RICE. 



313 



In 1872 there were 698,091 hectares under maize and millet, 

 which was somewhat under the quantity in previous years, for in 

 1870 there were 1,653,000 acres under Indian corn. The produce in 

 1872 was 11,685,832 hectolitres. 



In Algeria much attention is not given to the culture of maize, as 

 it requires good land and ii-rigation. It is sown in March and Aj)ril, 

 according to the season. The forty days' variety is harvested in 

 June ; the larger kinds in July and August. The mean ^produce on 

 ii-rigated land is 18 to 20 cwt. per hectare ; on dry land it is not a 

 third of this. 



There were in 1870 about 19,000 hectares under cultui-e, which 

 produced 210,4:05 hectolitres. In 1874 there were under culture 

 about 47,000 hectares, chiefly by the natives, as only 5000 were culti- 

 vated by Europeans. 



Maize Starch. — A large quantity of Indian corn is employed in 

 America and this country in making starch, or what is known as corn 

 flour, and maizena. In this manufacture the maize is softened in a 

 solution of carbonate of soda and crushed in mills, on which water is 

 poured. The milky liquid which flows is diluted with water, and 

 conveyed over a large sieve, on an incKned surface, the fibres, &c., 

 being left on the sieve. The starch is deposited on the inclined plane, 

 while the fatty and nitrogenous substances pass ofi' with the liquid into 

 the vat. The starch is collected, washed, and dried. The residues 

 remaining on the sieve are employed for feeding stock and in paper 

 making, the oil or fat in soap making. 



There is a small sweet variety grown in Demerara, called cariaca, 

 which ripens its grain in less than two months from the time of sow- 

 ing. It is in every respect more diminutive than the ordinary Indian 

 corn, being very slender in its stalk, and with the leaves and ears 

 also small in comparison with the ordinary kinds. The flavour of the 

 cariaca is very fine roasted in the milk, that is, before the grain is 

 fully ripe, when it is very soft and juicy. Indeed it is usually pre- 

 pared in this way, and seldom permitted to arrive at maturity. You 

 see the negroes mimching the grain off the roasted cob. The natives 

 sometimes crush and bake it, and it makes a nutritious, juicy sort of 

 bread, which they call " cachapo." 



EICE. 



One of the most extensively diffused and useful of the grain crops, 

 and supporting the greatest number of the human race, is rice. It 

 occupies, in fact, the same place in most intertropical regions that 

 wheat does in the warmer parts of Europe, and oats and rye in those 

 more to the north. It is raised in immense quantities in India, China, 

 Java, and most Eastern coimtries ; in parts of the West Indies, Central 

 America, and the United States, and in some of the southern coimtries 

 of Europe. The chief food of perhaps one-third of the human race, 

 it affords the advantages attending wheat, maize, and other grains, 

 while it is susceptible of cultivation on land too low and moist for 

 the production of other useful plants. 



The rice from the Southern States of America is decidedly the best 



