30 CULTURE OF RICE. 



The Common Rice is a marsh plant, so that if the soil becomes dry 

 before its maturity, it withers. This grows most strongly, and upon 

 its peculiar soil, no other kind, or perhaps any other plant, can be 

 advantageously cultivated. Early rice is also a marsh plant, but is of 

 a smaller size than the other. It however comes to maturity two months 

 earlier, this requiring but four, while the other requires six months to 

 become perfected. Mountain Rice is cultivated on the sides of hills, 

 but \s mostly confined to eastern countries. After many experiments 

 it does not seem susceptible of cultivation on low lands. Clammy 

 rice grows both on wet and dry soils ; and the period of its maturity is 

 between the early and common rice. 



The culture of rice in America extends from the Gulf of Mexico to 

 Virginia, but grows most abundantly in Georgia and South Carolina. 

 The entries for home consumption in Great Britain in 1830 were 153. 

 652 cwt. of cleaned, and 189.249 cwt. of rough grain, but these were 

 less in subsequent years. Of 76 millions Ibs. raised in the U. S. in 

 1840, 60 millions were cultivated in Georgia, and 12 millions in South 

 Carolina. Of this product the value of exports was $1.942.076. The 

 Carolina rice is prefered to any other variety. The aggregate crop in 

 the U. S. in 1842 was 94.207.484 Ibs. 



Wild rice, zizania, aquatica, abounds on the margins of the northern 

 lakes and upper branches of the Mississippi, and also as far south as 

 lat. 32. It some resembles oats. Water fowls fatten on it. The In- 

 dians of the north, traders and hunters feed much upon it. It rises 

 in water 6 feet deep and appears the same distance above it. The 

 grain is as white as the common rice, and puddings are made of it 

 which taste like those made of sago. 



The mode of cultivating rice is by sowing it in straight rows, in trench- 

 es eighteen inches apart. This is generally completed by the middle of 

 March, when the land is flooded several inches deep for some days, by 

 water before kept back by flood gates. This promotes the germina- 

 tion of the seed. After the withdrawal of the water for about four 

 weeks, it is again let on when the sprout is three or four inches high, 

 by which the weeds are destroyed. It is then hoed several times until 

 the middle of July, when the water is again admitted and is allowed to 

 remain until the grain is ripened. The harvest commences about the 

 end of August. The rice is reaped with a sickle by male and gather- 

 ed and bound by female negroes. Owing to the moisture of the soil 

 and the heat of the sun at this time, this operation is a very unhealthy 

 one. 



In Italy and Spain water is allowed to stand on the soil during the 

 growth of the rice, and three crops are successively taken from the 

 soil, after which it is manured and other crops are substituted. In 

 Ceylon the rice is cultivated on terraces ; the water is brought from a 

 distance to flood successively each terrace, according to the relative 



