September i. 1891.] 
I HE THOPIOAL AGRICULTURIST 
163 
vary from ooul blaojt, dark red, piuk, yellow, to 
ivoiy white. Too ouapea are varioua, aud differ 
much from eaoh other ; aoma vatioties are awoet, 
otuora oilier; aome oily, othera dry; aome bard 
aud traosluoant, otiiera soft aad chalky. Botanials 
have olaaaitiei the varieties into tour divisions : 
Ksrly rice, common rioa, clammy rice and mountain 
rioe." 
Ulammy rice is little known to commerce. It 
is said to mature its seed in five months, and to 
have the advantage of growing on wet or dry land. 
Mouutain nee grows on tue Himalayas aud is 
very hardy. It ooes not require irrigation, and 
will stand severe cold, sometimes pushing its way 
through the snow. 
Ojiiimon nee is wholly an aquatic or marsh 
plant. It cannot exist without wa er, and soon 
withers away if the gtonud becomes dry before 
harvest time.* To this division belongs Hurmeso 
rioe, aud toe process of cultivuliuu is highly peculiar. 
A great portion of idritish Burmah, in the 
proviuoes of Pegu, Arraoan aud Tuuasaenm, es- 
peuialiy in me delta lands of the hutaug 
aud Irrawaddy, is very low aud flat, and the 
lainlall excessive, amuunliug to lUO lucbes duriug 
the season. Tlie rueuil is that the uouutry is 
flooded from une eud to the other with from oue 
to twelve feet of water. Looumotion can Duly be 
aecompiisbed by bout, and the inhabitants are 
uuullaed to their bouses, TUeie are only throe 
Biaso.js, the cold, tuo hot, and iho rainy. At the 
oommeiioement of the latter, or ab lUt me eud of 
May , the fields are prepared by oleanmg them of 
weeds and Ouiniug tlie stubble, and then pluugnqd 
oy druggiug a speoies 01 rake or uairuW over tfiem, 
oxen and men, us net ii in the annexed JdC 9iuiil4 
of a Burmese drawing, sumeiimes sinking aufile- 
deep 111 thu son mud. Tins eeitaiuly would bean 
auema.ous preceauie in our own oouuiry ! 
The ■•paddy” or ruUgh rioe is sowed sometime 
in June, uiter the laiiie have fully set in, on the 
eur/aceoj the wafer, lu torm nurseiies. In September, 
when tue youug plants are a loot or mure nigb, 
they are “drawn,” tied in bundles and ourted, 
or rather boated off to the fielus prepared fur 
tlielr permanuut reception, where they ace Iraus. 
planted by hand in rows, generally by women 
and ufiiluieu, who wade about lu tue mud auU 
slush like eu many peiioaiis. 
Ko further utteiitiou is then given the crop. It 
is never pluugheu or weeded. TUe only care taken 
IS to stop me upeiiiiigs or sluices — corteepoudiug 
in some measure to our “tiuuks'' — in the eiu- 
bankmonts or “ bunds” sucrouudiiig the fields, thus 
J^eiaiuiug the uupiuus lainiali to iiuunsh ana proleet 
the plant. 
In aome parts of India the land is cropped three 
times a year; in Burmah uuiy ones, {lo manure 
IS used ; rotation of crops is unknown. The heavy 
rams are alf tue iaud receives to bring forth an 
abundant harvest, ket the average yield of the 
country is about thirty bushels per acre. In 
some lustanooe it has reached sixty or seventy 
bushels. Btill the success of the crop is very 
uuoertaiu. proctor says: “ Wnere 80 much depends 
upon tainlail, it ia no exaggeration to say that 
au inch or so of water, mure or less, detetminea 
whoiuor tue receding flood shall leave a bright 
aud fertile plain lull oi promise, or a ruined waste 
of dtowueu and rotted crops. With a late and 
beavy monsoon thousands of acres are sometimes 
submerged aud the crop ruined. Should the floods, 
however, not be too late in tbe seasun the ground 
is repiauted a second time and sometimes a third 
time, and the cultivator pussiUly eaves his har- 
vest. * » Witu an early and defloieni monsoon, 
on the other hand, the plants are not nourished 
and the; yield but a scanty return,’' 
The Burmese method has been partially detailed 
on aocouut ol its disliuctiva difference from the 
Ameriuan system and its essentially novel features. 
With the Burmese everything is auventitioua. With 
us litlle is left to ohanoe and only extraordinary 
oataolysms or other disastrous visitations of 
Piovidenoe affeot tbe result; and yet these have,, 
of receat years, occurred so Ir.qaently as to make 
even tue Amerioaa system, despite tbe safeguards 
with which scienea autrouuds it, one of extreme 
hazard. Moreover, the price of labor aod oooaequsnt 
cost ol cultivatioh is now so great, compared with 
the Burmese happy-go-fucky methods, that tne 
average cost ol produotion per pound ia greatly 
in favor ol the latter, us will bo enowu horealter. 
Early rice is to us the most important ol the four 
divioiouBi lot it iuoiudes American rice or 
“Oarolmas," as it is known to commerce, besides 
tbe varieties raised in Ubiua, Japan, India and 
Java. Japanese, however, is principally upland rice 
and grown by dry culture. Uhiucse rice, on the 
other band, is generally irrigated. 
And htfe an important distinction must be 
made. Common rioe, or “ Bangoon," as before 
stated, is essentially un aquatic plant ; water is 
Its life; without it, even temporarily, it withers 
aod uiea. It is sown in the water, trausplanted 
in the water, and ripens in tne water, Eatiy riue, 
or “ Carolina," has also geueraliy been termed an 
aquatic plant, but moat lucoiraoily. It is in reality 
ampnibious, if a striotiy zudfugioat term may ue 
applied to vegatauuu. Like its eongenur, lUu alii- 
gator, it thrives in (wo elemeute, domaudiug saoh 
at its proper time and interval, and petisuiug it 
confided unduly urexcessiveiy to either. 
But both nos and alligator are hardy aud tough, 
and oan withstand ouusidetable abuse. Tue latter 
can oe removed irom hie swamp aud manage to 
exist iu disuumfort aud impaireu vitality loc quite 
a while with merely periudiuoi supplies ui uia 
favorite eiemeul. Aud so may rice be eubjected 
to dry culture in this oouniry, and, watered only 
by the rams ol heaven, exist aud produce a 
modi rate harvest. 
Cuder dry culture from fifteen to twenty bushels 
per acre is an average crop, wniie uudur wet 
uuUuiu the yield Uas eomeliiues leauued as high 
us musty busuels. 
But It IB not with uplsud rioe that we have to 
deal. I’roduoed from tue same seed as that ol the 
deltas, or vice vena, us ouliivulioa is uuiuteresluig, 
and very similar to tuat ol a duzsn urups taimlior 
to every one, as may be seeu uy the illustration.'' 
Wet ouliure, Uuwever, on tUe atlaatiu seaOoard, 
possesses features ui UuUauai aud striking lututesl, 
aud the lumaiuder uf lUis paper is au,uted ex* 
oldsiveiy to us processes and lUuideittals. 
The Oldest atupUs ol the ooutii-Atiantiu states were 
tobuueo, rioe and lUdigo. The two luiuicr stiL suivive 
as important industries, aUuoUgu uuttou uus Usurped 
tue priuOipat positiuu; but the uuitivatluu oi lud.go 
has mug since lailei) into " iuuuuuuus ussuetuau," 
aud lew are familiar with even Us appearauue. 
Blue was introduced into Caiuliua aoout the 
year 170t>, a planter uy me name ol Woodward 
having outainsd a email amount ut seed Itum a 
brigantine, just from MadagacCur, that had louuned 
at the port of Charleston, ii'ur a long lime little 
was ouUivated, as it is the most uilfiuuit of ail 
the cereals to prepare for food. But gradually, 
as methods were devised tor cleaoiug it, aud 
as the number ol slavus in tbe colooies louioasuo, 
it sprang into prommenoe, and by me year l7;Jd 
the produotion had reauhed lu,fiuu,uuj pounds. T'uis 
had moteased to lfi7,i.ti7>Uii2 pounds lU IbiiU. 
and uineiy-six oubiu yards per auie. 
Td • illiutcationi are not reproduced,— En. T. d. 
