BREAD PLANTS 5 



found the Governor to be an old acquaintance. 

 During their exchange of visits a bag of rice was 

 brought ashore, and the Governor had it sown 

 on a piece of swampy land he owned. The crop 

 was a good one, and the planters of the neighbour- 

 hood went enthusiastically into rice culture. 

 A dozen years later seventeen shiploads of rice 

 left the port for England — the beginning of our 

 export trade in this grain. 



The Carolinas, Louisiana, and (lately) Texas, 

 are the rice-growing states. Japan, Hawaii, and 

 Mexico ship rice to American markets. The 

 spread of rice culture was rapid under the slavery 

 system in the South, but the Civil War almost 

 ruined it. Slowly and steadily it has revived, 

 and now is a great and growing agricultural in- 

 dustry. 



The centuries of cultivation have developed 

 many kinds of rice adapted to different soils, 

 different regions, different modes of culture. 

 Over two thousand varieties are listed. No 

 other grain has as many. If no other record 

 existed to prove the antiquity of the domestication 

 of the wild species, the multitude of varieties would 

 be proof enough. Most of them must be grown 

 on level fields that can be flooded. But there are 

 varieties that need the same treatment as wheat. 



