30 



The World's Commercial Products 



Rice is of minor importance in Australasia, although grown to a considerable extent in 

 New South Wales, Queensland, and in the Sandwich Islands among other places. In 

 Europe, Italy is the chief seat of rice cultivation, and is the only country on the continent 

 in which the production is greater than the local demand. It is estimated that in the valley 

 of the Po there are about 500,000 acres under rice,. producing some 27,000,000 bushels annually. 

 Spain, Portugal, and Greece follow next in order of importance, whilst even in France, in the 

 valley of the Rhone, the plant .is. cultivated. 



In North America rice is an important crop in the United States, the centres of production 

 being Louisiana, Georgia, and South and North Carolina. 



Comparatively recently, due in great measure to, the introduction of East Indian labourers, 

 rice has been cultivated to a considerable extent in British Guiana, British Honduras, Trinidad, 



Jamaica, and St. Lucia. 

 British Guiana offers the 

 most favourable conditions, 

 and instead of the small 

 patches of a few years ago 

 thousands of acres are now 

 under rice cultivation on 

 the coast lands. Rice may 

 yet become one of the 

 important crops of the 

 Colony. 



The rice plant belongs 

 to the great tribe of the 

 grasses just as do wheat, 

 barley, oats, Indian corn, 

 and the other cereals. The 

 scientific name of the plant 

 is Oryza sativa, but as is 

 the case with most plants 

 which have been cultivated 

 for long periods, and on an 

 extensive scale, there are a 

 large number of varieties, 

 the descendants of the 

 original wild stock. These 

 varieties sufficiently re- 

 semble one another to be 

 classed as rice, but in the 

 countries in which they occur each has its own particular local name, and differs from other 

 varieties in size, shape, and colour of grain, in the time taken to ripen, in cooking qualities, 

 in flavour, and in various other particulars, just as do the different kinds of wheat. In the 

 museum at Calcutta there are no less than 1,107 different varieties of Indian rice, in addition 

 to 1,300 kinds from other countries. In Ceylon some 160 varieties are recognised, and the Straits 

 Settlements and the Federated Malay States possess a considerable number. In Japan and 

 China there are numerous varieties, so that altogether the kinds of rice recognised and 

 distinguished by separate names in the East must be reckoned in thousands. The courts of 

 the Eastern Colonies at the Imperial Institute, London, will allow anyone readily to see many 

 of these. In addition to the true rice there is a closely related plant bearing a very similar 

 seed, but which, instead of being mainly composed of starch, contains a more sugary material, 

 so that on boiling, the grains do not remain distinct, but form a soft sticky mass of a 



CEYLON. ELEPHANT DRAWING A RICE PLOUGH 



