CULTIVATION OF PLANTS. H7 



7. RICE. 



RICE has been known and cultivated from the earliest records 

 of the human race; and is believed to furnish food, even at 

 the present day, to a greater number of human beings, than 

 any other grain. It is supposed to be a native of India. There 

 is held to be but one species oryza sativa common rice. 

 But there are sub-species and varieties. 



The rice plant is not unlike barley in appearance; the grain 

 is covered with a thick yellowish skin or husk, and has, like 

 barley, an awn or beard. Rice is spread over all the warmer 

 regions of the old world. From the south of Europe its cul- 

 ture has lately extended to the more northern parts to West- 

 phalia, and even to the low countries. It appears to be a plant 

 fitted in a remarkable degree to accommodate itself to different 

 situations. Centuries have elapsed since it was introduced into 

 the countries north of the Mediterranean Greece, Italy and 

 Spain. More recently it has extended to Hungary and cen- 

 tral Europe. 



The valuable large white rice for which the southern states 

 are so justly noted, came to us without book or direction, from 

 the most savage of the African islands, and from the fields of 

 Hindoostan, then entirely under their native princes, in the 

 years 1688 and 1696. It was at first planted on uplands, after- 

 wards in swamps. It has spread itself throughout South Ame- 

 rica and the West India Islands.* 



It flourishes most luxuriantly in the southern states. It was 

 not, however, very extensively cultivated until a short time pre- 

 vious to the revolution. Yet we find that the export of rice 

 in the year 1790, amounted to seventy-three thousand three 

 hundred and twenty-nine tierces about forty-four millions of 

 pounds, which at twenty dollars a tierce, is one million four 

 hundred and sixty-six thousand five hundred and eighty dollars. 

 This, on an average crop, is the produce of only sixty-five 

 square miles. By the report of the Secretary of the Treasury 

 it appears that the exports of rice for the year ending October 

 1, 1837, amounted to one hundred and six thousand and eighty- 

 four tierces, of the value of two millions three hundred and 

 nine thousand two hundred and seventy-nine dollars. 



* Rice was first planted in Carolina by NATHANIEL JOHNSON, Governor of 

 the Province, in 1668; but owing to the defect of the seed and other causes, 

 its culture not proving successful, was abandoned. In the year 1695, a vessel 

 arrived at Charleston, South Carolina, from Madagascar, the master of which, 

 furnished a Mr. WOODWARD with about half a bushel of rice, of superior 

 quality, and from this small beginning sprung an immense source of comfort 

 as well as of wealth to the southern states. "So much for the remnant of a sea 

 store left in the bottom of a bag." Editor. 



