CHAPTER XII 



RICE — Oryza sativa 



Rice is one of the grains included in the great family 

 of the grasses. Its seeds are borne in loose heads or 

 panicles at the top of each stem somewhat as in oats 

 (Fig. 109j. The root system is shallow and fibrous. Rice 

 is grown along coasts, from the Carolinas south, and also 

 in certain irrigable, low, inland regions. It is grown only 

 in tropical and subtropical regions and in the southern 

 part of the temperate zone. It is cultivated in practically 

 all countries having such climates. 



Rice serves as the principal food for a larger number 

 of human beings than any other crop. In the densely- 

 populated countries of Asia, especially in China, India, 

 and Japan, it is the principal article of human food. 



Rice was introduced into South Carolina near the close 

 of the seventeenth century. Until quite recently rice pro- 

 duction in the United States was centered in South Caro- 

 lina and in the arjjacent coastal regions of North Carolina, 

 Georgia, and Florida. After the civil war, rice culture 

 developed in the Mississippi bottoms in Louisiana, where 

 a small amount had been grown before the war. In the 

 eighties, the rice industry was established in the south- 

 western part of Louisiana. At the present time, this latter 

 region, with the adjacent portion of Texas, produces the 

 greater part of the American crop, which, in recent years, 



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