September i, 1891.] rm T^DPiOAL AQRiOULTURiSt. 
vary from ooal black, dark red, pink, yellow, to 
ivory -white. The saapes are variuuj, aud dilidr 
much from each other ; soma vanHties are swuet, 
others outer; soaie oiiy, others dry; some hard 
and traQSluoent, others soft and ohaiky. fJotaniats 
have classihed the varieties iuto four divisions : 
Early rice, common rice, clammy rice and mouutam 
rioe." 
Clammy rice is little known to commerce. It 
is said to mature its seed in five months, and to 
have iha advantage of growing on wet or dry land. 
Mountain noe grows on tne Himalayas aad is 
very uarJy. It uoes not require irrigation, and 
will stand severe cold, sometimas pusuiug its way 
througa the unow. 
Ujaimon noe is wholly an aquatic or mareh 
plant. It cannot exist without v»a er, and soon 
Withers awuy if the giound becomes dry betoie 
harvest time. To this tlividion belongs JtJuimose 
rice, and lue process Of cultivatiou is higuly p-ocuiiac. 
A "great portion of Uritish Burmon, in the 
provinces oi Pegu, Arraoau and Tanasserim, es- 
iidoiahy in tue' delta lands of the autaug 
and irruwaddy, is very low aad flat, and the 
rainfall eioessive, amounting to 130 mohes during 
the season. The ra=uu is that the country is 
Hooded from one end to tne otner with from one 
to twelve last of water. Louomocion can ouly be 
aijoomplishea by boat, and the innabiiantj are 
ooufljBd 10 tciBir houses. Tnere are only three 
sbasoQS, the cold, tne hot, and ihe rainy. At tne 
oommeuaemeut of the lattur, or ab lUt t.ne end ot 
May, the fields are prepared by cleaning them of 
vveuds and Durniug tne stuDble, and then plougned 
uy Unig^iag a species of raka or harrow over mem, 
oXbii ai-'d men, as seon in the anntxad Jac simile 
of a Burmese drawing, sometimes sinking aaRie- 
deep lu tho soit mud. Tais certainly would bo an 
anomalous procedure in our own country 1 
The ''piddy" or rough rice is sowed sometime 
in June, alter the laino have luily set in, on the 
surface of the wafer, lo iorm nurseries. In (September, 
when tne yuuog plants are a foot or more high, 
they are "drawn," tied m bundles and oartyd, 
or ratuer boated off to the fiaius prepared for 
their permaiieot reception, where they are trans- 
planted by hand m rows, generally by women 
and ahiluron, who wade aoouc lu tne mud aau 
Blush like 80 many poucans. 
No further attention is then given the crop. It 
is never ploughed or weeded. Xne ouly care taken 
is to stop the oponiugs or sluices — corraopoudiog 
in some measure to our "trunlis" — ^in tne om- 
bankmanta or '• uunds" surrounding the fields, thus 
retaining the copious rainiall to nourish ana protect 
the plant. 
Xu some parts of India the land is cropped three 
times a year; iniiurmah only once. No manure 
13 used; rotation of crops is unknown. The naavy 
raius are all tue laud reuoives to briug forth an 
abuudaut harvest. let the average yield of the 
country is aoout tmrty bushelu par acre, lu 
some instances it has reached sixty or seventy 
buohals, BtiU the suooess of the crop is very 
unoartain. i-'rootor says : " Wnero so much depends 
upon ruintail, it is no exaggeration to say that 
an men or so of water, more or less, determines 
whutuar the receding fl.jod aliaU leave a bright 
and lertile plain tuu oi promise, or a ruined waste 
of drownea aud rotted crops. With a late and 
heavy monsoon thousands of acres are sometimes 
Buomarged aud the crop ruined, fcihould the floods, 
however, nut be too lata in tue season the ground 
is replanted a sauund time and sometimes a tuird 
tima, and the cultivator possiuly saves his nar- 
vest. » * Witu an eariy uud defioicut monsoon, 
on the Other hand, the plants are not nourished 
ftud they yield but 6 Boa,aty return," 
The Burmese method has been partially detailed 
on account of its distinctive difference from the 
American system and its essentially novel features. 
With the Burmese everything IS adventitious. With 
us little is left to chance and only extraordinary 
cataclysms or other disastrous visitations of 
Providence affect the result ; and yet these have, 
of recent years, occurred so Ir^iaently as to make 
even tne American system, despite the safeguards 
with which science Burrouods it, one of extreme 
hazard, iiloreovar, the price of labor and consequent 
cost of cultivation is now so great, compared with 
the Burmese happy-go-lucky methods, that tne 
average cost of production per pound is greatly 
in favor of the latter, as will be snown heieaiter. 
Ed,rly rioe is to us the most important of the four 
divisions, for it includes American rice or 
"Garolinas," as it is known to commerce, besiues 
the varieties raised in China, Japan, India and 
Java. Japanese, however, is principally upland rioe 
and grown by dry culture. Ohmase rioe, on the 
other hand, is generally irrigated. 
And hare an important distinotioa must be 
made. Common rioe, or "Bangoon," as before 
stated, is eussntially an aquatic plant ; water la 
its life; wii/hout it, even temporarily, it withers 
and dies. It is sown in the water, transplauied 
in the water, and ripens in the water. Jiiariy noe, 
or " Uaroliaa," has aiso generally baen termed an 
aquatic plant, but most luooireody. It is in reaiuy 
amphiOious, il a striotly zoological term may uo 
applied to vegetation. Like its congener, tUa alli- 
gator, it thrives in two elements, doma^iding each 
at its proper tima and interval, aud pariauiug if 
coufiueu unduly orexcessiveiy to eitiiar. 
But both rice and alligator are nardy and tough, 
and can withstand considerable auuse. Tne latiier 
can De removed irom his SvVamp and mauage to 
exist in discomfort and impaired vitality lor quite 
a while with merely periodical sup^iios oi ms 
favorite element. And so may noe uo aubjautad 
to dry culture in this country, and, watered only 
by the rains of heaven, exist and prouuoe a 
moderate harvest. 
Under dry culture from fifteen to twenty buohela 
per acre is an average crop, whiie uudor wot 
culture the yield has sometimos reaohea as high 
as ninety busucls. 
But It 13 not with upland rioe that we have to 
deal. Prouuced from tne same seed aa ihat oi the 
deltas, or vice versa, its cultivation is umuterestiug, 
aud vary similar to tuat of a dozen crops lamiliar 
to every one, us may be seen Uy the iliuotration.'' 
W<jt culture, nowever, on ino Atlantic seaooard. 
possesses features ol unusual aud mriJsiug luicrost 
aud the remainder of tnis paper is uavoled ex- 
clusively to lis procesaes aud inuideutals. 
The oldest staples ot the ooutn-Aoiuntic states were 
tobacco, noe aud ludigo. The two loruiar aiifi ouiviva 
as important induatries, aituougu oottou Uas Usurped 
the priuoipal position; bUi, the euitivauou oi imi.go 
has long siuco lauen into " iuuocuouc ueauotuao," 
and few are familiar with eveu its appearauua. 
Kice was introauoad into Oaroliud, aoout the 
year 1700, a planter oy tne name of Woodwara 
having obtained a smail amoUui of aeed uom a 
brigantine, just from iVlaaaga.ear, that had louaued 
at the port of Charleston, jj'or a .long time uttie 
was cultivated, as it la the most uiitiuult of all 
the cereals -to prepare for food. But gradually 
as methods were devised for cieauirig u, aJd 
as the number of slaves in the ooiomaa i^craaaau, 
It sprang into prominence, and ay tue year ilz^ 
the production had reauued lUjSOO.oud pouuua. Tu»a 
had increased to la/,lo7,Ud2 pouuus m idod. 
and ninety-six oubiy yards per acre. 
TUelillustrationB are notreproduced.-Ep. 2. 'r- 
