BICE. 285 



superior quality, but the Carolina rice, exhibited by E. I. Heriot, 

 was pronounced by the jury " magnificent in size, color, and clear- 

 ness," and it was awarded a prize medal. The jury also admitted 

 that the American rice, though originally imported from the Old 

 World, is now much the finest in quality. 



This grain was first introduced into \ 7 lrginia by Sir William 

 Berkeley, in 1647, who received half a bushel of seed, from which 

 he raised sixteen bushels of excellent rice, most or all of which 

 was sown the following year. It is also stated that a Dutch brig, 

 from Madagascar, came to Charleston in 1694, and left about a 

 peck of paddy (rice in the husk), with Governor Thomas Smith, 

 who distributed it among his friends for cultivation. Another 

 account of its introduction into Carolina is, that Ashley was en- 

 couraged to send a bag of seed rice to that province, from the 

 crops of which sixty tons were shipped to England in 1698. It 

 soon after became the chief staple of the colony. Its culture was 

 introduced into Louisiana in 1718, by the " Company of the 

 West." 



The present culture of rice in the United States is chiefly con- 

 fined to South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, 

 and Texas. The yield per acre varies from twenty to sixty bushels, 

 weighing from forty-five to forty-eight pounds when cleaned. 

 Under favorable circumstances as many as ninety bushels to an 

 acre have been raised. 



Judge Dougherty, who resides near the borders of Henderson 

 county, Texas, has raised a crop of several hundred bushels of 

 upland rice. The crop averages thirty bushels to the acre. He 

 thinks rice can be raised there as easily as Indian corn, and 

 will be far more profitable. 



Another variety is cultivated in America to a limited extent, 

 called Cochin- China, dry, or mountain rice, from its adaptation to 

 a dry soil, without irrigation. It will grow several degrees fur- 

 ther north or south than the Carolina rice, and has been cultivated 

 with success in the Northern provinces of Hungary, China, West- 

 phalia, Virginia and Maryland ; but the yield is much less than 

 that already stated, being only fifteen to twenty bushels to an 

 acre. It was first introduced into Charleston, from Canton, by 

 John Brodly Blake, in 1772.* 



The American crop of rice in 1848, reached 162,058 tierces in 

 market, and of these 160,330 tierces were exported from South 

 Carolina. The largest rice crop grown in South Carolina for the 

 past thirty years, was in 1847, when 192,462 tierces were raised ; 

 140,000 to 150,000 is about the average, and it has only exceeded 

 170,000 on four occasions. 



The amount of rice exported from South Carolina in 1724, was 

 18,000 barrels ; in 1731, 41,957 barrels ; in 1740, 90,110 barrels ; 

 in 1747-48, 55,000 barrels ; in 1754, 104,682 barrels ; in 1760-61, 

 100,000 barrels ; from Savannah, in 1755, 2,299 barrels, besides 

 237 bushels of paddy or rough rice ; in 1760, 3,283 barrels, besides 

 208 bushels of paddy ; in 1770, 22,120 barrels, besides 7,064 



