256 
ON THE CULTURE OF PEPPER AND RICE. 
the superfluous plants being carefully taken up with their rootlets, and transplanted 
into a quincunx order in the unoccupied portion of the land which has been pre- 
pared for their reception. No delay must take place in this work, so that the 
plants may be as short a time as possible out of the ground ; a calm day is usually 
selected for the purpose. As soon as completed the water is admitted to overflow 
the plants. For the advantage of irrigation the rice fields are usually situated near 
to a rivulet, pond, or other water, from which they are separated only by a bank, 
and through this a communication is readily made. Sometimes, however, it 
happens that the water is below the level of the fields ; in this dilemma, the 
moisture so essential to the success of the crop is supplied by means of buckets, 
which is a most tedious and laborious operation. The grounds are kept perfectly 
clean from weeds, which are taken up by the root with the hand, although the soil 
is in such a swampy state that the labourers employed in this task cannot step 
upon the ground without sinking knee deep. The maturity of the grain is known 
by its turning yellow in the same manner as wheat ; it is then cut with a sickle, 
tied in sheaves, and conveyed into sheds or barns, where it is thrashed with flails 
very similar to those used in England. 
The manner of cultivating rice in North America differs somewhat from the 
methods practised in the East. For this purpose the ground is trenched in about 
the middle of March, the ridges being about a foot and a half from each other from 
centre to centre. At the bottom of the trenches the seed is put in by hand, and 
not scattered ; this office is generally performed by women. Water is then, by 
means of flood-gates, let into the fields, over which it flows several inches deep^ 
It remains thus for five days and is then drawn ofl", leaving the ground dry till the 
young plants spring up three or four inches high. In about a month after sowing 
it will have arrived at this state. The land is then again overflowed, and the water 
suff"ered to remain in this situation for a fortnight, that, while it nourishes the rice, 
it may destroy the weeds. For two months after this period the land is left dry, 
during that period it is repeatedly hoed for the double purpose of destroying the 
weeds and loosening the soil. At the end of this time water is again admitted, and 
the rice comes to maturity in this situation. The gathering in of the crop 
commences at the end of August, and usually continues to October. It is cut 
with sickles by men, the task of making it into bundles devolves on women. 
This branch of agriculture, thus conducted, is most prejudicial to the health of 
the cultivators. The alternate flooding and drying of the land in a hot climate, 
where evaporation is rapidly going on, is extremely insalubrious. The care of the 
rice grounds is therefore left entirely to negro cultivators, none of the white 
population caring to expose themselves to so unwholesome an atmosphere. The 
hospitals are filled in the autumn with the victims to this unhealthy occupation ; 
the destruction of life consequent on it is very great; and fresh supplies of negro 
slaves from the more northern slave states are constantly required, to make up the 
numbers of those who are unfortunately destined to shorten their days amid the 
marshy exhalations of a rice ground. — Porter, in the Oriental Agriculturist. 
