104 PHILIPPINE AGRICULTURE 



or quite as early. It was the staple cultivated crop of all 

 the Malayan region before the time of Magellan. 



Varieties. There are more varieties of rice than of 

 any other crop. In India alone, there are supposed to 

 be more than a thousand kinds. There were 151 Philip- 

 pine varieties in one exhibit at the Exposition of 1895, m 

 Manila. American and Japanese rice are the best in the 

 world ; of course there are many varieties in each of 

 these countries. American rice sells in Europe at twice 

 the price of Indian rice. 



Japan exports great quantities of her fine rice, and 

 imports more still, at a much lower price. Therefore, 

 by raising a superior variety, the Japanese can consume 

 much more rice than they produce, without the added 

 amounts costing them anything. Experiments have 

 shown that at least one kind of Carolina rice will grow in 

 Manila, and produce a better rice in a shorter time than 

 any kind already grown here. 



Wild Rice. Wild rice, whether it is native or escaped 

 from cultivation, is found wherever rice is cultivated. It 

 always differs from the cultivated rice in having fruit 

 which falls to the ground as stfon as it is ripe. Also, the 

 wild rice usually has long awns, or bristles, connected 

 with the flowers; the shoots are prostrate rather than 

 erect; and the leaf-sheaths are swollen up, and serve as 

 floats when the water rises. 



When wild rice gets into a field with cultivated rice, 

 its seed falls to the ground before the crop is gathered, 

 and so is lost. Unless it is killed in some way, this wild 



