Archipelago. — Two distinct descriptions of rice are cultivate-a-throughout the Indian islands, —one which grows without the help of immer sion in water, and another for which that im mersion is indispensably requisite. In external character there is very little difference between them. The marsh rice generally brings a some what higher price in the market. The great ad vantage of this latter consists in its superior fecundity. Two very important varieties of each are well knowu to the Javanese husbandman,—one being a large, productive, but delicate grain, which requires about seven months to ripen, and the. other a small, hardy, and less fruitful one, which takes little more than five months. The first is constantly found cultivated in rich lands, where one annual crop only is taken ; and the last in well-watered lands, but of inferior fertility, where the two crops may be raised. Both of these, but particularly the marsh rice, is divided into a great number of sub-varieties, characterized by being awned or otherwise, having a long or round grain, or being in colour black, red, or white.
Celebes. —Rice is grown to some extent in the Dutch portion of Celebes.
In the Philippines, nine varieties of rice are cultivated,—Binambang, Lamuyo, Malagcquit (a), Malagcquit (b), Bontal Cabayo, Dumali, Quin anda, Bolohan, Tang-i. The lamuyo forms the principal article of food of the inhabitants of the coast ; the rnalagcquit (a) is glutinous, and used for making sweetmeats and fancy dishes.
The varieties of the hill rice are named O. mutica and O. glutinosa, and it has been recom mended to introduce them into all the mountain ranges of India. The Oryza glutinosa of Rumphius is never used as bread, but commonly prepared as a sweetmeat. Red rice is the variety of Oryza sativa called glutinosa (pulut or brass° pulut of the Malays). In the Straits Settlements, red rice is imported from China, and sells at the rate of 10 cents of a dollar per lb. O. mutica has been reared successfully on the banks of the Thames near Windsor; and if well up and firmly rooted it will grow through snow. They are grown in the Hima laya, in Ceylon, Arakan, Burma, Cochin-Chinit, Java, and Japan. The mountain rices of India are grown without irrigation, up to elevations of 6000 to 7000 feet on the Himalaya, where the dampness of the summer months compensates for the want of artificial moisture; also on the Siwalik tract and up the valleys of the N.W. Himalaya, their elevation securing them from the great heat to which the other varieties are exposed. In Kanawar, the greatest height at which rice that requires water has been observed, is 6600 feet. The other kinds, which are not watered, grow at 8000 and 9000 feet.
In India generally, rice is produced in every variety of soil, at every altitude and in every lati tude. To name a, tithe of the varieties grown would prove a tedious and be a useless task, for they vary with every district in which they grow. The finest is the Bengal table rice ; it is 'inferior to the Carolina produce, and the great bulk of tho Indian varieties would be unmarketable in Europe, from their poverty of body and the slovenly manner in which they are prepared. Up to the present year (1883) Carolina rice fetches the highest price in the London market, and after that is the rice of Patna. Carolina rice is very tuuch superior to any other rice known in commerce, and it fetches more than double the price of the best Bengal rice.
Rice cultivated in a virgin soil, where the wood has been burned off, will, under favourable cir cumstances, give a return of twenty-five and thirty fold. Of mountain rice, cultivated in ordi nary upland arable lands, fifteen fold !nay be looked upon as a good return. In fertile soils, when ono crop only is taken in the year, marsh rico will yield a return of twenty - five seed& When a double crop la taken, not more than fifteen or sixteen can be expected. Mr. Crawfurd
says ho had nem lands which had produced, from time beyond tho memory of any living person, two yearly crops of rice. When thia practice is pursued, it is always tho five menthe grain which is grown. The rapid growth of this variety lour indeed enabled the Javanese husbandman, in a few happy situations, to urge the culture to the amount of six cropa in two years and a half.
The rudest and probably tho earliest practised mode of cultivating rice, consists in taking from forest lands a fugitive crop, after burning the trees, gmss, and underwood. Tho ground is turned up with the mattock, and the seeds planted by dibbling between the stumps of trees. The period of sowing is the commencement of the rains, and of reaping that of the dry season. The rico is, of course, of that description which does not require immersion. The second de scription of tillage consists also in growing moun tain or dry land rice. This mode is usually adopted on the common upland amble lands, which cannot conveniently be irrigated. The grain is sown in the middle of the dry season, either broadcast or by dibbling, and reaped in seven or five months, as the grain happens to bo the larger or the smaller variety. The culture of rico by the aid of the periodical rains forms the third mode. The grain being that kind which requires submersion, the process of sowing and reaping is determined with precision by the seasons. With the first fall of the rains the lands are ploughed and harrowed. The seed is sown in beds, usually by strewing very thickly the corn in the ear. From these beds the pLanta, when twelve or fourteen days old, are removed into the fields, and thinly set by the hand. They aro then kept constantly immersed in water until within a fortnight of the harvest, wheu it is drawn off to facilitate the ripening of the grain. The fourth mode of cultivating rice is by forcing a crop by artificial irrigation at any time of the year; thus in one field, in various plots, the operations of sowing, ploughing, trans planting, and reaping may be seen at the same period.
The growing rico in the Mongliir Province of Bengal in 1880 was attacked by a species of Cecidomyia, which Mr. 1Vood Mason named C. oryzw, the rice-fly.
Rice flour, CHINESE, is ground rice.
The seeds of rice contain a much less propor tion of nitrogenized compounds than the other cereal grains, and particularly wheat, viz. about 7 per cent. The quantity of fatty matter is also leas ; and though much difference of opinion has prevailed in reference to tho value of rice as an article of diet, analysis clearly proves that it is the least nutritious of all the cereal grasses. This difference of opinion has probably arisen from the fact that rice is seldom eaten by itself, but is par taken of usually with milk, butter, or sugar, the nutritious properties of which substances have been attributed to the rico itself. Tho Chinese prepare a flour, Mi-fen, by boiling rice and drying it in the sun, and tho clear grains are ground into a flour, which makes an excellent gruel.
Primo rico, after being cleaned and well milled, will keep a long time in any climate, only when about to be used (if old) it requires more careful winching to get rid of the must which accumulanis upon it. All persona prefer fur table use, rico a year old to dm ; Archipelagn Journal; Bowring's Siam ; Bonynge's America ; Calc. Rev.; Cak. Cal.; Capper Three Presi dencies; 7'he Colonist ; Crawfurd's Archip. and Did.; Drury, Useful Plants ; Fortune': Chinn ; Hassid ; Hogg, Veg. King.; II. and 7'h. 1.7. Ind.; Mr. I,. Liolard; Louis Straits Settlements; M'Culloch's Diet.; Mason's Ilnrma; Dr. Marshall, Slat. Rep.; Mr. J. E. O'Connor • Powell; Poole's Stalk ; Roxburgh ; 13aboo illajendra Lai ; Simmonds' Magazine and Comm. Prod.; Smith, Mal. tiled. of China ; Stewart, Panj. 1'1. ; l'olgt ; J. 1Vood Mason.