ECONOMIC PLANTS 213 



Fall-grown cowpeas, velvet beans, or hairy vetch 

 green-manured in the spring will render a field in good 

 condition for planting rice in early June. 



Uses of Rice. Rice is a fat-producing and heat- 

 giving rather than a flesh-forming food. Owing to 

 the small quantity of gluten it contains, it is unfit for 

 being baked into bread. The Japanese make a beer 

 from it which is in general use among them, but is 

 always heated before being drunk. The Chinese make 

 several kinds of rice wine, some of which they esteem 

 very highly because of their great intoxicating qualities. 



A starch made from rice is in common use in 

 England in laundries and muslin manufactories. Rice 

 straw is much used for plaiting. The refuse from 

 cleaning rice for market, known as rice meal and rice 

 dust, is valuable as a stock food. Experiments are 

 being made in Texas with satisfactory results in feeding 

 poor rice crops to stock. There is a considerable loss 

 each year from the fact that a certain portion of the 

 crop is unmarketable owing to damage in harvesting or 

 storing. It is thought that if rice meal is valuable 

 as a stock food, the whole grain may be even more so. 

 This use of the damaged crop or of the surplus in some 

 years may prevent much waste. 



SUGAR PLANTS 



Sugar Cane. --The three sugar plants are sugar 

 cane, sorghum, and sugar beets. The united farm value 

 of sugar beets and sugar cane in the United States and 

 her possessions in 1912 was more than $60,000,000. 

 The sugar cane is grown in all the South Atlantic and 

 Gulf states for sirup making, and for sugar making in 

 Florida, Louisiana, and Texas. It is a well-known fact 



