22-i 



HISTORY OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



The Chinese method of raising rice is thus de- 

 tailed by Duhamel : 



" To Iiasten the germination of the seed-rice 

 it is placed in baskets and immersed during some 

 days in standing water. 



" When the ground is so thorouglily soaked 

 tliat the surface is lilce soft mud, it is ploughed 

 with a buffalo, yoked to a very simple plough, 

 without wheels, and having only one handle. 

 The clods are after this broken down by means 

 of a rude kind of hurdle, drawn also by a buffalo, 

 the driver sitting upon the hurdle to increase the 

 weight. The ground is cleared very carefully 

 of all stones, and whatever weeds may be found 

 are diligently removed with their roots. The 

 land is then partly covered with water, and 

 smoothed by a harrow which has several rows 

 of great iron teeth. 



" The seed-rice, when it has once sprouted, is 

 known to be good ; grains not in this situation 

 are rejected, and the remainder is sown by hand 

 very thickly and as equally as possible upon a 

 part only of the land, which is thus used as a 

 sort of nursery for the remainder. The land 

 having at this time upon it just as much water 

 as -will barely cover it, the points of the plants 

 appear above the surface one day after the seed 

 has been sown. 



" In a short time, when the plants have ac- 

 fiuired a little strength, they are sprinkled over 

 with lime-water, the object of this being the 

 destruction of insects. For this purpose a small 

 basket with a long handle is used, and this being 

 filled by immersion in the lime-water, the fluid 

 I'uns through in divided portions over the plants. 

 Tliis practice is found to be so efficacious, that 

 tlie Chinese are said to hold its first inventor in 

 the highest veneration. 



"Towards April, when the plants cover thickly 

 the ground that has been sown, the greatest part 

 of them are pulled up with their roots and planted 

 in tufts, pretty far asunder in a quincunx form, in 

 fields prepared for their reception. A serene day 

 is chosen for this operation, which must be per- 

 formed quickly, so that the plants are as short a 

 time as possible out of the ground. 



"After this, water is admitted to ovei-flowthe 

 rice, the grounds being, for this purpose, always 

 situated near a rivulet, pond, or great pool of 

 water, from which they are separated only by a 

 bank which may readily be cut. It sometimes 

 happens, however, that the water is below the 

 level of the fields, in wliioh case the necessary 

 quantity is conveyed in buckets, which are 

 worked chiefly by the aid of ropes, — a most la- 

 borious occupation. 



"Though a man cannot step in these rice- 

 grounds without sinking up to his knees, the 

 Chinese weed them three times during the sum- 

 mer, and that so carefully, that every weed they 

 can find is pulled up by the roots. 



"When the rice is ripe, which is known in 

 the same manner as wheat, by its turning yellow, 

 it is cut down with a sickle, made into sheaves, 

 and conveyed into a barn, where it is threshed 

 with flails very similar to those used among our- 

 selves." The liusk and inner . pellicle are re- 

 moved by beating and trituration, pretty much 

 in the same manner as has already been de- 

 scribed. 



The Chinese plant their seed-rice at regular in- 

 tervals, and carefully weed and raise up the soil 

 between the plants; thus they have practised for 

 ages the system of drilling and hoeing grain, 

 which has been but lately introduced into the 

 husbandry of Europe. The method of cultivat- 

 ing rice in Ilindostan very much resembles that 

 of the Chinese. 



In both India and China i-ice forms tJie 

 subsistence of the native population, more 

 exclusively and to a greater extent than can per- 

 haps be said of any other vegetable substance in 

 any known region of the globe. In the coun- 

 tries just mentioned, as well as in those districts 

 of Africa where it is used indiscriminately with 

 maize, rice undergoes but little culinary prepar- 

 ation, being, for the most part, simply boiled 

 with water, and eaten either by itself, or accom- 

 panied by some stimulating or oily substance. 

 In countries, on the other hand, where it is em- 

 ployed only as an auxiliary article of food, rice 

 is subjected to a greater degree of preparation for 

 the table, and except ^^-hen used to thicken 

 broths, is seldom presented, unless after concoc- 

 tion with eggs, and milk, and sugar, which cover 

 the natural insipidity of the grain. 



When our grain crops happen to be deficient 

 in this country, it has been proposed to mix a 

 quantity of rice with wheat, or rye flour for 

 making bread. This has been tried with some 

 success, though it is alleged that such bread 

 soon becomes dry and unpleasant. 



The method is as follows : — First reduce the 

 rice to powder in a mill, or throw the whole 

 grains into water at nearly a boihng heat, 

 and allow them to soak during some hours. 

 Then drain off the water, and when the rice shall 

 have become sufficiently dry, beat it in a mortar, 

 and pass the powder through a fine sieve. This 

 flour must next be placed in a kneading-trough, 

 and moistened in the necessary degree with water 

 rendered glutinous by boiling whole rice in it for 

 some time ; add salt, and the proper quantity of 

 leaven or yeast, and knead the whole intimately 

 together. The dough must then be covered with 

 warm cloths and left to rise. During this fer- 

 mentative process, the dough, which was of a 

 pretty firm consistence, wiU become so soft as 

 not to be capable of being formed into loaves. It 

 is, therefore, placed in tire requisite quantities as 

 in forms, and these being covered with larger 

 leaves, or with sheets of papci', arc introduced 



