192 



It was Mr. Kittredge, I believe, who five or six 

 years ago furnished the Government of India with 

 particulars as to the mode of rice -cultivation pur- 

 sued in America, but they appear to have been 

 entirely ignored, for they do not seem to have 

 been adopted in any of the experiments instituted 

 since. Individuals were left very much to their 

 own resources and notions, and Carolina rice was 

 consequently sown on high land and on low land, 

 was sown broadcast and was transplanted from 

 nurseries in fact, was cultivated indiscriminately, 

 and in every possible way but the right way. 



The superiority of Carolina rice is, as I have 

 said, due to the peculiar mode of cultivation to 

 which the plant has become accustomed for nearly 

 two centuries ; and if we intend to successfully in- 

 troduce this important plant into India, and preserve 

 its valuable qualities, we must observe as closely as 

 possible the American method of cultivation. 



But, before detailing this method, it will interest 

 most of my readers to know how rice came to be 

 introduced into South Carolina ; the particulars are 

 related in Ramsay's " History of South Carolina" 

 as follows : 



" Landgrave Thomas Smith, who was Governor of South 

 Carolina in 1693, had been at Madagascar before he settled 

 in America, and, while there, paid some attention to the 

 cultivation of rice, and observed the peculiarities of soil and 

 climate under which it came to perfection. 



