Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/324

 308 RICE linear leaves are rough on the upper surface ; the flowers are in panicles with somewhat erect branches ; the one-flowered spikelets have very minute glumes, not one fourth as long as the palets, which are much flattened laterally, the upper strongly three- and the lower five-nerved and pointed or bearing an awn; the palets grow with the grain, and completely invest it when ripe ; stamens six. Rice has been culti- vated from the earliest times in India, and the Chinese records state that it was introduced into that country in 2822 B. 0. ; it is found growing spontaneously in various parts of In- dia, but chiefly on the banks of rivers, where it may have been carried from cultivation, and there is much doubt as to the place of its origin. In the wild state and in cultivation there are numerous varieties, differing in the size, shape, and color of the grain ; in India a wild variety found on the .borders of certain lakes is pre- ferred by the rich Hindoos to all others, but as its yield is very small it is not cultivated. The improvement of rice by selection has long been practised by the Chinese; an early imperial edict enjoined the selection of the largest seed for sowing; the most valued kind cultivated in this country was obtained by a planter in South Carolina, who, noticing some remarkably long grains upon a head, selected these, and thus obtained the variety known as the long grain; in Ceylon 161 varieties are enumerated. Ordinary rice requires irrigation for its suc- cessful culture, but in the mountainous parts of India, in northern China, and in Japan, an up- land variety (or species?) is in common culti- vation, which is only 8 ft. high and is grown like ordinary grain. Rice is in some parts of India the chief article of produce, and in some districts, particularly in the marshy lands along the coast of Orissa, it is almost the only ob- ject of agricultural labor. In China and the islands of the eastern archipelago it is the prin- cipal support of the vast population of that por- tion of the globe. It is extensively cultivated in parts of Africa, in southern Europe, and in the tropical countries of North and South America. Various accounts are given of its introduction into this country. Gov. Alston of South Car- olina in an agricultural address (1854) says: "Rice, for which we are indebted to the island of Madagascar, was introduced into Carolina and America at once, toward the close of the 17th century." One account states that a ves- sel from Madagascar " put into Carolina " and left some seed there. Gov. Alston gives no particulars, but says that a few grains of this Madagascar rice were sown in a garden, which is now one of the thickly built parts of Charles- ton, and that from this came the seed which has made South Carolina the great rice-grow- ing state. Another account says that rice was grown in Virginia by Sir William Berkeley as early as 1647, but gives no particulars. There are three principal varieties in the rice-grow- ing states: 1. White rice, valued for its earli- ness and for growing upon uplands ; the husk is cream-colored ; an ounce contains 960 grains. 2. The gold-seeded, which has a deep yellow husk and a large, fine, white grain ; an ounce contains 896 grains. 3. The long-grain, a sub- variety of the gold-seeded, obtained as already described ; it has 840 grains in the ounce ; the grains are longer than any other, and it is the most valued for exportation. For home use a long-awned variety called the white-bearded is often sown. The best lands for the culti- vation of rice are on the banks of rivers hav- ing a deep soil, chiefly of decomposed vegetable matters, and so situated as to be overflowed by the opening of tide gates. They must be above the salt or brackish water, and below the reach of the freshets, so as not to be flooded at unseasonable times. Other low lands not in the tide region may bear good crops if so situated that they can be drained and flooded at will. The land is prepared by a thorough system of embankments and ditches, so laid out as to form independent fields, the size of which is limited by the number of hands that can finish any one operation connected with the culture in one day ; they usually consist of from 14 to 20 acres. The ditches are of vari- ous dimensions, often 5 ft. wide and as many deep, and sometimes the principal one is large enough to be used as a canal for transportation between the fields and the barns. Early in the winter the land is either ploughed or dug over with the hoe, and in the warm changes of the weather it is covered with water. In March it is kept dry, the drains are cleansed, the clods broken, and the surface smoothed off with the harrow or hoe, and trenches for the seed are made with a 4-inch trenching hoe at right angles with the drains 12 to 15 in. apart. In April and till the middle of May the seed is scattered in these trenches at the rate of 2 J to 3 bushels to the acre. Great attention is given to selecting the seed ; and sometimes the rice for this purpose is threshed by hand over a log or barrel, so as to throw out only the full- sized grains. "Volunteer" rice, the product of scattered seeds that have remained in the ground from the crop of the preceding year, is treated as a weed, and all that appears outside of the drills is cut up with the hoe. As the seed is sown it is covered lightly with soil, and the water is then let in through the gates and kept upon the land for four to six days, till the grain swells and begins to sprout. If the seed is not to be covered in the drills, it is previously prepared by stirring it in clayey water, and being then dried enough clay ad- heres to insure its remaining in the trenches when the water is let on. With the first meth- od the water has to be let on a second time when the plants sprout and appear like needles above the ground, while with the latter orie flooding answers. The water, after standing four to six days on the sprouts, is drained off, and when the plant is five or six weeks old the earth is stirred with the hoe; this is re- peated ten days afterward, and the "long