132 AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 



" A different method is practised in the northern part of 

 Italy. The seed is sown in April ; previously to which it is 

 soaked a day or two in water. After sowing, about two 

 inches of water is let in upon the ground. The rice comes 

 up through the water, which is then drawn off to give the 

 plant strength, and after some days, is again let on. The 

 rice is more apt to mildew under this practice, than our meth- 

 od of letting the water on about the time the Italians draw it 

 off. 



" The same measure of ground yields three times as much 

 riee as as wheat. The only labor, after sowing, is to see 

 that the rice is properly irrigated, except in some localities 

 where aquatic plants prove troublesome, the water effectual- 

 ly destroying all others. 



"The rice-grounds of the lower Mississippi produce about 

 seventy-five dollars worth of rice per acre. The variety 

 called the Creole white rice is considered to be the best. In 

 the eastern part of the State of Mississippi, called the ' piney 

 iwods,' rice is very generally cultivated on the uplands. Al- 

 though it can not be made a profitable article of export, yet it 

 affords the people of that interior region an abundant supply 

 of a healthy and nutritious food for themselves, and a good 

 provender for their cattle, and makes them independent of 

 the foreign market. Unlike other kinds of grain, it can be 

 kept for many years without spoiling, in a warm climate, by 

 simply winnowing it semi-annually, which prevents the 'wee- 

 vil and a small black insect that sometimes attacks it. It is 

 cultivated entirely with the plow and harrow, and grows well 

 on the pine barrens. A bull-tongued plow, a kind of shovel 

 plow drawn by one horse, is driven through the unbroken 

 pine-forest ; not a tree being cut or belted, and no grubbing 

 being necessary, as there is little or no undergrowth. The 

 plow makes a shallow furrow about an inch or two deep, the 

 furrows about three feet apart. The rice is dropped into them 

 and covered with a harrow. The middles, or spaces be- 

 tween the furrows, are not broken up until the rice attains 

 several inches in height. One or two plowings suffice in the 

 piney woods for its cultivation weeds and grass, owing to 

 the nature of the soil, not being troublesome. A similar 

 method of cultivation obtains on the prairie land of the north- 

 western states. 



" Rice, like hemp, does not impoverish the soil. On the 

 contrary, it is a good preparatory crop for some others, as In- 

 dian corn. The pine barrens of Mississippi would produce rice 



