December i, 1891.] THE TROPIGAL 
AGR!GULTURS8T, 
417 
At tho present day Iho maimer of tbe world's tea- 
drinking may be rapidly surveyed and briefly sutn- 
mariseJ. The Chinese nud Japanese enjoy the decoction 
of tbe herb just as their f..retatherB have done for 
unnnmbered general ious. The Auglo-Indians h^ve 
their very early cup of tea with a thin slice of breaH- 
and-butter, tha tnaok heiiig ki.owu as tbe " cbota- 
hazri," nt five or six in tlie morning, a good two or 
three hours before breakfast, nt wnich list-naircd 
meal lea may vie with coffee as o lieverage ; und again, 
in Anglo-Indian society, tbe kettkdrurn, or five o'clock 
te3, takes a coofpicuoug place. European llussians 
of the civilised clastes drink immoderate quantities of 
tea ID tumblsts, without milk or sugar, but; with the 
zeBt of a slice of lemon-peel, at all hours of tho day. 
Among the peasantry and fhe artisans the coarser 
kind of black tea is extensively patronised. iSouth 
of Moscow "brick tea'' — that is to say, the in- 
ferior leaves of the plunt mixed with sheep's blood, 
and prepsed into the form of cubes— is the ordinary 
drink of the commou people, and holds its own with 
vodka an') qvas. The Tartars swill a horrible gruel, 
thick and slab, of " brick tea," suet, salt, pepper, and 
sugar, boiled in a chaldron. The Turks and Greeks, 
nationally speaking, know nothing of tea. Nor is it a 
very recognisable quantity in the dietary of the Latin 
races, the Spaniards preferring chocolate and tho 
Italians black coffee. Tho Germans are moderately 
fond of tea, bnt they like coffoo better, and beer best. 
In Paris the UFe of tea is generally coafined to polite 
society, and scarcely enters into the economy of '■ la 
vie boargeoiser.' It is among tbe Anglo-Saxon peoples 
that the consumption of tea is mo-t syetemRtic and 
most extensive. The Ausralians are essentially a tea - 
drinking people. There cinnot, indeed, be the slightest 
doubt that the cause of temperance both in Australia 
»nd United States has been materially advanced by 
the prevalence of tea-drinking ; and, if our kicsnaen 
beyond the Atlantic or on the shores of the Pacific 
really suffer from dyspepsia, it is possible that their 
tendency to indigestion springs much less from their 
custom of tea-imbibing than from their habit of eating 
beefsteaks and mutton-chops for breakfast. As re- 
gards England, we wholly fail to see that the consump- 
tion of tea is immoderate, that it has injured the 
health of the community, or that it has diminished the 
native grace and dignity of Englishwomen. Envy, 
malice, and all uiicharitableness are much more con- 
ducive to indigestion than five o'clock tea. — Daily 
Telegraph. 
E 1 C E, ITS HISTORY. 
By Mk. H. B. Proctob. 
"Thus God created man. Godm ide food and drink, i?jc(!, 
tire, an'1 water, cattle, elefhauts, and birds."— A Burmese 
Bcoount of the Creation. 
Extraordinary as has been the progress of the 
wheat trade of England during the last century, the 
wheaten loaf having supplanted those of rye and barley 
as the staple food of all classes of the people, it never- 
theless will not bear comparison when contrasted 
with the same movement in rice, the importation of 
which has increased not less than one hundred-fold 
during the same period. 
The rice trade of England continued in extremely 
small comimss, and was limited to the varieties pro- 
duced in (Uuolina, Bengal, and Madras, until the year 
of 1S5'2, when the most fertile provinces of Burma 
were conquered and annexed to the British empire. 
Of all the countries in the world, Burma is the best 
adapted for tho cheap cultivation of rice ; all that was 
wanted was a just and strong government, able to ptit 
down potty internal warfare, and willing to protect 
tho cultivators from excessive taxation, violence and 
oppi'esaion. 
These blessings, which universally attend British 
rule, soon changed tho condition of the people from 
extreme poverty to tlio greatest prosperity. As soou 
03 
as the war was over, and the country became settled 
the export trade in rice began, and since then it 
has steadily increased year by year, until in 1881 the 
exports to Europe amounted to no less than 7.S(j,6.50 
tons, besides which 178,000 tons were exported coast- 
wise and to other iDarts of the world. 
This immense addition to the rice supply of the 
world has not checked the trade in the same article 
from the rest of India, as might have been anticipated, 
but it has grown larger too ; last year, the exports to 
Europe amounted to 89,6.50 tons. 
A cereal trade that is developing with such rapid 
strides cannot fail to be of interest to the milling 
world. As the subject has hitherto been somewhat 
overlooked and neglected by periodicals devoted to 
such subjects, we propose to give a short account of 
the historjr, cultivation, and manufacture of rice and 
its products, together with a few remarks upon its com- 
parative food value. 
The derivation of the word — arisi, Tamil; aruz, 
Arabic ; oryza, Latin ; riso, Italian ; rice, English, 
points correctly to its Indian origin. It is a cultivated 
variety of an aquatic grass, bearing when in the ear a 
closer resemblance to barley thair to any other of the 
English corn plants. 
The seed vessel grows upon separate, fine, hair-like 
stalks like the oat, each of which springs gracefully 
upwards from the main stem. The grain is inclosed 
in a rough yellow husk, which generally terminates 
with a thin spike or awn, though some varieties are 
awnless. The height varies from two feet to six feet, 
according to the variety. The grain must be removed 
from the husk, which adheres to it with great ten- 
acity, either by being pounded in a stamper pot or 
more generally by passing it through a pair of mill- 
.stones, set a slight distance apart, which crack off the 
husk withoiit crushing the grain. It has next a thin 
skin or pellicle, which must be removed by scouring 
or decorticating, to make clean rice, just as barley ia 
scoured for making pearl-barley. Kice in the husk is 
called "Paddy" (Malay, Padi) ; the husk which is 
removed is called Rice Shude ; the meal which is 
obtained during the process is called Bice Meal. 
There are far more cultivated varieties of rice differ- 
ing more from each other than there are of wheat, or 
any other of the grain foods. The Karens, a hill 
race in British Burma, have names for forty varieties. 
Dr. Moore mentions 161 varieties growing "in Ceylon, 
besides which there are those grown in China, Africa, 
.Japan, and other parts of the world. The colors of 
the_ grain vary from coal black-, dark red, pink, yellow, 
to ivory white; the shapes are various, and differ 
much from each other ; some varieties are sweet, 
some others bitter ; some oily, others dry ; some hard 
and translucent, others soft and chalky. Botanists 
have classified the varieties into four divisions : Early 
rice. Common rice. Clammy rice, and Mountain rice. 
Early rice is a marsh plant. It is sown between the 
end of March and beginning of May. Itmatm-esin 
four months. It is grown mostly in India, China and 
Japan. Carolina and .Java rice belong to this division. 
The isolated attempts which have been made to grow 
Carolina rice in Burma have failed, because it ripens 
sooner than the main crop of the country, and the 
birds collect in such numbers as to clear off the bulk 
of the crop before it can be gathered in. 
Common rice gives the greatest yield. About 
twenty-five-fold. It is wholly a marsh plant. If the 
ground becomes dry before it arrives at matm'ity it 
soon withers away. The Burmese crop belongs to this 
division. It is sown in June and reaped about sis 
months after. 
Blountain rice grows on the Himalayas. It does not 
require irrigation and will stand great cold, pushing 
its way through snow. It has been grown as an ex- 
perimeitt in England. 
Clammy rice has the advantage of growing on wet 
or dry lands. It ripens in five months. Varieties of 
the two first divisions are those most known in com- 
merce. 
There can be no doubt that the rice plant ia of 
Indian origin. Wild rice, growing in tho waste 
marshes, is still eaten as aluxuryon tho Madras coast. 
The grain is small, white, and sivoct; it briug-s a high 
price, ljut the pluiit does not pay togrpw, l;o Cftuso it 
