LTIVATION OF PLANTS. 



Rice is cultivated to the best advantage in low marshy 

 grounds, or in situations where irrigation may be practiced 

 with facility. It is decidedly a marshy plant although one 

 kind of it, the mountain rice, thrives on the slopes of hills, 

 where it can only occasionally attain the necessary moisture. 

 In rice growing countries the fields are prepared in trenches, 

 in the bottom of which the seeds are planted regularly by the- 

 hand. The time this sowing takes place, generally early in 

 M \, depends measurably on the locality and the season. 

 When the sowing is completed, the ground is flooded with 

 water; the gates are then closed, and the seed germinates in 

 the moist soil. 



In about a month the fields are again inundated for the space 

 of several days. An interval now takes place until July, 

 during which time the plants are hoed and weeded. The 

 r is again admitted, and is allowed to remain (ill the crop 

 is fully ripe. General THOMAS PINCKNEY has furnished the 

 public with an interesting paper on the water-culture of rice; his 

 rxperiments are detailed with great precision; and in practice 

 they have proved highly beneficial.* The extensive cultiva- 

 tion of rice in the neighbourhood of large cities, has an un- 

 favourable influence, it is thought, upon the health of the in- 

 habitants. 



The Farmer's Assistant says, we believe that almost every 

 kind of soil is fitted for the growth of rice that is sufficiently 

 moist and rich. We have seen it flourish in a moist sandy 

 loam in North Carolina. We think it not improbable, taking 

 into the account the disposition of this plant to suit itself to the 

 varieties of climate, that at no very distant day it will be found 

 practicable to mature the crop in almost any part of the middle 

 states. 



8. THE CANARY GRASS, &c. 



THERE can be no inducement for us to enter into the exten- 

 sive cultivation of these and some other articles hereafter to be 

 mentioned. They are merely introduced to record the re- 

 sources of our agriculture the capabilities of our soil and cli- 

 mate, to produce and bring to perfection, any thing we need, 

 even in cases of necessity. 



The cereal grasses that have been enumerated, afford the 

 main part of the farinaceous food of mankind. Besides these, 

 however, other grasses are cultivated or used for their seeds, 



* See old American Farmer, vol. iii., for April 1823. 



