38 AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY. 



beards, some that ripen early and some late. There is also a 

 variety, mountain-rice {O. vwntana, Lour.), Japanese Okabo, which 

 does not require so great an amount of water as the others, being 

 satisfied, like other cereals, with the ordinary moistening of its 

 roots by rain. Hence it grows in higher places and on sloping 

 ground, and has also a shorter term of vegetation (four months, 

 instead of five or six), flourishing therefore in climates which are 

 too severe for common rice. But the stalks of this mountain-rice 

 are shorter, its grains smaller, its crops less than those of the other 

 kind. We therefore find it grown only to a very subordinate ex- 

 tent in the chief rice-countries of the world. 



The grains of rice grow in close union with the awns, and are 

 therefore angular, so that in this, as in their general shape and size, 

 and in colour, they bear most resemblance to barley, without how- 

 ever being so well filled out in the middle. Unhulled rice goes, 

 in India and in the trade, by the name of Paddy. It is often 

 brought to Europe now-a-days in this condition, is hulled here, and 

 in this way comes into the inland trade in fuller, handsomer form 

 than that which was imported ready for the kitchen. To this ad- 

 vantage it adds also greater durability. 



In other than tropical countries rice is one of the summer 

 crops, and in its term of development, — usually six months (from 

 May to October), — it requires an average temperature of at least 

 20° C, and a soil saturated with water, at least in the early half 

 of its period of vegetation. Its need of a warm climate is greater 

 than that of most other kinds of grain ; and it demands a larger 

 amount of moisture than almost all other cultivated plants of any 

 importance, not excepting the date-palm. In consequence of these 

 requirements we find rice culture only in the tropical and warmer 

 parts of the temperate zone, especially in depressions where it is 

 possible to water the level plain, or where this is rendered unneces- 

 sary by frequent copious rains. In all Eastern and South-eastern 

 Asia, as Grisebach rightly remarks in his " Vegetation der Erde," 

 the first natural principle of rice-culture in its earliest stage is the 

 utilization of the rainy season, which follows the change of monsoon 

 in spring. 



But the advent of these monsoon rains does not take place 

 always and everywhere with its usual regularity and strength. 

 Wherever, as in most parts of Hindostan and Further India, irriga- 

 tion is not extensively carried out, a delay of these monsoon rains 

 causes a general protraction of planting ; and a short supply 

 of rain brings failure of the crops, and famine. Japan is to a 

 certain extent independent of these monsoon rains, thanks to its 

 mountains, rich in snow and water, and to its systems of irrigation, 

 which, like those of China, are in part several thousand years old. 

 It has therefore a fixed time for sowing and harvest, which we 

 must consider quite necessary, owing to its long, cold winter. The 

 climate in India, on the contrary, being warmer, the time for rice 



