ON SOME UNTRIED EXPERIMENTS 



ment, and sent to many places in the United States 

 to get seed of the best varieties. But although I 

 secured seed of the wild rice (it is known to the 

 botanist as Zizania aquatica), my experiment, I 

 regret to say, never got beyond the preliminary 

 stages, because the seed would never germinate. 



After testing it in successive years I was con- 

 vinced that the seed of the wild rice must be gath- 

 ered fresh for planting. For its improvement it 

 would be necessary for men with boats to watch 

 individual plants, and gather seed for immediate 

 planting. 



The fact that the plant grows in the water 

 accounts, no doubt, for this unusual quality of the 

 seed, as it will not germinate after once being 

 dried like other grains. It grows always in stand- 

 ing water, and is generally collected by the In- 

 dians, who are extremely fond of it. They go out 

 in canoes when the wild rice is ripe, and bending 

 the rice over their canoes thresh it from the heads 

 into the boat. During the last year a well-known 

 San Francisco grain firm collected some of the 

 wild rice and kept it moist, and they expect to 

 make a successful introduction of it in this state. 

 Conceivably a commercial variety of importance 

 might be developed that would be hardier and 

 better adapted to the American climate than the 

 Oriental rice. 



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