RICE. 



291 



??cription of tlie swamp rice. It will grow on high and poor land, 

 and produce more than Indian corn on the same land would do, 

 even fifteen bushels, when the corn is but seven bushels. The 

 swamp rice was originally cultivated on high land, and is not so 

 now, because it is more productive in the swamp, in the propor- 

 tion, as is said, of twenty to sixty bushels per acre ; and the use 

 of water likewise, it is stated, makes it easier of cultivation, bj 

 enabling the planter to kill the grasses. It is thought that on 

 rich high land, rice may be made to produce twenty-five or thirty 

 bushels to an acre in a good season. A letter from a gentleman 

 in Xorth CaroHna gives the following account of some rice raised 

 there. He says : — 



" I have planted it the two past years with a view to private consumption 

 only; not, however, with the success of my neighhours, who are famous, 

 and have the things under their own management. They make from forty 

 to fifty, and some, sixty bushels to the acre, on fine land that produces 

 ordinarily from ten to fifteen bushels of Indian corn or maize. It is a larger 

 grain than the gold or swamp rice, and very white; hence it is commonly called 

 here the ' white rice.' It is planted generally about the middle of March, or 

 1st of April, in small ridges two-and-a-half feet apart, in chops at intervals 

 of about eighteen inches, on the top of the ridge, ten or twelve seeds in each 

 chop, A season that will make Indian corn, will, if long enough, make this 

 rice ; but it requires about four or five weeks more than the corn to mature. 

 It ought to be cut before quite ripe, as it threshes oft' very easily, and is liable 

 to great waste. Instead of the flail, we take the sheaf in the hand, and whip 

 it across a bench in a close room until the rice leaves the straw. It does not 

 stand the pestle as well as the swamp rice, but breaks a good deal in the beat- 

 ing ; this, however, I have heard attributed to the dry culture." 



A new variety of rice is mentioned as having been discovered 

 in South Carolina, in 1838, called the big-grained rice. It has 

 been proved to be unusually productive. One gentleman, in 1840, 

 planted not quite half an acre with this seed, which yielded fort}^- 

 nine and a half bushels of clean winnowed rice. In 1842, he 

 planted 400 acres, and in 1843, he sowed his whole crop with this 

 seed. His first parcel when milled, was eighty barrels, and netted 

 half a dollar per cwt. over the primest rice sold on the same day. 

 Another gentleman also planted two fields in 1839, which yielded 

 seventy-three bushels per acre. The average crop before from the 

 same fields of fifteen and ten acres, had only been thirty-three 

 bushels per acre. 



The following were the returns of produce on some of the lead- 

 ing estates of South Carolina, in 1848 : — 



Plantation. 



Barrels Ship- 

 ped. 



Barrels 

 of 



6001b3.net. 



Net 

 Weight. 



Average ^Tet 

 Produce, 

 per barrel. 



Net In com 

 Amount. 

 Dollars. 



Whole. 



Half. 



1. Prospect Hill 



2. Springfijld 



3. Brook Green 



4. Longwood 



5. Alderly 



1,387 

 737 

 1,571 

 1,113 

 484 



10 



5 

 15 

 4 

 6 



l,495i 

 SOU 

 1,716' 

 1,2271 

 533 



897,166 

 480,937 

 1,026,405 

 736,413 

 319,912 



16 08-lOOths. 

 16 60-lOOths. 

 16 53-lOOths. 



15 53-lOOths 



16 68-lOOths. 



24,001 

 13,264 

 28,261 

 19,021 

 8,851 



Total .... 



0,292 



40 



5,7731 



3,460,833 





93,398 



TJ 2 



