THE WILD RICE OP NORTH AMERICA. 327 



country. In Minnesota, Illinois, and many other American States, as 

 well as Canada, it is common. 



When the rice begins to show the tender green blade above the 

 water, the lakes seem to be studded with low verdant islands. It comes 

 into flower in July and August. The leaves attain a great length, some 

 have been measured of the great length of 11 to 13 feet. In the month 

 of September, in Canada, in the North Western states, rather earlier, 

 the grains are fully ripe and withered. It is so loosely enclosed between 

 the bearded husks as to fall out at the slightest puff of wind, hence the 

 harvest can only be continued for a few days after the maturity of the 

 crop. The stalk and the branches or ears that have the seed, are de- 

 scribed as resembling oats, both in appearance and manner of growing, 

 the stalks being full of joints, and rising from two to four feet above 

 the level of the water. 



The squaws collect the seed by paddling through the rice beds, and 

 with a stick in one hand, and a sort of sharp-edged curved paddle in the 

 other, striking the ripe heads down into the canoe, the ripe grain 

 falling to the bottom. Many bushels are thus collected. An Indian 

 squaw will gather from five to ten bushels per day. "Very great 

 quantities grow on all the lakes in the Minnesota territory. The outlets 

 and bays are filled with it. It is the main reliance of the Indians 

 during the winter months, for their subsistence. The green rice is 

 dried in the following manner in Canada. The Indians make an 

 enclosure on a square area of dry ground, by sticking branches of pine 

 or cedar close together, to form a sort of hedge. In the centre of this 

 place they drive in forked sticks, in a square of several feet, across 

 which they lay others, and on this rude frame they extend mats of 

 bass or cedar, for the manufacture of which the Indian women are 

 renowned. They light a fire beneath this frame, and when reduced to 

 hot glowing embers, the rice is spread on the mats above the fire ; the 

 green enclosure is to keep the heat from escaping ; the rice is kept 

 stirred and turned with a wooden shovel or paddle, and after it is dried, 

 the husk is winnowed from it in large open baskets shaken in the 

 wind. 



Professor Randall, of Cincinnati, and General Veiplanck, late Com- 

 missioner to the Chippewa Indians, consider it to be superior in taste, 

 and far more nutritious than Southern rice. It is long, narrow, and of 

 an olive-green colour outside. The kernels are larger, and its flavour 

 is better ; for when boiled and stewed, and left to cool, it forms a con- 

 sistent mass, like good wheat bread. Boiled like ordinary rice it is 

 very palatable. The appearance, however, is not inviting, as the outer 

 skin of the hulled rice is dark -coloured, though the inside is white as 

 the Carolina kind. This may be owing to some difficulty in preserving 

 it, and, probably, if more completely hulled the objection would dis- 

 appear. 



