WILD RICE. 

 BY FRANK FORD. 



The United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture has issued a bulletin — No. 50 — prepared 

 by the Bureau of Plant Industry, that an- 

 swers a great many of the inquiries received 

 by Recreation. Wild rice (Zizania aquatica) 

 is such an attractive lure for wild fowl that 

 sportsmen all over the country are anxious to 

 plant it in their favorite shooting grounds. 

 No doubt the plant will grow, when planted 

 in shoal lakes and sluggish streams, within 

 the limits of its natural habitat; but it is 

 possible that very many enthusiasts will be 

 disappointed when they attempt to rear the 

 plant outside the limits that nature has set to 

 its distribution. 



To be perfectly frank, up to the present", 

 most plantings of wild rice have been fail- 

 ures ; though it would seem, judging by the 

 experiments of Mr. F. V. Coville, botanist to 

 the Department of Agriculture, that the loss 

 of vitality in the seeds must have been due to 

 the scorching to which they were subjected 

 when gathered by the Indians, and by them 

 prepared for food. A series of experiments 

 show that the grain of wild rice is yet some- 

 what soft and moist at maturity, and is shed 

 into the water without hardening. Hence, it 

 was deduced, that the way to preserve the vi- 

 tality of the seed is to keep it from becoming 

 thoroughly dry, yet permitting sufficient ven- 

 tilation to prevent mildew. 



Mr. Coville recommends that buyers place 

 their orders at such season that the seed may 

 be shipped immediately on maturity, and that 

 they then sow the seed at once. 



With the use of wild rice as a cereal — 

 delicious as it is — we need not interest our- 

 selves ; all that we need inquire into is the 

 use of the plant as an attraction to wild 

 fowl. Wild rice appears to grow naturally 

 over a large area of the United States and 

 Southern Canada, and the same species is be- 

 lieved to be found in Japan, Formosa, and 

 China. Its most suitable environment in the 

 United States is in fresh-water lakes and riv- 

 er sloughs, and in the sea coast where the 

 fresh water from large rivers mingles with the 

 tide. It will not grow in water that contains 

 more than one and a half parts in every hun- 

 dred of salt, and this proportion may be de- 

 terminated with sufficient accuracy for practi- 

 cal purposes by the simole test of taste. 

 When the water is appreciably salt, it is then 

 too salt for growth of wild rice. 



Its chosen home is where the waters are 

 neither quite stagnant nor too swiftly mov- 

 ing, and, though it is tolerant of other soils, 

 it prefers soft and muddy bottoms. The 

 change in water level is a most important 

 factor. It fails in some of the northern in- 

 land lakes, because the annual change in level 

 exceeds two or three feet. This has given 

 rise to the vulgar opinion that wild rice grows 

 but in alternate years ; or, that, in any case, 

 it does not grow every year in any given lo- 

 cality. This idea has been proved by scien- 

 tific experimenters to be without foundation; 

 it has been shown that the observed irregu- 

 larity of its development is caused by the fluc- 

 tuation of the water level. 



These considerations show that the vitality 

 of the seedlings, under proper conditions, is 

 very, great, for when the growth of wild rice 

 is wholly prevented for a year by high water, 

 and a generous growth takes place abundantly 

 during the following season, the water hav- 

 ing resumed its normal level, there must, evi- 

 dently, be a large proportion of the seeds 

 living after remaining dormant for eighteen 

 months. 



Singularly enough, though, in tide water 

 there may be a change of level amounting to 

 more than three feet without affecting the 

 growtli. But in this connection it may be 

 observed that there is a recognizable differ- 

 ence between the plant as found, for instance, 

 by the Potomac and the wild rice as it grows 

 in Northern Minnesota. It is just possible 

 that, in the course of ages, a variety has been 

 evolved that is more tolerant than the typical 

 species of varying water pressures. 



According to the United States Department 

 of Agriculture, the wild fice plant is an an- 

 nual. It bears abundant crops of seed which 

 fall into the water as soon as ripe, and lie 

 on the mud until the following spring. If 

 conditions are then favorable, they germinate 

 and produce new plants. In the northern 

 lakes, the ribbon-like leaves are found upon 

 the surface of the water late in May. By the 

 latter part of June the leaves are above water. 

 In the South, the growth starts earlier. On 

 the muddy flats of the lower Potomac plants 

 may be six inches high by May 1 ; yet the 

 flowering and ripening of wild rice occurs 

 simultaneously in Minnesota and in the re- 

 gions along the Potomac. 



The Northern plant grows much more rap- 

 idly than the Southern variety. 



Panicles appear during the latter part of 



