THE REFERENDUM 



281 



July, and the flowers open immediately. The 

 glumes of the pistillate spread, to allow the 

 stigmas to protrude and be pollinated ; and, 

 closing again, soon after fertilization is ac- 

 complished, leave the withered stigmas out- 

 side. Immediately after fertilization, the 

 young seed begins to elongate, and gradu- 

 ally fill the space within the floral envelope. 

 This development requires two or three 

 weeks, and as soon as it is completed the can- 

 nection with the stigma is weakened, and the 

 seed falls off. The time for maturing of the 

 different seeds in a single panicle extends 

 over several days, the seeds on the tips of the 

 branches ripening first. The seeds, on fall- 

 ing, usually strike on water, with the point 

 of attachment below, and immediately sink to 

 the bottom. If, by accident, the distal end 

 strikes first, enough small particles of air 

 are caught by the barbs borne there to keep 

 the seed on the surface for a time; but as 

 these bubbles escape the seed sinks. Distinct 

 differences in the size and form of the pan- 

 icle, the coloration and the size of the seed 

 have been noticed in wild rice flowers in va- 

 rious regions, but there is, as yet, insufficient 

 evidence to justify making a new species. 

 The wild rice of Northern Minnesota and 

 that growing in the lower Potomac, show 

 the extreme variation in some respects. The 

 Potomac plants grow to ten feet in height, 

 and the panicle sometimes exceeds two feet 

 from the lower point to the extremity of the 

 pistil. The Northern form is rarely more 

 than seven feet in height. The panicle never 

 exceeds twenty inches, and is more often less 

 than sixteen inches in length. The Potomac 

 plants carry seventeen to twenty-seven seeds; 

 the Minnesota plants, from three to nine. 

 On the other hand, the Northern seeds are 

 much larger and thicker than those of the 

 Potomac. 



The seed is harvested by one Indian poling 

 the canoe through the fields of wild rice, 

 while his comrade reaches for the plants from 

 the sides of the canoe with two short sticks, 

 beating the rice stalks lightly, and causing 

 the ripened seed to fall upon mats lining the 

 canoe. The same ground is gone over four 

 or five times, with an interval of two or three 

 days between visits. 



The following recommendations have been 

 issued by the Bureau of Plant Industry, and 

 by attending to them prospective rice grow- 

 ers will possibly avoid much disappointment: 



1. Orders should be placed before the har- 

 vest season has commenced, so that the seed 

 may be shipped immediately after it is gath- 

 ered. 



2. Care should be taken to gather only 

 fully matured seed. 



3. Seed should not be allowed to dry 

 when it is to be used for propagation. For 

 shipment or storage, it must be kept wet, with 

 frequent changes of water. If packed, it 

 should be placed in ventilated packages. 

 Whenever practicable, autumn planting is 

 recommended. 



4. Care should be used in selecting the 

 place for planting seed, to get the proper 

 depth of water; from one to three feet, with 

 a thick layer of soft mud underneath, and the 

 water should neither be quite stagnant nor 

 too swiftly moving. 



Although the autumn planting is undoubt- 

 edly to be preferred, it is possible to keep 

 wild rice through the winter, and plant suc- 

 cessfully in the following spring. Mr. D. W. 

 Hallam, of Dover, N. H., has proved this by 

 Ins own experiments, lie says: "The wild 

 rice was ordered with instructions to ship as 

 soon as gathered, without drying. I received 

 it on the 27th day of October, 1902. The bar- 

 rel was placed on end in the shade out of 

 doors, the head taken out, with about a bushel 

 of seed, and a faucet was put in at the bottom 

 to dram the water. The seed was weighted 

 with a cover, and cold water enough to fill the 

 barrel put in each morning and drained out 

 daily. The barrel was kept full. On the 5th 

 of December ice began to form on the inside 

 of the barrel. Care was taken in adding 

 water so as not to burst the barrel. By the 

 25th of December there was a frozen mass of 

 ice and seed that filled' the barrel. No .water 

 was then added until the middle of March, 

 and then only enough to keep the barrel full, 

 for as yet there was quite a mass of ice and 

 seed. Since April began it has been neces- 

 sary to change the water daily. Our water 

 here is quite cold, 45 deg. to 55 deg. Fahr. 1 

 have sent a sample bottle." 



The seed received from Mr. Hallam with 

 this letter had germinated, and had sprouts 

 from one-half to one inch in length when it 

 arrived. Later, a larger quantity of seed, 

 about two quarts, was received from Mr. Hal- 

 lam, of which 75 per cent, had germinated. 



It seems from the results of the experi- 

 ments referred to that wild rice can be sue- 

 cessfully grown from seed either by sowing 

 the fresh seed as soon as it is gathered, or 

 by keeping it in water over the winter and 

 sowing in the spring. In most instances it 

 will no doubt be found more satisfactory to 

 sow in the fall, providing the place sown can 

 be protected from waterfowl, and animals 

 likely to destroy the seed, since such a prac- 

 tice will avoid the trouble of keeping the 

 seed wet during the winter. When the seed 

 is kept in water, either for storage or trans- 

 portation, the water must be changed fre- 

 quently or aerated, as fermentation sets in if 

 it is allowed to stand for any length of time, 

 destroying the seeds' vitality. 



The seed can be shipped, or stored, for a 

 short time by packing it in dampened moss 

 or excelsior, and this is a convenient way 

 to prepare it for shipment. It is necessary to 

 separate the seed from the moss, or excelsior, 

 by layers of cloth, as it cannot conveniently 

 be sown when mixed with either. The pack- 

 age, when made up thus for shipment, must 

 not be too thick or too tight to prevent some 

 slight circulation of air, or fermentation will 

 at once set in. 



