25)2 HICE. 



JKos. 2 and 3 were sown with long grain rice, the others with 

 small grain. These plantations were all on the river Waccamaw. 

 The expenses of a well supplied rice plantation may be stated at 

 33^ per cent, on the net income. 



A gentleman from the United States, named Colvin, proposes to 

 establish the cultivation of rice in the colony of Demerara. This is 

 no new experiment, rice having been already grown with success in 

 several parts of the colony for instance, in Leguan, up the Canje 

 Creek, and elsewhere ; and some of it is of superior quality, pre- 

 ferable, indeed, to that imported. If Mr. Colvin's object be not 

 merely to demonstrate the practicability of rice being grown in 

 British Guiana, but to promote its cultivation on such a scale 

 as may tend to render it in time one of the staples of the colony, 

 he is deserving of support, and I hope that his efforts will be 

 crowned with complete success. 



The editor of the Gazeta, a local paper, has been shown some 

 sprigs of rice raised near Matanzas, in Cuba, the smallest of which 

 contains at least three hundred grains, perfectly opened, and of a 

 larger size than is usually produced on the island. He observes 

 that this phenomenon is not limited to a certain number of sprigs, 

 but that the whole crop is similar that this excess of production 

 is to be attributed to the extraordinary abundance of rain this year. 

 "Here we have a specimen," says the editor, "of the enormous 

 production that could be raised in our fields of this excellent and 

 nutritious grain, if it were cultivated in places contiguous to the 

 rivers, where it could be flowed during drought." 



The experiment of cultivating rice in France appears to have suc- 

 ceeded perfectly. A piece of ground of 100 hectares in extent (250 

 acres) was sown with rice last year in the lands of Arcachon, near 

 Bordeaux, and the crop proved a highly satisfactory one. The seed 

 is sown about the middle of April, and almost immediately ap- 

 pears above ground. 



Bice may be kept a very long period in the rough I believe 

 a lifetime. After being cleaned, if it be prime rice, and well 

 milled, it will keep a long time in this climate ; only when about 

 to be used (if old) it requires more careful washing to get rid of 

 the must, which accumulates upon it. Some planters the writer 

 among the number prefer for table use rice a year old to the 

 new. The grain is superior to any other provisions in this re- 

 spect. If a laborer in the gold diggings, or elsewhere, takes with 

 him two days' or a week's provisions, in rice, and his wallet hap- 

 pens to get wet, he has only to open it to the sun and air, and 

 he will find it soon dries, and is not at all injured for his pur- 

 pose. Bough rice may remain under water twenty-four hours 

 without injury, if dried soon after. 



Passing eastward, rice begins to be found cultivated in Egypt, 

 becomes more general in Northern India, and holds undisputed 

 rule in the peninsulas of India, in China, Japan, and the East 

 India islands shares it in the west coast of Africa with maize, 

 which, on the other hand, is the exclusively cultivated corn plant of 



