THE STAFF OF LIFE 9 



salt. Half the entire world has practically the same 

 diet. 



"The plant that produces rice has a stalk resem- 

 bling that of wheat, but instead of ending in an up- 

 right ear it bears a cluster of feeble 

 and pendent branches, all loaded with 

 seeds. The leaves are narrow and rib- 

 bon-shaped, rough to the touch. This 

 plant is aquatic. In order to flourish, it 

 must send down its roots into the sub- 

 merged mud and spread its foliage, ex- 

 cepting the tip, in the flood. Marshy 

 shallows, inundated a part of the year, 

 are adapted to its cultivation. ' ' 



"But what do they do where there are 

 no such marshes ? ' ' asked Louis. 



"When such marshes are lacking, the Eice 

 ingenious Chinaman floods the lowlands with water 

 from some near-by stream until the ground is all 

 soft and muddy. He then draws off the water 

 through a series of little canals, and works the mud 

 with a light plow drawn by a buffalo, a kind of ox 

 with a long beard hanging from its chin and a mane 

 waving on its back. 



' ' The seed once sown in the furrows and the young 

 plants started, the water from the stream is again 

 made to flood the fields, where it remains until har- 

 vest time. Then for the second time it is drawn 

 off, and the reaper, sickle in hand and with the black 

 mud up to his knees, cuts down the rice-laden tops 

 of the stalks. 



