting, and threshing rice according to the Chi- 

 nese and Oriental custom would, of course, not appeal to the 

 rice planters of the Southern States. The method, however, 

 rests on a solid foundation in the countries where it is prac- 

 ticed. In China, for example, where the economic stress of 

 dense population has been keenly felt for centuries, acres of 

 land are less numerous than hungry mouths to be fed. It 

 has become necessary, therefore, to produce more rice on a 

 fixed number of acres. 



In Ceylon, broadcasting of rice is occasionally practiced in 

 a few localities but the Chinese method generally prevails 

 throughout the Oriental Tropics. The yield of rice varies from 

 700 to 3,000 pounds per acre in tropical countries. In the 

 United States the yield commonly ranges from 1,000 to 2,000 

 pounds per acre. In the Tropics two crops of rice annually 

 are possible with certain varieties. With other slow de- 

 veloping varieties only one crop a year is obtained. In China 

 and Japan, particularly in Japan, rice is grown in a continuous 

 rotation with legumes. During the short intervals between 

 rice crops, legumes are planted for the purpose of obtaining as 

 much vegetable substance as possible between the harvesting 

 of one crop of rice and the planting of the next crop. By the 

 careful observation of this custom the fertility of the soil has 

 been kept up unimpaired. 



In fertilizer experiments with rice at the Hawaii Experi- 

 ment Station, it was found that rice requires its nitrogen in 



