RICE: ITS CULTIVATION, PRODUCTION, AND DISTRIBUTION IN THE UNITED STATES AND FOREIGN COUNTRIES.

INTRODUCTORY.

Among cereals and grains rice unquestionably stands first in importance in regard to the number of persons who consume it, the area do voted to its cultivation, and the amount annually produced thereon in the whole world. It has been stated that rice forms the principal, and in some cases almost the only, food of from one-third to one-half the whole human race, a statement which can not be made of any other edible product, except perhaps of meat. China and its dependencies have a population of about 404,000,000, or 27.5 per cent of the total population of the globe, and rice certainly forms the principal food supply of its people. The same may be said of India, with its population of 273,000,000, or 18.6 per cent of the total population. Statistics have shown that in Japan, which has a population of 39,000,000, rice forms 51 per cent of the total sustenance. The population of the principal remaining rice-consuming countries of Asia and Africa may be roughly estimated at about 80,000,000, and the total of the above figures reaches the sum of 796,000,000 people, or 54.2 per cent of the total population of the earth, which in 1890* was estimated at 1,468,000,000.

The Americas, Europe, and Australia do not enter into the above enumeration, since, although the cultivation of rice receives great attention and the rice itself is extensively consumed in all of these divisions, it can not be said to be one of the principal sources of food supply, its place being rather taken by wheat, rye, maize, and other cereals.

Rice has been known from the earliest historical times. It is mentioned in the Talmud, though neither in the Old nor in the New Testament; it was certainly known to the Romans, was mentioned in the Tragedies of Sophocles, the Greek poet, B. C. 495, and was described and named by the Greek philosopher Theophrastus, about B. C. 300. Legend places its introduction into China in the year B. C. 2822, and it is known to have been cultivated in Java as early as A. D. 1084.

The native country of rice is not known with certainty. Linnæus places it in Ethiopia; the traveler Barth saw rice growing wild in

* Statesman's Year Book for 1891.

Central Africa in 1857; others regard it as having been native in Asia. The Danish traveler Klein mentions having found rice growing wild in India, but it has never been proved that what he saw had not been brought there by man. According to some authorities rice is indigenous to eastern South America and is found in a native state upon the Amazon, though this statement has not been confirmed. It does not seem to be native in North America, even in the more tropical regions. It seems highly probable that rice is native to eastern India and the islands of the Malay Archipelago. From these localities it seems to have spread over eastern and southern Asia, and westwardly to Persia and Arabia. From Arabia it spread over Egypt and northern Africa, and was carried by the Arabs to Sicily, and by the Moors to Spain. It is said to have been introduced into northern Italy by the armies of Charles V. in 1521, and thence into southern France.

Its earliest introduction into our own country is said to have been in 1647, when Sir William Berkeley, governor of Virginia, caused a half bushel of seed (in all likelihood brought from England, whither it had been carried from India) to be planted in that colony, which is recorded as having yielded a crop of 16 bushels of good rice.

The important introduction of rice into this country, however, was at Charleston, S. C., in the year 1694. An English or Dutch ship, homeward bound from Madagascar, was driven by stress of weather to seek shelter in the harbor of Charleston, and the captain seized the opportunity to visit an old acquaintance, the landgrave and governor of the province, Thomas Smith, whom he had already met in Madagascar. Smith expressed the desire to experiment with the growing of rice upon a low, moist patch of ground in his garden, similar to ground upon which he had seen rice growing in Madagascar, whereupon the captain presented him with a small bag of rice seed which happened to be among the ship's stores. The seed was planted in the garden in Longitude Lane, Charleston, the spot being still pointed out, and thus was originated the important industry of rice cultivation, still flourishing in South Carolina.* There is a story also that the Earl of Shaftsbury sent 100 pounds of the seed to Charleston about the same time, from the .produce of which a cargo of 60 tons of paddy was shipped to England in 1698. Lowland rice was introduced into Louisiana in 1718, and upland rice into South Carolina in 1772, coming, it is said, from Cochin China. The rice which came from Madagascar in 1694 had in all probability been carried to that island from Egypt or from India.

Thus this plant from its Asiatic birthplace has made the circuit of the earth and is now cultivated throughout the torrid zone and in the warmer parts of both temperate zones wherever there is an abundant supply of water. Its geographical limits are given from 45° N. to 38° S. latitude in the Eastern and from 36° N. to 38° S. latitude in the Western Hemisphere.

Ramsay's "History of South Carolina."

Rice is an annual plant belonging to the natural order of the grasses, genus Oryza (Linnæus). Many varieties and subvarieties of it are known, the chief difference appearing to be in the size, shape, and color of the grain, due to variations in soil, climate, and method of cultivation. Thus, a botanical catalogue enumerates 161 varieties found in Ceylon alone, while in Japan, China, and India, where its cultivation has gone on for centuries, and where great care is usually taken in the improvement of the crop by selection of seed, no less than 1,400 varieties are said to exist. Practically, however, these may be classed under two principal species, as follows: (1) The common lowland rice (Oryza sativa), which is essentially a marsh plant and requires an abundant supply of water for successful growth and a temperature of from 60° to 80° F. for ripening. It flourishes best near the level of the sea, but it will, under favorable circumstances, do well at higher altitudes. It resembles oats in some of its characteristics, and has both beardless and barbed varieties. O. præcox is an early variety of the sativa, which it otherwise closely resembles, being a semiaquatic or marsh-loving plant. (2) The upland or mountain rice (O. mutica) is generally less productive than the preceding, and grows in comparatively dry soils, often at considerable altitudes. This variety is now cultivated in many places in the interior of Europe, and there is reason to believe that it will thrive wherever maize will ripen. A hardy variety (0. nepalensis) is said to be found in a wild state near the snow line of the Himalayas. It is also said that although lowland rice may be successfully raised upon uplands, mountain rice will not grow well upon lowlands or marshes, and that an amount of irrigation sufficient for lowland rice will prove injurious or even fatal to the upland variety. Upland rice is supposed to have originally been a native of Java or Ceylon.

Intermediate between lowland and upland rice is a peculiar variety (Oryza glutinosa, or clammy rice), principally found in Japan and India, which has the property of yielding a viscous mass when boiled with water. This is due to the more or less complete replacement of the natural starch of the grain by dextrine, which is soluble in water. The grain of this rice, when treated with a solution of iodine, gives a reddishbrown color, characteristic of dextrine, instead of the dark blue color aforded by ordinary rice-starch. The Japanese cultivate this variety under the name of Motsi. O. latifolia is a broad leaved variety of lowland rice indigenous to Brazil.

"Wild-rice," also known as "Indian rice," "Canada rice," or "Water oats" (Zizani aquatica), is not a rice at all, though it bears some resemblance to the Oryza, and is botanically related to it. It is widely diffused over North America, both in inland districts and near the sea, and is also found in eastern Siberia and Japan. It is especially abundant in the Upper Lake Region of the United States and Canada, where it covers areas often miles in extent, growing in the rich black