Smut (Horrida corona) sometimes attacks the rice seeds, changing the interior of the seeds to black powder. The affected grains are lighter than sound grains, and will float when the seeds are immersed in water. In this way they may be re moved. For treatment, see oat smut, page 491. Another smut, known as Ustilaginoidea virens, gives the blasted grains a greenish appearance.
Uses of rice and its products.
As food.—The uses to which the rice crop is devo ted are varied and interesting. The rice kernel is the principal food of more than half the population of the earth. Where a dense population depends for feel on an annual crop, rice has been selected as a staple if the soil and climate are adapted to its production. Its great yield per acre, its assured returns, its slight drain on the soil and its ease of digestion have been important considerations. Its slight deficiency in protein is an advantage, be cause the nutritive ratio is usually balanced by the lean meats, eggs, fish and legumes ordinarily composing a part of the American diet. When thoroughly cooked, rice is one of the best foods known for supplying heat and energy. The short time required for its digestion, the slight tax im posed on the system in the process and the high percentage digested are all items in its favor for the toiler, the person of sedentary habits and invalids.
There are many ways of preparing rice for food. In the oriental countries it is made into cakes, candy, and infant and invalid foods. A very at tractive method of use is popped rice, prepared much like popped corn. In the East Indies rough rice is boiled until about half done ; it is then dried in the sun and the hull removed. This makes the so-called brown rice, which includes the polish and the bran. In this form it will keep longer without injury than rice milled in the American way ; it has a higher flavor, contains more protein and pepsin, and yields a larger merchantable per centage of human food per bushel milled. Another method of preparing rice in India is to remove the hull and bran, then store the rice for a year before placing it on the market. It is asserted that old rice is more digestible.
There is very little if any difference in the nu tritive value of the different grades of rice in the United States. All of our milled rice has less flavor and is of a lower nutritive value than ori ental rice because in these countries the polish is not removed from the kernel in milling. The pol ish contains about fifteen-sixteenths of the flavor of the grain. Commercially, polish is sold to for eign countries as human food ; in the United States it is chiefly fed to animals and has a high reputed value for dairy cows and young pigs.
Rice bran contains a high percentage of protein and when fresh is held in great esteem as a stock food, but, owing to the excessive amount of fat contained, it soon becomes rancid. To overcome this, the oil is sometimes extracted and sold for various uses, leaving the residue for the stock. Another use for rice bran is proposed as follows : Cut equal parts of rice-straw and alfalfa hay, mix with this rice bran and re fuse molasses, dry and grind. This would
place the by-products of rice and sugar in a very available form for use and trans portation.
Rice hulls are largely silicates and so in digestible that they are of little value, if not positively harmful. At first in the rice in dustry the hulls were thrown out to decay ; later they furnished the fuel for the mills and more recently some are used to adul terate rice bran, or sold to perform the same office for wheat bran.
Rice-straw is at present used chiefly in the United States for stock-food. When used as a sole cattle-food, animals will merely main tain weight. Large quantities are burned in the fields as a convenient method of disposal. The loss by this method amounts annually to several millions. Live-stock industry is usually not exten sively developed in rice-growing regions.
Hiseellaneous.—In Japan, rice is used extensively in the manufacture of a fermented liquor called saki. In China several kinds of wine that are much prized are made from rice. An excellent starch also is made from rice.
Possible expansion of the rice industry.
West of the Mississippi river, in the states of Louisiana and Texas, are at least 10,000,000 acres of land adapted to rice-culture, and, of this, about one-half can be watered by husbanding the waters of the rivers and by sinking artesian wells. In the basin of the Mississippi and her tributaries are 10,000,000 acres that can be watered suitable for rice. In the Gulf and Atlantic states are about 8,000,000 acres, of which three-fourths can be watered. On this estimate there are in the United States about 21,000,000 acres of land adapted to rice that can be watered and are capable of pro ducing an annual crop of 735,000,000 bushels,worth, at sixty cents per bushel, $441,000,000. Most of this land is non-productive at present, but in the near future it will be required for our food supply, and can easily be brought under cultivation. This points to the fact that the rice industry in the United States is in its infancy and has ample room for expansion.
The State of Arkansas has large areas of land with a deep, rich soil, underlaid with a semi-tena cious clay, making admirable conditions for rice culture, when taken in connection with the abun dant water supply of that state. Several thousand acres have been planted to rice with the best results. The coast sections of Mississippi and Alabama are in the main better adapted to rice culture than to any other grain crop.
Literature.
Watt, Dictionary of the Economic Products of India; Chemical Tables for Daily Use, Imperial Agricultural College, Japan ; Farmers' Bulletin No. 110, United States Department of Agriculture ; Division of Botany, Bulletin No. 22, United States Department of Agriculture ; Office of Experiment Stations, Bulletin No. 113, United States Depart ment of Agriculture ; Bulletins Nos. 24, 50, 61, 77 of the Louisiana Experiment Station. The reader may consult with profit the various writings on tropical agriculture.