RHUBARB: a plant grown exclusively for its stalks, which serve as an excellent "fruit" for use as sauce, in pies, etc. A pleasing wine can also be prepared from them. The first supplies of many cities are obtained by forcing in cold frames and greenhouses. The earliest ,rea( hes the New York market in December, coming prinebally from Quebec and Montreal, where it is raised in large cellars.
If the stalks are dried in the sun, they may be kept: long time, and, when soaked over-night, are almost as good as the fresh producv...
It is an interesting fact that it is only in Englisu _Wiling countries that the rhubarb has attained general favor.
Turkish Rhubarb, sold by druggists and used extensively as a medicine, is a root grown chiefly in China and Chinese Tartary.
Its name is from its introduction via Turkey.
The fact that rice has not, in the past, occu pied the position in the American dietary to which it seems entitled, is attributed to the fact that, until recently, reliance was placed to a great extent on importations. To-day, however, the United States is fast developing into one of the world's great rice-growing countries—im proved machinery, greater fertility of soil and the elimination of the expense of ocean transpor tation tending to offset the cheaper labor of Eastern countries. Texas, Louisiana and Arkan sas are the chief producing states.
There is every reason why rice should be an every-day article of diet in American homes— even more so than potatoes, for it is more nutri tious, very easily digested and, when properly cooked, very palatable. Polished rice contains
an average of nearly 88% of nutrients—a little more than wheat. The components include 8% protein, 79% carbohydrates and a small amount of fat. Unpolished rice includes 7% of fat, or six times as much as wheat (see FOOD VALUES) . In countries where it is the principal article of food, the nitrogenous material (the protein) required to complete the human diet is supplied by the use generally of beans, peas, etc., and fre quently also of fish and other kinds of flesh.
Rice is graded by size and condition—the latter according to the greater or less damage in hulling and cleaning. The chief commercial classifications are, in a descending scale of quality, "fancy head rice," choice, prime, good, fair, ordinary, common, inferior and screenings.
Patna rice, of small, slender, well-rounded pearl-white grains, is the most esteemed of East ern products. Other important types are the Japan, Java, Siam, Bassein and Rangoon. The bulk of imported whole rice comes from Japan, with China next, but a long distance behind.
The Japan, Carolina and Honduras rices are the best known of American growth. Carolina is large, sweet and of good color. Japan style, which also ranks very high, is a thicker bodied, soft-grained variety. Honduras-style is a more slender grain.
The preparation of rice for the market in volves (1) thrashing, which gives "paddy" or rough rice, (2) milling, or hulling, to remove the husks, and (3) polishing, to produce the pearly gloss considered so desirable.
The polishing process, though improving its appearance, is a blunder from the standpoint of food values, as it robs it of nearly all its fatty properties—lessening its nutritive qualities and depriving it of the richer taste which makes the rice served in oriental countries seem so much superior to the same grain eaten here. Better acquaintance with high grade unpolished rice would result in wider appreciation of the grain. It requires, however, greater care in storing and handling, as it is more subject to the depredations of weevils.