RICE BIRDS AND USES OF RICE. 31 



states of the growth of the rice. In China the rice is placed in baskets 

 immersed in water several days. The ground is thoroughly- soaked, 

 then ploughed, afterwards covered with water and then harrowed. The 

 plant appears above ground in one or two days after the seed is sown. 

 When the plants have acquired a little strength they are sprinkled 

 over with lime water to destroy insects. After this the plants are 

 pulled up and speedily planted in tufts in prepared fields, which are 

 frequently watered and weeded ; and the grain is then gathered and 

 prepared as in this country. In Hindostan the mode of culture is simi- 

 lar to that of China, but wild hogs destroy much of the crops during 

 the night time. 



The Rice bird, in America and the West Indies is very destructive. 

 This bird is said to be the same as our Bob Lincoln. These birds first 

 attack the earlier crops of Cuba, and when the grain there becomes 

 too hard they proceed in immense flocks to our southern fields, where, 

 from being very lean, they become excessively fat in the three weeks 

 of their visit. They then subsist on insects and green plants till the 

 maize begins to form its grains, when they attack that with like avidity 

 and eflect. These birds are found in extensive flocks in the New Eng- 

 land states in spring and summer, where they breed, leaving with their 

 young in season for the rice grains in Cuba, all the females going first 

 and alone with their young and the melodious males following. Their 

 flesh is considered a great delicacy. 



The uses of rice are various. In India and China it is more the 

 staple article of consumption than any other in other parts of the 

 world. There and in Africa little other preparation than boiling is 

 made of it ; while in this and some other countries it is commonly 

 prepared for the table with eggs, milk, sugar, etc. Fermented bread 

 may be made of rice by reducing it to powder in a mill or by pounding 

 it in a mortar, after soaking it some hours in nearly boiling water. 

 The flour is then passed through a seive and placed in a trough with 

 water, made glutenous by boiling rice in it for some time ; add salt 

 and the proper leaven or yeast, and kneed the whole intimately toge- 

 ther. The dough is then covered with warm cloths and left to rise. 

 Becoming softer by rising, it is placed in pans of the size of the loaves 

 required, is covered with sheets of paper and set in the oven ; in a 

 little time the pans may be reversed and the bread turned on the pa- 

 per. The Chinese make white wine of rice ; and in the East, ardent 

 spirits are made by fermentation and distillation. It may be made 

 into beer by mixing 1 part by weight of malted barley with 4 parts of 

 crushed rice, previously mixed with its own weight of water. Rice 

 is often used and crushed with the husks on, when it is called Paddy, 

 or more properly Paddee. It is thus largely exported to Europe to 

 avoid duties, especially to England ; and is thus called cargo rice. 



