RICE. 



315 



Although there are such innumerable varieties cultivated, practi- 

 cally they resolve themselves, agriculturally, into two kinds — the 

 upland or mountain rice, and the lowland or aquatic rice. 



Java rice is inferior to that of Bengal, or Carolina. This is not 

 attributable to any real inferiority in the grain, but chiefly to the 

 careless mode in which it is prepared for the market. In husking 

 the grain it is much broken ; and from carelessness in drying, it is 

 very subject to decay, from imbibing moisture and the attacks of 

 insects. TJnhusked rice or paddy may be kept sound for many 

 years ; indeed for table use, rice a year old is usually preferred by 

 judges. Of all the cereals it is the most compact, seldom weighing 

 less than 65 lbs. to the bushel. 



Rice does not contain half as much gluten as wheat, but has one- 

 fourth more starch in its composition, hence the preference given to it 

 by our starch makers, both from its cheapness and larger yield. 

 Professor Johnston found the proportions of water in rice to be as 



follows : 



Madras 13-5 



Bengal 13-1 



Patna 13-1 



Carolina 13*0 



Mr. Dugald Campbell, in a series of analyses, published in my 

 ' Technologist,' * on the amount of starch in rice, found in four 

 samples of pinky Madras rice an average of 13*57 per cent, of water, 

 and the proportions of starch in four qualities were : 



First quality 76-6 



Second „ 73-0 



Third „ 70-2 



Fourth „ 69-1 



Average of the four specimens . . 72-2 



The following are given by Dr. Watson as the composition of the 

 several varieties of rice named : 





Pegu. 



Bombay. 



Broach. 



Bareilly. 



Puiut 

 Mauimein. 



Nitrogenous matter 



Fatty or oily matter 

 Mineral constituents (ash) . . 



13-50 

 7-41 



78-10 

 0-40 

 0-59 



13-00 

 7-44 

 77-63 



0- 70 



1- 23 



13-10 

 7-12 



78-70 

 0-49 

 0-66 



12-80 

 8-24 



77-80 

 0-64 

 0-52 



12-90 

 7-24 



78-56 

 0-60 

 0-70 



Total 



100-00 



100-00 



100-00 



100 00 



100-00 



In Europe, America, and Africa the cultivation of rice is compara- 

 tively insignificant. It is in the intertropical countries of Asia that 

 rice is of the very first importance. Over the seaboards of the penin- 

 sulas of India and China, in Japan, and some of the eastern islands, it 

 holds undisputed sovereignty. 



* Vol. i. p. 191. 



