AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
deeper than the hard pan. There was no border 
ditoh— a nd besides this error, Mr. C. fell into two 
0 t\ ievs _having only one ditch where the land 
needed three—and digging only eighteen inches, 
where he should have gone down three feet. The 
land lies on an inclined plain, has a good fall, and 
might easily be made to produce two tuns of 
good herdsgrass to the acre. Instead of that, 
the wild sour grasses have never been eradicated, 
and it has never yielded over three quarters of a 
tun of hay to the acre. 
These gentlemen are somewhat inclined to 
look upon drainage as a humbug, when that term 
is more appropriately applied to the style of their 
works. It was not more than half done. A bor¬ 
der drain is indispensible, in all cases of reclaim¬ 
ing swamp land. This cuts off the enemy from 
the outside, and leaves the other ditches to dis¬ 
pose of the surface water. 
These open ditches are but a poor substitute 
for thorough drainage, at best, but they are the 
first advances toward the improvement of wet 
land, likely to be made by most farmers. It is of 
great importance that the errors pointed out in 
these cases should be avoided. 
--^ 0 - 4 - ----* 
How &ice is Grown and Prepared for 
Market..II. 
Prepared by an Editor sojourning at the South. 
FLOWING AND CULTIVATION. 
However dreary and monotonous the aspect of 
a rice plantation in Winter, nothing can be more 
charming than the broad expanse of living green 
in Summer. Immediately after the sowing of a 
field, already described, which is usually com¬ 
pleted on the same day it is begun, the tide-gate 
of the trunk communicating with the river is 
lifted, and the water flows in at the next rise of 
the tide, covering the whole ground. The design 
of the first flow is to assist the seed in germina¬ 
ting, and it is hence called the “ Sprout flow.’ 
The water remains upon the fields for one or two 
weeks according to the warmth of the season. 
When the sprouts begin to show themselves in 
the drills, the water is drawn off, and the ground 
suffered to dry. 
After the plants are well up, showing their 
points the second flooding is given, called in the 
technical language of the district ‘’the point flow. ’ 
The object of this is not only to aid the growth 
of the crop, but to kill the weeds, which can not 
live in the water, and thus to save the labor of 
hoeing. The water remains on until the plants 
are about four inches high, and strong enough to 
withstand the birds with which the rice region 
is infested. After the water is drawn off, and 
the land is dried, the whole field is hoed, and after 
remaining dry two weeks, or more, it is hoed a 
second time. As soon as the weeds are killed, 
after the second hoeing, the third flowing is made, 
and the water is raised several inches above the 
tops of the rice, so that all the dried weeds ris¬ 
ing to the surface, may float off, and be gathered 
up upon the levee for burning. The water is then 
lowered, so that the plants may just appear above 
the surface- The plants, at this time, are from 
six inches to a foot high, according to the for¬ 
wardness of the season. The water remains on 
the field for two or three weeks, and from this 
circumstance it is called the “ long flow.” 
The drawing off of the water at the close of 
this flow is determined by a particular stage of 
the growth of the crop, which is only learned by 
experience. Much of the success of the rice crop 
depends upon good judgment at this juncture. 
When the ground is in condition for tillage, the 
crop is again hoed a third time, and after an in¬ 
terval of two or three weeks, a fourth time, the 
ground remaining meanwhile dry. Now comes 
the last flowing, and the water remains on just 
below the heads of the rice, until the harvest. 
The hands are now kept busy in wading between 
the drills, pulling out any weeds that may have 
escaped earlier notice, and the ‘‘volunteer rice.” 
This name is given to the scattering rice seed 
that remains out over Winter, and comes up of 
its own accord. It is known by its feebler growth. 
The kernels are of inferior quality, and though 
they would add something to the bulk of the crop, 
they would very much damage its sale. After the 
rice is headed, the water is raised a little to sus¬ 
tain the increasing weight, and to prevent the 
tangling of the crop by the wind. Thus it remains 
until it is ready for the sickle. 
This is the ordinary process of sowing and cul¬ 
tivation, varied somewhat by the ingenuity, and 
the circumstances of particular planters. It will 
be seen that the flowing plays a very important 
part in the cultivation of this plant, and it may 
hence be thought, that it is essential to its suc¬ 
cess. But crops nearly as large are grown in the 
upland districts, though with a great increase of la¬ 
bor. A prime object of the flowing is, to save 
labor in hoeing and tillage. It also lengthens 
the season of sowing, as no allowance has to be 
made for the contingency of drouth, the river 
furnishing moisture just when it is wanted. Thus 
successive fields can be sown over a period of 
two months, upon the same plantation, and a 
much smaller force is required upon a given num¬ 
ber of acres, than would otherwise be necessary. 
THE HARVESTING 
generally begins in the early part of September. 
After the water is drawn off, a hand takes three 
or four rows at a time, and cuts them with a 
sickle. The stubble is left about a foot high and 
upon this the tops are carefully laid in thin lay¬ 
ers to dry. With good weather, it is sufficiently 
cured in a day or two, and is then bound in small 
sheaves, and immediately carried to the stack, or 
barn, which of course must be located at a dis¬ 
tance, often a mile or more. The usual method 
of transportation, for this long distance, is upon 
the heads of the negroes. This labor being per¬ 
formed under the open sun, at the hottest season 
of the year, and amid the recent mire, tells even 
upon the African constitution. The white over¬ 
seers are much less exposed, but nothing is more 
common among them than chills and fever, pneu¬ 
monia, and other diseases, incident to a miasmat¬ 
ic district. The method of culture as now pur¬ 
sued upon the Atlantic coast, keeps the whole 
region in the condition of a recently cleared 
country. The whole atmosphere at the harvest 
season is steaming with rapidly decaying vege¬ 
table matter. Whites slay as little as possible 
in the infected regions, and none but the accli¬ 
mated can remain over night, without peril to life. 
The mortality to human life fully justifies the 
reputation of the rice districts. They are the 
terror of the negro race. 
On some of the plantations, where there is a 
canal in the rear of the plantation, water carriage 
is substituted for hand labor, in bringing home 
the crop. A hand cart or truck, with broad 
wheels has also been recently introduced in some 
places, for the same purpose. When brought 
home, it is neatly stacked in round stacks, and 
thatched to shed rain. 
THRESHING 
commences immediately after the harvest, and 
unless the horse power threshers have been in¬ 
troduced, as is the case on some of the planta¬ 
tions, it is a long and tedious process of several 
months. Nothing could be more primitive than 
the process of threshing and cleaning, on some 
of these plantations. The floor is prepared by 
beating the earth down hard and smooth. The 
rice is then spread and beaten with the flail, in 
the old fashioned way of threshing rye and oats, 
which has mostly disappeared at the North. 
The chaff and dust are separated from the grain, 
by carrying it up on to a platform, about twenty 
feet high, on the heads of negroes, and pouring it 
down slowly ; the rice falling in a heap beneath 
the platform. 
Steam and horse power, however, are slowly 
intruding npon these primitive processes, and 
their economy is so great that they must event¬ 
ually come into general use. Already, threshing 
mills, separators, fanners, elevators, and other 
labor saving machinery are to be found in the 
rice districts, as perfect as any other agricultural 
region can boast. 
HULLING. 
The coating, or shell adheres to this grain with 
the greatest tenacity, and it can only be removed, 
by a machine that cracks the hull, without break¬ 
ing the kernel within. But where these machines 
have not already been introduced upon a planta¬ 
tion, it is found to be better economy to sell the 
crop in the rough state. In most of the large 
cities, whither the crop is sent to market, there 
are hulling machines of more perfect construc¬ 
tion, and the cleaning is done better and cheaper 
on a large scale than it can be on the plantation. 
It is probably true, also, that the commission mer¬ 
chant finds, that the article makes a voyage in 
better condition in the rough state, and that it is 
more inviting and saleable, when it comes fresh 
from the hulling mill. 
The product of an acre in rice is from thirty to 
sixty bushels, and sometimes as high as a hun¬ 
dred. The usual price in the rough state, in the 
three rice ports, Charleston, Savannah, and Wil¬ 
mington, is from eighty cents to a dollar. Fac¬ 
tors residing in these cities are employed to make 
the sales, and this is usually done by samples. 
Is the Horse-Chestnut Hardy? 
It will surprise many to have this inquiry 
started. They have supposed it as hardy as the 
elm or oak But we confess to having formed the 
opinion that it is not perfectly hardy. Its Asiatic 
origin would suggest the probability that it might 
suffer from the vicissitudes of our climate. For 
the last five or six years, we have noticed nu¬ 
merous specimens of diseased and mutilated 
Horse-chestnuts. The tree suffers from a kind of 
blight, affecting its bark on the sides exposed to 
the sun, resembling the blight of*the cherry-tree; 
It first appears on trees six or eight feet high, 
and within one foot or eighteen inches from the 
ground. It begins in the form of cracks in the 
bark, which increase in size and number for sev¬ 
eral years, until at length the bark falls off; ex¬ 
posing the wood and producing rottenness in it. 
Sometimes the wound heals over, but more often 
the blight extends until the tree succumbs, and 
falls to the ground. 
As this blight always appears on the south and 
south-west sides of the tree, and generally is first 
seen in the early Spring, it is probably owing to 
the combined action of sun and frost. Some 
careful planters are beginning to guard their trees 
in Spring by setting a board on the exposed sides. 
We have used a section of bass-wood bark, a 
little larger than the tree to be protected, fasten¬ 
ing it with strings to the tree, and removing it 
during the Summer. A tree of so great general 
excellence as the Horse-chestnut should receive 
all needful care to preserve it in health and vigor. 
