216 SMALL GRAINS 



contain little nourishment. The mixture is often sold as rice bran. 



Types. The rice grown in America is chiefly of two vari- 

 eties Honduras and Japan. The Honduras has much grain and 

 tall stiff stalk. The Japanese has short grain with thick hull, and 

 stalk not so tall. It mills more hard rice than Honduras, partly 

 because the grains are less broken in hulling and polishing processes. 



Culture. In the South Carolina district, where lowland rice 

 is grown, the seed is drilled in trenches about eighteen or 

 twenty inches apart. The trenches or furrows are flooded with 

 water till the seed sprouts, after which the water is drawn off until 

 the rice plants are several inches high. Water is again kept on 

 the field for ten days or two weeks, partly to kill the weeds and 

 partly to give the rice crop the desired moisture conditions. The 

 field is flooded a third time shortly before the grain is mature. 

 To carry out this plan it is necessary to have the flooding and 

 drainage conditions under control. Where a water supply is avail- 

 able for flooding it may be controlled by means of dams with gates, 

 which are opened or closed as desired. 



Where upland rice is grown in Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas 

 the soil is prepared as for wheat and the seed is drilled with or- 

 dinary grain drills. Some of the upland strains of rice are not 

 flooded or irrigated, but where water is available it should be used. 

 Upland rice is also grown in drills far enough apart for cultivation 

 for the purpose of keeping down the weeds. Sometimes the seed 

 is sown with a number in a hill, the distances between hills in the 

 row being wide enough to allow the use of a hoe if necessary. 

 Where irrigation is possible the weeds may be kept in check by 

 this method and less cultivation and hand labor required. The 

 yield and quality are both improved by irrigation. 



Harvesting the Crop. Self-binders are used in the harvest 

 of rice on fields from which the water can be readily drained. 

 The shocking is carefully done to prevent damage to the heads 

 from rains and weather. A slow drying process is desirable. After 

 the grain is very hard it is thrashed with an ordinary grain thrash- 

 ing machine. A fair yield for irrigated rice is thirty-five to seventy 

 bushels per acre. A bushel of rough rice weighs forty-five pounds. 



BUCKWHEAT 



Buckwheat is not a true grass, but belongs to a different bo- 

 tanical family. Its value as grain, however, is similar to that of 

 the other cereals. It is much used for human food in the form of 



