Sept. 12, 1903.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
199 
feeding grounds for wild fowl, of which the propaga- 
tion of wild rice is a very important element, needs no 
discussion, and tJie desirability of propagating a paint 
which will make the otherwise waste-water areas of the 
upper Mississippi Valley yield a valuable and highly 
esteemed cereal is also evident. 
Distribution and Habitat of the Plant. 
The wild rice plant {Zizania aquatica L.) occurs 
naturally over a wide area in the United States and 
southern Canada. The same species is also reported 
from Japan, Formosa and China. It finds its best 
environment in the United States in fresh-water lakes 
and river sloughs and along the seacoast where streams 
meet tidewater. It requires that the water in which it 
grows be fresh, that is, not brackish, and that it be 
neither quite stagnant nor too swiftly moving, and 
while it thrives on a wide variet}'^ of soils under these 
waters, it does best where the bottoms are soft and 
muddy. 
The change in water level, where the plant grows, is 
an important item. For instance, it will frequently 
fail to do well or to grow- at all in some of the northern 
lakes through which the Mississippi flows, especially 
if the annual change in water level in these lakes is 
more than 2 or 3 feet. There is, on this account, in 
the minds of some observers an opinion that wild rice 
normally grows only alternate j^ears, or, at least, that 
it does not grow every 3-ear in a given locality. This 
idea is without foundation, and its existence is probably 
due to the fact that occasional years of high water pre- 
vent the development of wild rice for that year, while 
a normal level the following year permits the regular 
growth. 
This calls attention to the peculiar vitality of the seed 
of this plant. It is evident that if the growth of wild 
rice in a given locality is wholly prevented for a year 
by high water, and there is an abundant growth the 
next year when the water level is" normal, there must 
be a large proportion of the seed which remains dor- 
mant and viable for at least eighteen months after it 
reaches maturity. 
In streams affected by^ tidewater, however, where the 
daily change of water level sometimes amounts to 3, 
feet or more, wild rice may grow vigorously. It is 
abundant along the shores of the lower Potomac, 
where it grows on mud flats that are nearly or quite 
exposed at low tide and submerged by 2 or 3 feet of 
water at high tide. The plant has, in this case, become 
adapted to this frequent change of water level, but if 
for any reason high water were retained over these 
beds for any considerable length of time during the 
early spring the plants would hardlj'- develop. 
Wild rice will grow on a wide variety of soils, but it 
needs for its best development approximately the fol- 
lowing conditions: 
Soft alluvial soil, covered with from 12 inches to 4 
feet of water. The water level should not have an an- 
nual Arariation greater than 18 or 20 inches. The water 
should be constantly freshened by slight movement and 
consequent aeration. 
Life History and Natural Propagation. 
The wild rice plant is an annual. It bears abundant 
crops of seeds which fall directly into the water as 
soon as ripe and lie buried in the mud below until the 
following spring when, if conditions are favorable, they 
germinate and produce new plants. In the northern 
lakes the long ribbon-like leaves appear floating upon 
the surface of the water late in May. By the latter part 
of June the stems have grown sufficiently to raise the 
leaves above the water. In the South the growth "starts 
much earlier. On the mud flats of the lower Potomac 
the plants may be 6 inches high by the first of May. 
Strange as it may seem, the period of flowering and 
ripening of wild rice is almost the same in northern 
Minnesota and along the Potomac River, near Wash- 
ington, though on account of the earlier start in the 
southern region the period of growth is much longer. 
The panicles appear during the later part of July, 
and the flowers open immediately. The glumes of the 
pistillate flowers separate at the base to allow the 
stigmas to protrude and be pollinated and closing 
again soon after fertilization is accomplished leave the 
withered stigmas outside. Immediately after fertiliza- 
tion the young seed begins to elongate, and gradually 
fills the space within the floral envelope. This develop- 
ment requires about two or three weeks, and as soon 
as it is completed the connection with the stem is weak- 
ened and the seed falls off. The time of maturing of 
the different seeds in a single panicle extends over sev- 
eral days, the seeds on the tips of the branches ripening 
first. 
The seeds, on falling, usually strike the water with 
the point of attachment below and sink immediately 
to the bottom. If b3'^ accident the distal end strikes 
first, enough small particles of air are caught by the 
barbs borne there to keep the seed on the surface of 
the water for a time, but as these air bubbles escape the 
seed sinks. 
Varieties. 
While distinct differences in size and form of panicle, 
the coloration of the plant, and the size of the seed 
have been noticed in wild rice from various regions, 
there is as yet insufficient evidence to justifj' making a 
new species. It is impossible to say at the present time 
to what extent these differences are due only to environ- 
ment. The wild rice of northern Minnesota and that 
growing along the lower Potomac show the extreme 
variations in some respects. The Potomac plants grow 
8 to 10 feet high and 6 to 7 feet above the water and 
have a very large panicle, often exceeding 2 feet from 
the lower joint to the tip of the pistillate end. The 
pistillate portion of the panicle in the Potomac plant 
is distinctly spreading and the branches often bear 17 
to 27 seeds. The plant common to the northern Minne- 
sota lakes is sinaller than that of the Potomac, usually 
reaching only 3 or 4 feet above the water. The panicle 
is shorter, rarely if ever exceeding 20 inches in length, 
more often 16 inches or less. The pistillate portion 
rarely exceeds 10 inches in length and usually has its 
^tranches closely appressed. When spreading of the 
branches of the pistillate portion of the panicle does 
occur in the wild rice of the northern lakes it is seldom 
that all the branches of a panicle are spreading — fre- 
quently only I or 2 of them, rarely more than 4 or 5 
— and the branches of the panicle of the Minnesota 
plant rarely carry more than g seeds, usually from 3 
to 7. 
The seeds from northern varieties are larger, particu- 
larly much thicker, than those of the Potomac variety. 
There is also in the northern-grown wild rice a 
marked distinction in coloration. Some of the plants 
are a rich purple color in the panicle, and have a large 
amount of purple coloring in the leaf sheath and along 
the margin of the leaf blade, while others remain with 
almost no suggestion of any color but green, except, 
perhaps, a pinkish tinge in the glumes of the staminate 
FRESHLY GATHERED WII.D RICE DRYING ON A SCAFFOLD. 
flowers. The stamens in all cases are uniformly of a 
rich bright yellow, and the mature seeds are always 
black. Some seeds are green or greenish brown in 
color, but this is due to their immaturity. It is diffi- 
cult to understand this difference in color in wild-rice 
plants. It has been shown that the plants are uniformly 
cross-pollinated, and plants of both colors grow side 
by side in the northern lakes, though in some localities 
plants of one color or the other predominate; and 
while one may find a few cases of colors intergrading 
between these two, the extremes of coloration are the 
rule, and, except in rare cases, marked coloration, when 
it occurs, extends throughout the plant. For instance, 
INDIAN WOMAN .PAKCHING WILD RICE. 
a dark purple pistillate panicle almost itivariably ac- 
companies dark purple staminate flowers, and' a large 
amount of that color in the leaf sheath and blade. Color 
variation is found in the Potomac wild rice, though to 
a much less degree. 
Harvesting the Seed. 
Almost all (he wild rice seed now harvested is gath- 
ered by Indians into birch-bark canoes. This is done 
usually by two persons working together, one stand- 
ing in the bow of the canoe and propelling it with a 
forked stick, and the other seated in the stern with 
two short sticks, by means of which the plants on either 
side of the canoe are gently pulled over it and the ripe 
seed beaten off. No attempt is made to get all the 
seed off the plants at one time. It is customary rather 
to take only the seed which falls readily and to visit 
the same plants later as more seeds ripen. The period 
of ripening extends over nearly two weeks for any field 
and over scA^eral days for any single plant, so that were 
one to attempt to harvest all the rice on a given area 
it would be necessary to go over that area at least four 
or five times at intervals of from two to three days. 
Recently some attempts have been made to construct 
machinery for harvesting wild rice seed from boats 
driven by screw or drawn by cable. So far, however, 
such endeavors have not been entirely successful. 
It is customary in some sections for the Indians to 
prepare wild rice for harvesting by going through the 
field before any of the seed is quite ripe to draw the 
heads of adjacent plants into bunches, which are firmly 
tied together, so that the seed, as it ripens, will not 
fall. This custom, however, is not universal, and is only 
resorted to when the supply of wild rice is not abundant 
and it is desirable to gather as much as possible from 
certain fields. WHien a portion of a field is so tied up 
it can be left until after all the untied seed has been 
harvested or has fallen, and in this way the harvest- 
ing period is extended. This preliminary tying is, of 
course, a tedious operation^ an4 would be expensive 
were the time of the operator a salable quantity. The 
harvesting of wild rice is not regarded by the Indians 
as a particularly arduous task, though attempts by 
white men to do the same work have not proved very 
successful. 
Pfcpafation of the Seed for Food Purposes. 
After the wild rice seed is harvested into the canoe, 
it is taken ashore and put in piles or spread out for a 
preliminary drying. (PI. VI., fig. 2.) If allowed to re- 
main piled up for more than a few hours when fresh, 
fermentation sets in, as the seed is very damp and soft 
when gathered, so that almost immediately after it is 
harvested it is either spread out thinly to dry, or is 
parched ready for hulling. The parching is at present 
done by the Indians in a very primitive way, as is 
shown in Plate VI., fig. i. The seed is put into a 
kettle over a slow fire and stirred with a stick until it 
is roasted, so that the hull is brittle enough to be 
easily broken. Not much more than a half bushel can 
be parched at a time, and it requires from half an hour 
to an hour to parch a single lot, and the seed demands 
constant attention throughout the parching process to 
keep it from burning. Unless stirred evenly the kernels 
pop open or become so brittle as to break up badly in 
the subsequent hulling process. There is a most ex- 
cellent opportunity for the development of some simple 
device- for the uniform parching of wild rice seed. The 
parching is what gives the seed its highly esteemed 
flavor as a food, and if this operation and the subse- 
quent hulling can be done uniformly the percentage of 
burned and broken seed will be much less than at pres- 
ent, and, furthermore, the cost of production of the 
food will be very greatly reduced. 
After the seed has been parched it is spread out to 
cool, and soon after it is hulled. The hulling is at 
present the most tedious operation in the whole pro- 
cess of preparation. The Indians ordinarily accomplish 
it by putting about a bushel of the seed into a hole in 
the ground, lined with cedar staves or burnt clay, and 
then beating or punching it with heavy sticks. Often 
three or four men work together on one lot. After the 
seed has been beaten until the hulls have all been 
cracked or broken, the grains and hulls are separated 
by tossing the fnixture up into the wind from light 
birch-bark baskets. After the parching and hulling are 
finished the grain is sufficiently dry to keep indefinitely. 
Plate VII. shows some wild rice seed with the hull on, 
some with hull removed, and some parched seed, also 
with the hull removed. 
As a food material this parched wild rice is highly 
■' esteemed by those who like the "gamy" flavor which it 
acquires by parching. It is cooked with wild fowl and 
also used as a breakfast food. For either purpose it 
should have several preliminary washings in cold water 
to remove any disagreeable smoky taste. It is also 
used to a limited extent for making rice cakes. For 
this purpose it is milled and the darker outer coat is 
sifted out. When milled without being parched this 
outer coat is difficult to remove, as it breaks up into 
small particles that do not readily separate from the 
flour, so that for all use as food the seed should be first 
parched and hulled. 
The results of chemical analysis given below show 
approximately the comparative value of wild rice for 
food purposes. For the table and the statement con- 
cerning it the writers are indebted to Dr. C. F. Lang- 
worthy, of the Office of Experiment Stations of the De- 
partment of Agriculture. 
The Food Value of Wild Rice. 
Wild rice resembles common cereal grains quite 
closely in composition. As is the case with wheat, rye, 
barley, and other grains, the greater portion of the 
nutritive material consists of carbohydrates, although 
the amount of protein is proportionately large. Wild 
rice contains little fat, in this respect resembling rice, 
barley and wheat more closely than corn and oats. 
Judged by its composition and fuel value, it compares 
very favorably with the common cereal grains. So few 
analyses of wild rice are available that but little can be 
said regarding the range in the proportional amount of 
the different constituents. Furthermore, little is known 
of the comparative digestibility of wild rice and other 
grains. From its extended use by the Indians and 
others it seems safe to assume that this grain is whole- 
some, and as said above, analysis shows that it is, like 
the more common cereals, a nutritious food. 
When wild rice is soaked in water a pecidiar odor 
is noticeable, recalling that of damp hay. When it is 
boiled it also possesses a characteristic odor, some- 
thing like that of boiled barley. The raw grain has a 
starchy taste, while the cooked grain resembles barley 
much more than white rice in taste. The flavor is 
characteristic and is relished by many. When cooked, 
the wild rice kernels expand to about two or three " 
times their original size, and except for the bits of 
dark outer covering, ordinarily present the cooked ma- 
terial is of a grayish-white color. In Minnesota and 
adjacent States, where wild rice is best known, it is 
usually eaten as a breakfast cereal, or cooked in much 
the same manner as ordinary white rice. 
Artificial Propagation. 
When wild rice seed is to be used for propagating 
purposes it is now customary to secure it from Indians 
as soon as possible after it is harvested, and to spread 
it out thinly over some sort of a floor in the shade 
and stir it frequently until it is dry. Since it has been 
extremely difficult to germinate seed so treated, or to 
secure successful plantings from seed obtained upon the 
market, there is good reason for believing that it is the 
present methods of curing seed that are at fault. It 
was largely for the purpose of determining where this 
fault lay and how best to remedy it that investigations 
were instituted. It is true that many of the unsuccess- 
ful plantings made during the past owe their failure to 
the improper selection of the place for planting, due 
to ignorance regarding the nature of the plant and its 
environmental requirements; but it is certainly true 
that the plant may grow in many localities where it is 
not XTQw found, provided good seed is oljtainahlq^ 
