RICE— MAIZE. 



547 



this congenial soil is of comparatively modern date. About the beginning of the last 

 century, a brigantine from the island of Madagascar happened to put in at Carolina, 

 having a little seed-rice left, which the captain gave to a gentleman of the name of 

 Woodward. From part of this, the latter had a very good crop, but was ignorant for 

 some years how to clean it. It was soon dispersed over the colony, and, by frequent 

 experiments and observations, the planters ultimately raised the culture to its present 

 perfection. By the introduction of this water-loving cereal, various swamps which 

 previously had only afforded food to frogs and water-birds, have been changed into 

 the most fruitful fields, so that South Carolina not merely supplied the whole of the 

 United States with all the rice they require, but also annually exported more than a 

 hundred thousand large casks to the various markets of Europe. 



Besides the devastations which the atmosphere of the rice-fields causes among his 

 laborers, the planter frequently suffers heavy losses in consequence of the depredations 

 of the rice-bunting (^Dolichonyx oryzivorus), a species of ortolan, known familiarly by 

 the name of bobolink. This bird is about six or seven inches long ; its head and the 

 under part of its body are black, the upper part is a mixture of black, white, and 

 yellow, and the legs are red. It migrates over the continent of America from Labra- 

 dor to Mexico, and over the Great Antilles, appearing in the southern extremity 

 of the States about the end of March. During the three weeks to which its un- 

 welcome visit to the rice-fields is usually limited, it grows so fat upon the milky 

 grains of its favorite cereal, that its flesh becomes equal in flavor to that of the Euro- 

 pean ortolan. As long as the female is sitting, the song of the male continues with 

 little interruption : it is singular and pleasant, consisting of a jingling medley of short, 

 variable notes, oonfused, rapid and continuous. 



Large quantities of rice are supplied to Europe from Brazil, Java, Bengal, and 

 of late years from Arracan and Pegu. Most of the Arracan rice is exported in the 

 unshelled state, or as paddy, and cleaned in Europe, where the operation can be more 

 effectually and cheaply performed than in the country of production. The loss by 

 waste is also found to be less on the transport of paddy than of shelled rice. 



Maize is no less important to the rapidly growing nations of America than the rice- 

 plant to the followers of Buddh or of Brama; and when hereafter the banks of the 

 Mississippi, of the Amazon, and of the Orinoco, shall be covered by as dense a popu- 

 lation as the plains of Bengal, the number of maize eaters will probably be greater 

 than that of the consumers of any other species of grain. Even now it is second in 

 this respect only to rice. 



The time when the cereals of the old world — wheat, rye, barley — were first trans- 

 planted from their unknown Asiatic homes to other parts of the world is hidden in 

 legendary obscurity ; but the epoch when maize was for the first time seen and tasted 

 by Europeans lies before us in the broad daylight of authentic history. For, when 

 Columbus discovered Cuba, in the year 1492, he found maize cultivated by the 

 Indians, and was equally pleased with the taste of the roasted grains and astonished at 

 their size. ♦In the following year, when he made his triumphant entry into Barcelona, 

 and presented his royal patrons — Ferdinand and Isabella — with specimens of the 

 various productions of the New World, the maize spikes he laid down before their 

 throne, though but little noticed, were in reality of far greater importance than the 

 heaps of gold which were so falsely deemed to be the richest prizes of his grand 



