This grain was first introduced into Virginia by Sir William Berkeley in 1647, who received half a bushel of seed, from which he raised 16 bushels of excellent rice, most or all of which was sown the following year. It is also stated that a Dutch brig from 3Iadagascar came to Charleston in 1694, and left about a peck of rice in the husk with governor Thomas Smith, who distributed it among his friends for cultivation, from the produce of which no less a quantity than 60 tons was shipped to England in 1698. It soon after became the chief staple food of the colony. Its culture was introduced into Louisiana in 1718. The present culture of rice in the United States is chiefly con fined to South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas. The average yield per acre is from 20 to 60 bushels, weighing from 95 to 48 lbs. when cleaned. Under exceptionally favourable circumstances as many as 60 bushels per acre have been realized. The American rice, although originally introduced from the 01(1 World, is now the finest in quality. That imported from Patna is more esteemed in Europe than any other kiud of eastern rice. The low estimation of Java rice was not attributable to any real inferiority of the grain, but to the careless method of preparing it for the market.
The common rice being an aquatic plant, is best grown in such low, moist lands as are most easily inundated. The ground is first ploughed super ficially, and divided into squares of from 20 to 30 yards each way, separated from each other by dykes of earth about a foot high, and sufficiently wide for a man to walk upon. These dykes are for the purpose of retaining the water when required, and perrnitting it to be drawn off when no longer necessary. So soon rts the ground is prepared, the water is let on, and the several cOmpartments of tho rico fields aro thus flooded into a depth of about G inches. The rice that is to be used as seed mut remain in the husk, it having previously been put into sacks, and kept under water until the gram has swelled and begun to show signs of germination. The sower, walking through the inundated field, scatters the seed with his hands, as he would do if ho were sowing wheat; being rendered heavy by its previous soaking, it immediately falls to the bottom, and even sinks a little way into the mud. After the lapse of about a fortnight, the young crop begins to show itself above the surface of the shallow water. As the plant grows, the depth of the water is increased, BO that the stalks may not bend with their ONVI1 weight. When they become stronger and less flexible, the water is drawn off for a few days to allow of hoeing, after which it is again let on, and maintained to about half the height of the plant, until the crop ripens and the straw begins to turn yellow. Then the water is emptied, and the harvest commences, the crop being reaped with a sickle. It is then bound up
into bundles, and thrushed or trodden out and winnowed. The husk of the grain is removed in some countries by means of a mill constructed of two large cylinders of very hard wood, and obliquely furrowed, which are turned by the hand. Americans employ a rice-threshing. mill with steam-engine attached. The rice in sheaf is taken up to the thresher by a conveyer ; it is threshed, the straw removed, then thrice winnowed and twice screened, and the result in some cases exceeds a thousand bushels a day.
Paddy, as it comes from the ear, has a rough, silicious outer covering or husk, which is impervious to water, and is used in America for horse-beds, and for packing crockery-ware and ice, being far better than sawdust for the latter puipose.
At the mouths of the river Indus, large patches of alluvial deposit accumulate, consisting of very muddy, swampy soil, almost on a level with the sea, and exposed equally to be flooded both by it and the fresh water of the river. These swamps form the principal rice fields of Lower Sind. There is little doubt but that the extensive mud flats, covered with flags and bulrushes, that border the lower portion of the river Murray in South Australia, might easily be made available for the culture of rice. The delta of the Missis.sippi is remarkably adapted to the growth of this grain, the river being always available for the purposes of irrigation, and two crops of rice a year can be reckoned upon in that region.
The wild rice found in the Madras Presidency, in and on the borders of lakes in the Circars, on the marine lagoons of Travancore, near Allepey, and other places, is never cultivated, though the richer classes near Rajamundry gather and eat it as a great dainty. It is white, palatable, anti wholesome, and sells at a high price.
Rice cultivation prevails in all the river valleys and on all the coasts of Eastern and Southern Asia, in the Japan Islands, on all the sea-coasts of China, the Philippine and other large islands of the Eastern Archipelago, in Ceylon, Siam, India, on both shores of the Red Sea, in Egypt, on the shores of the Mozambique Channel, in Madagascar, on the shores of the Mediterranean, in some parts of 'Western Africa, South Carolina, and Central America. Throughout the greater part ef British India and China rice is preferred as food by nearly all classes, and the Negro domiciled in the New World similarly appreciates it. But it is essentially the food of the well-to-do classes. The races of Northern India, and the Chinese of the provinces of Ho-nan, Shen-si, Shan-si, and Shan-tung, prefer wheat, and in India the millets and pulses form the food-grains of all the labouring people, with whom rice is a luxury.