ON SOME UNTRIED EXPERIMENTS 



except in the moist retentive soils of the Sacra- 

 mento Valley, and to a certain extent in the Coa- 

 chella Valley. In the former region, however, the 

 reports as to the growth of the upland rice are 

 exceedingly favorable. 



I have tested different kinds of rice here on 

 several occasions, but the results -were not such as 

 to induce me to continue its culture, the condition 

 not being favorable. 



But the fact that varieties of rice have been 

 developed that grow on the upland gives assur- 

 ance that further development may be possible in 

 the direction of adapting the plant to general cul- 

 tivation on lands suitable for growing of other 

 cereals, as already demonstrated in the South. 

 Doubtless a good deal can be done also to make 

 rice a hardier plant through selective breeding; 

 and few attempts at plant development could have 

 greater importance, for rice is a grain not inferior 

 to wheat itself in nutritional value, and one that 

 might be cultivated far more extensively in this 

 country, to very great advantage. 



My own experiments have had "in view the pos- 

 sibility of the development of the American wild 

 rice of the northern lake regions. This, however, 

 is not a true rice, being classified as Zizania, while 

 rice belongs to the genus Oryza. Some twenty 

 years ago I desired to undertake such an experi- 



[275] 



