82 
CULTIVATION OF LOWLAND RICE. 
of hybridization is complete, to exclude insects, and 
the effects produced by strong currents of air before 
the desired pollen is ripe. Another effectual mode 
of preventing undesired impregnation is bringing 
the female plant into flower a little earlier than its 
congeners, and removing the anthers as directed 
above. For the stigma will remain vigorous, if 
unimpregnated, for several days. 
After extracting the anthers from the flower you 
wish to bear seeds, carefully watch the progress 
of the stigma, and as soon as you find it in a con¬ 
dition to receive the pollen, select the matured an¬ 
thers from a distance, and bring them in gentle con¬ 
tact with the stigma, to which a sufficient quantity 
of pollen will adhere. If a double flower should 
chance to have a fertile anther or two, these should 
be,employed for fertilization, as the flowers of their 
progeny will almost be sure to be double. Al¬ 
though the fecundity of all the seeds in one seed 
vessel may be secured by applying pollen only to 
one style, even where there are several, yet the 
quantity of pollen is by no means a matter of indif¬ 
ference. Koelreuter found, that from 50 to 60 
globules of pollen were required to complete the im¬ 
pregnation of one flower of Hybiscus siriacus ; but 
in Mirabilis jalapa, and M. longifolia, two or three 
globules were enough: and in the case of pelargo¬ 
niums, Captain Thurtell says two or three globules 
are certainly sufficient. 
In the course of the process, the seed vessel is 
not altered in appearance, by impregnation, from 
that of another plant; therefore, no hasty conclu¬ 
sion of failure is justified by that want of change. It 
is easy to discern, however, whether the fecundation 
has been effected; for, when this is the case, the 
stigmas soon wither. The stigmas which have not 
received the pollen remain for a long time vigorous 
and green. 
M. Haquin, a distinguished horticulturist at 
Liege, has impregnated flowers of the azalea with 
pollen kept six weeks;. and camellias with pollen 
kept 65 days. He gathers the stamens just before 
the opening of the anthers, wraps them in writing 
paper, places them in a 'warm room for a day, col¬ 
lects the pollen they emit, and preserves it in sheet 
lead, in a cool dry place. Mr. Jackson, of Cross- 
Lane Nursery, near Bedale, states that he found 
the pollen of Rhododendron smithii tigrinum to re¬ 
tain its fertilizing power even for twelve months. 
This property of pollen was verified by experiment, 
in Persia, by the elder Michaux, as early as the 
year 1782, in observing that the male flowers of 
the date, ( Phoenix dactylifera ,) will keep during 
the year, and yet impregnate the female. ! 
D. J. B. j 
New York , Feb. 3 d, 1849. j 
American Prodigality.— No observing Ameri¬ 
can comes from the United States to Europe, with¬ 
out soon becoming convinced that economy of liv¬ 
ing is nowhere so little understood as in his own 
country : and that for nothing are the Americans 
more distinguished, than for a reckless waste of the 
means of subsistence. The refuse of many a 
family in the United States, even in moderate cir¬ 
cumstances, would often support, in comfort, a poor 
family in Europe.— Colman. 
CULTIVATION" OF LOWLAND RICE. 
The most favorable situations for cultivating the 
common, or lowland rice, ( Oryza sativa ,) are on the 
rich alluvial lands in Carolina and Georgia, where the 
fresh waters of the rivers, in their descent, repel 
the salt waters of the sea, which, twice in 24 hours, 
rise high enough to irrigate these lands—and twice 
in 24 hours, fall low enough to drain them. In 
order to protect them from overflowing by the tides, 
or freshets, caused" by copious rains or the melting 
of mountain snows, dykes, or embankments, are 
constructed along the borders of the rivers, their 
height and distance from the river brink, depending 
on local circumstances. When the dykes around 
the fields have been completed, water gates, (called 
also trunks, or flood gates,) are put down suffi¬ 
ciently low to drain the water from the lands when 
the tide subsides in the river, and to reflow them 
whenever it may become necessary for the crop, 
when the tide is full. 
These objects being fully accomplished, the 
ground may be reduced to good tilth by the plow, 
hoe, or spade, and harrowed twice, in as dry a state 
as possible before sowing. In the southern states 
of the Union, as well as inmost of the West-India 
Islands, as soon after the equinoctial rains in March 
as is practicable, the soil may be prepared for sow¬ 
ing by making trenches 14 inches apart, with a hoe 
or a double-moldboard plow, into which the paddy, 
or rice seeds, may be carefully scattered and then 
covered with two inches of soil; or the seed may 
be sown broadcast, at the rate of two bushels to two 
bushels and a half to an acre, and immediately cov¬ 
ered with a light harrow having many teeth. 
As soon as this operation is completed, the flood 
gates should be opened, the water let in, and kept 
on the field from five to ten days, or until the rice 
is found to be germinating at its bud. The water 
should then be withdrawn from the field from four 
to ten days, or until the green plants are seen ris¬ 
ing about the field or along the drills. Next, the 
water should be let in upon the field and kept there 
from two to four days more, which will push the 
young plants forward. Again the water should be 
withdrawn for the second time, and as soon as the 
rice has risen a few inches in height, and the sur¬ 
face of the soil becomes dry, the grass and weeds 
should be carefully cleaned out from the drills, and 
the intermediate spaces lightly hoed, and the field 
left to dry for two or three days, in order that the 
weeds may be completely killed by the sun. The 
v/ater may then be let in for the third time, for a 
period of a week or ten days more, taking care not 
to let it in too deep, (say three or four inches,) so 
as not to drown the plants in the lower parts of 
the field, it being a good sign to see the tops of the 
young rice plants just above the water. For the 
third time, the water may be withdrawn, and as 
soon as the ground is sufficiently dry, the plants 
carefully hoed again, but deeper this time than the 
first. The field being thus cleaned, it may be flood¬ 
ed again for the fourth time, and if water can be 
had, the plants may be thus kept until four or five 
days of harvesting the crop, which may be known 
by three or four of the lowermost grains of the rice 
beginning to turn yellow*. 
In China, as well as in some parts of Italy, where 
