Professor Randall is inclined to think that there is as much rice land water in Minnesota as in the same area of the States of South Carolina and Georgia, and that the Minnesota rice ground pro duces as much to the acre, and will at no -distant period compete with the southern production. We have tried it boiled as usual, and have found it very palatable.
The specimen. however, in appear ance, is not inviting, as the outer skin of the hulled rice is dark colored, though the inside is white as the southern kind. This may be owing to some difficulty in preserving it, and probably if more com pletely hulled the objection would dis appear.
Since the notice made of it by Mr. Randall, it has been further noticed as abundant in the Minnesota territory. Gen. Verplanek, late Commissioner to the Chippewa Indians, pronounces it better than southern rice. The kernels are larger and its flavor is better; for when boiled and stewed, and left to cool, it forms a consistent mass like good wheat bread, and more nutritious. It is stated that very great quantities grow on all the lakes.in this northern country. The outlets and bays are filled with it. It ripens in the month of August, and is the main reliance of the Indians, during the winter months, for their sustenance. From this account it would seem that it might be an article worthy of attention, and that possibly it may become known and used in the more eastern states. The introduction of rice in this coun try is said to have been owing to one of those trivial occurrences which often ex ert a powerful influence on a nation's prosperity. It is stated that in the year 1e91, a brig from Madagascar, touching at Charleston on her way to England, anchored off Sullivan's Island. The cap tain invited Landgrave Smith on board, and presented to him a bag of seed rice, with information of its growth in the east, and its excellence for food and its amazing increase. The governor divided it among his friends, who made experi ments with it, which fully answered ex pectation, and from this small beginning arose ono of the great staple articles of South Carolina and Georgia.
The quantity of rice raised in 1847, amounted to 103,640,590 lbs the greater part of which was grown in South Caro lina: the value of the foregoing quantity was $3,091,215.
The exports of rice from this country, during 1847 and 1848, were to the value of 1847 $3,605,896 1648 2,331,424 A rice crop is said in produce to equal six times the wheat crop in the same lo cality. Forty bushels per acre, however, appear to be the usual crop : it requires a warm and wet soil, hence it is so bene fited by irrigation.
The mode of irrigation of rice in China is thus described in Fortune's China, a work which contains many interesting particulars relating to Chinese agricul ture : u Irrigation in China.—Riee is grown on the lower terrace ground; and a stream of water is always led from some ravine and made to flow across the sides of the hills, until it reaches the highest terrace, into which it flows, and floods the whole of the level space. When the water rises three or four inches in height, which is sufficiently high for the rice, it finds vent at an opening made for the purpose in the bank, through which it flows into the terrace below, which it floods in the same manner, and soon to the lowest. In this waj the whole of the rice terraces are kept flooded conti nually, until the stalks of the crops assume a yellow ripening hue; when the water being no longer required, is turned back into its natural channel, or led to a different part of the hill for the nourishment of other crops. These mountain streams, which abound in all parts of the hilly districts, are of the greatest importance to the farmer ; and as they generally spring from a high elevation in the ravines, they can be conducted at pleasure over all the lower parts of the hill. No operation in agri culture gives him and his laborers more pleasure than leading these streams of water from one place to another, and making them subservient to their pur poses. In my travels in the country the inhabitants often called my attention to this branch of their operations ; and I pleased them much when I expressed my admiration at the skill with which they executed it. The practice is not confined to the paddy-fields ; for I re member once, when superintending the planting of some large trees and shrubs in the garden of Messrs. Dent and Co., in Hong-Kong, after I had given them a large supply of water at the time they were put into the ground, I desired the gardener to repeat the doso next morn ing. But on the following day, when I returned to the spot, I was surprised to find a little stream divided into many branches, and meandering among the roots of the newly-planted trees. As there was no stream there before, I went to examine its source, and found that it had been led from a neighboring ravine —a work more easy than carrying a large supply of water in buckets, at the same* time more effectual."