Chapter XXVII: Section II (5)

_Zizania aquatica_ is exceedingly prolific of bland, farinaceous seeds, which afford a kind of rice in Canada and North-West America, where it abounds wild in all the shallow streams. The seeds contribute essentially to the support of the wandering tribes of Indians, and feed immense flocks of wild swans, geese, and other water fowl. Pinkerton says, this plant seems intended to become the bread-corn of the North. Two other species of Zizania are common in the United States of America.

Rice, the chief food, perhaps, of one-third of the human race, possesses the advantage attending wheat, maize, and other grains, of preserving plenty during the fluctuations of trade, and is also susceptible of cultivation on land too low and moist for the production of most other useful plants. Although cultivated principally within the tropics, it flourishes well beyond, producing even heavier and better filled grain. Like many other plants in common use, it is now found wild [it is to be understood that the wild rice, or water oat (_Zizania aquatica_), already referred to, which grows along the muddy shores of tide waters, is a distinct plant from the common rice, and should not be confounded with it], nor is its native country known. Linnæus considers it a native of Ethiopia, while others regard it of Asiatic origin.

The chief variety of this cereal is cultivated throughout the torrid zone, wherever there is a plentiful supply of water, and it will mature, under favorable circumstances, in the Eastern continent, as high as the 45th parallel of north latitude, and as far south as the 38th. On the Atlantic side of the Western continent, it will flourish as far north as latitude 38 degrees, and to a corresponding parallel south. On the Western coast of America, it will grow so far north as 40 or more degrees. Its general culture is principally confined to India, China, Japan, Ceylon, Madagascar, Eastern Africa, the South of Europe, the Southern portions of the United States, the Spanish Main, Brazil, and the Valley of Parana and Uruguay.

In 1834, 29,583 bags of rice were shipped from Maranham, but I am not aware what have been the exports since.

At the Industrial Exhibition in London, in 1851, there were displayed many curious specimens and varieties of rice, grown without irrigation, at elevations of three thousand to six thousand feet on the Himalaya, where the dampness of the summer months compensates for the want of artificial moisture. Among these American rice received not only honorable mention for its very superior quality, but the Carolina rice, exhibited by E.I. Heriot, was pronounced by the jury "magnificent in size, color, and clearness," and it was awarded a prize medal. The jury also admitted that the American rice, though originally imported from the Old World, is now much the finest in quality.

This grain was first introduced into Virginia by Sir William Berkeley, in 1647, who received half a bushel of seed, from which he raised sixteen bushels of excellent rice, most or all of which was sown the following year. It is also stated that a Dutch brig, from Madagascar, came to Charleston in 1694, and left about a peck of paddy (rice in the husk), with Governor Thomas Smith, who distributed it among his friends for cultivation. Another account of its introduction into Carolina is, that Ashley was encouraged to send a bag of seed rice to that province, from the crops of which sixty tons were shipped to England in 1698. It soon after became the chief staple of the colony. Its culture was introduced into Louisiana in 1718, by the "Company of the West."

The present culture of rice in the United States is chiefly confined to South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas. The yield per acre varies from twenty to sixty bushels, weighing from forty-five to forty-eight pounds when cleaned. Under favorable circumstances as many as ninety bushels to an acre have been raised.

Judge Dougherty, who resides near the borders of Henderson county, Texas, has raised a crop of several hundred bushels of upland rice. The crop averages thirty bushels to the acre. He thinks rice can be raised there as easily as Indian corn, and will be far more profitable.

Another variety is cultivated in America to a limited extent, called Cochin-China, dry, or mountain rice, from its adaptation to a dry soil, without irrigation. It will grow several degrees further north or south than the Carolina rice, and has been cultivated with success in the Northern provinces of Hungary, China, Westphalia, Virginia and Maryland; but the yield is much less than that already stated, being only fifteen to twenty bushels to an acre. It was first introduced into Charleston, from Canton, by John Brodly Blake, in 1772.

The American crop of rice in 1848, reached 162,058 tierces in market, and of these 160,330 tierces were exported from South Carolina. The largest rice crop grown in South Carolina for the past thirty years, was in 1847, when 192,462 tierces were raised; 140,000 to 150,000 is about the average, and it has only exceeded 170,000 on four occasions.

The amount of rice exported from South Carolina in 1724, was 18,000 barrels; in 1731, 41,957 barrels; in 1740, 90,110 barrels; in 1747-48, 55,000 barrels; in 1754, 104,682 barrels; in 1760-61, 100,000 barrels; from Savannah, in 1755, 2,299 barrels, besides 237 bushels of paddy or rough rice; in 1760, 3,283 barrels, besides 208 bushels of paddy; in 1770, 22,120 barrels, besides 7,064 bushels of paddy; from Philadelphia, in 1771, 258,375 pounds. The amount exported from the United States, in 1770, was 150,529 barrels; in 1791, 96,980 tierces; in 1800, 112,056 tierces; in 1810, 131,341 tierces; in 1820-21, 88,221 tierces; in 1830-31, 116,517 tierces; in 1840-41, 101,617 tierces; in 1845-46, 124,007 tierces; in 1846-47, 144,427 tierces; in 1850-51, 105,590 tierces.

According to the census of 1840, the rice crop of the United States amounted to 80,841,422 lbs.; in 1850, 215,312,710 lbs.

Rice being an aquatic plant, is best grown in low moist lands, that are easily inundated.

The ground is ploughed superficially, and divided into squares of from twenty to thirty yards in the sides, separated from each other by dykes of earth about two feet in height, and sufficiently broad for a man to walk upon. These dykes are for retaining the water when it is required, and to permit of its being drawn off when the inundation is no longer necessary. The ground prepared, the water is let on, and kept at a certain height in the several compartments of the rice field, and the seedsman goes to work. The rice that is to be used as seed must have been kept in the husk; it is put into a sack, which is immersed in the water until the grain swells and shows signs of germination; the seedsman, walking through the inundated field, scatters the seed with his hand, as usual; the rice immediately sinks to the bottom, and many even penetrate to a certain depth in the mud. In Piedmont, where the sowing takes place at the beginning of April, they generally use about fifty-five pounds of seed per acre. The rice begins to show itself above the surface of the water at the end of a fortnight; as the plant grows, the depth of the water is increased, so that the stalks may not bend with their own weight. About the middle of June this disposition is no longer to be apprehended; the rice is not so flexible as it was, so that the water can be drawn off for a few days to permit hoeing; after which the water is again let on, and maintained to the height of the plant. In July it is usual to top the stalks, an operation which renders the flowering almost simultaneous.

Rice generally flowers in the beginning of the month of August, and a fortnight later the grain begins to form. It is at this period especially that the stalks require to be supported, and this is effectually done by keeping the water at about half their height. The rice field is emptied when the straw turns yellow. The harvest generally takes place at the end of September. In the Isle of France rice is cultivated in very damp soils, upon which a great deal of rain falls, but which are not flooded, as in other tropical countries: but the process is not so certain nor the crop so great, as when inundation is employed. In Piedmont the usual return of a rice field is reckoned at about fifty for one. At Munzo, in New Granada, the paddy fields which are not inundated, under the influence of a mean temperature of 26 deg. centrigrade (79.0 deg. Fahrenheit), yield 100 for 1.--(Simmonds's "Colonial Magazine," vol. xi., p. 92.)

The rice now grown about New Orleans is as sweet, if not sweeter, than that imported from South Carolina, but it is deficient in hardness and brightness when ready for market, a defect owing entirely to two causes, neither of which is beyond the control of the planter. The one cause is the mode of culture, it being generally grown without due attention to the seed--seeded at too late a period of the season, and allowed to become _rare-ripe_ upon the stalk. The other cause is the very imperfect mode of its preparation for market; this being invariably accomplished by the primitive pestle and mortar, or the old-fashioned "pecker mill." The same seed is planted in the same soil from year to year, a system which, it is generally conceded, will deteriorate the quality and production of any grain crop. A very large proportion of the rice grown in Carolina is prepared for market at the steam toll-mills, in the vicinity of Charleston; and a mill of this description near New Orleans, would remedy the greatest defect in the rice of the country, greatly increase the demand for the article, and undoubtedly yield a large return for the investment. The toll mills at and around Charleston are, and always have been, prosperous. The mills of Mr. Lucas, in England, erected to clean "paddy," _i.e._ "rough rice," sent there in bulk from Carolina, have succeeded also, and have increased the consumption of the article in that country. The "rough rice," "paddy," or grain, as it comes from the ear, is composed, first, of a rough, silicious outer covering, impervious to water, which is very useful in the neighbourhood of cities, for filling up low lots or pools, for horse beds, and for packing crockery and _ice_, being far better for the latter purpose than the sawdust used; second, a brown flour or bran, lying directly under the outer covering; and third, of the clean or white rice. There is no question that, as a common diet, it is better adapted to the climate of Louisiana than Indian corn; and it can be grown on the hitherto _waste lands of the sugar plantations_; it is always substituted by the physician, when practicable, as the food best adapted to the laborer, in seasons of diarrhoea and other similar diseases, is _preferred_ before any other grain by the negro; and if the clean rice be ground and bolted, a meal is produced which can be made up into various forms of cake and other bread, of unrivalled sweetness and delicacy. The outer flour, or brown bran, which is separated from the chaff at the toll mill, is known as "rice flour," and corresponds to the "bran" of wheat, it is a most excellent food for horses, poultry, pigs and _milch cows_, and would always command a ready sale in New Orleans. It is used extensively for these purposes at and around Charleston, and is shipped thence, by the cargo, to Boston and other Northern ports.

No portion of the globe is better adapted to the growth of this grain than the delta of the Mississippi. The river is _always_ "up and ready" to do the all-important duty of irrigation in March, April, May, and June, in which period of the year the crop ought to be made; and I am informed, and doubt not, that _two_ cuttings can be obtained from the same plants, between March and the killing frosts of the succeeding November.

An interesting report by Dr. E. Elliot, on the Cultivation of Rice, was read before the Pendleton Farmer's Society, South Carolina, at a recent annual meeting, from which I shall make an extract.

In "Ramsay's History of South Carolina" it is stated:--"Landgrave
Thomas Smith, who was Governor of the Province in 1693, had been at
Madagascar before he settled in Carolina. There he observed that
rice was planted and grew in low moist ground. Having such ground in
his garden, attached to his dwelling in East Bay, Charleston, he was
persuaded that rice would grow therein, if seed could be procured.
About this time a vessel from Madagascar, being in distress, came to
anchor near Sullivan's Island. The master inquired for Mr. Smith, as
an old acquaintance. An interview took place. In the course of
conversation Mr. Smith expressed a wish to obtain some seed rice to
plant in his garden. The cook being called, said that he had a small
bag of rice suitable for the purpose. This was presented to Mr.
Smith, who sowed it in a low spot in Longitude Lane. From this small
beginning did one of the great staple commodities of South Carolina
takes its rise, which soon became the chief support of the colony,
and its great source of opulence."

"Such is the historical account of the introduction of rice into
South Carolina; and from that day to this, it has constituted one of
her staple articles of production. Although the climate and soil
were found admirably suited to the plant, the planters encountered
incredible difficulty in preparing or dressing the rice for market.
From the day of its introduction, to the close of the Revolution,
the grain was milled, or dressed, partly by hand and partly by
animal power. But the processes were imperfect, very tedious, very
destructive to the laborer, and very exhausting to the animal power.
The planter regarded a good crop as an equivocal blessing, for as
the product was great so in proportion was the labor of preparing it
for market. While matters stood thus, the planters were released
from their painful condition by a circumstance so curious that it
deserves a place in the history of human inventions. A planter from
the Santee, whilst walking in King-street, Charleston, noticed a
small windmill perched on the gable end of a wooden store. His
attention was arrested by the beauty of its performance. He entered
the store and asked who the maker was. He was told that he was a
Northumbrian, then resident in the house--a man in necessitous
circumstances, and wanting employment. A conference was held; the
planter carried the machine to the Santee, pointed out the
difficulties under which the planters labored, and the result was
the rice pounding-mill. This man was the first Mr. Lucas, and to his
genius South Carolina owes a large debt of gratitude. For what the
cotton planter owes to Eli Whitney, the rice planter owes to Mr.
Lucas. His mills were first impelled by water, but more recently by
steam, and though much mechanical ingenuity and much capital have
been expended in improving them, the rice pounding-mill of this day,
in all essential particulars, does not differ materially from the
mill as it came from the hands of Mr. Lucas.

This great impediment being removed, one formidable difficulty still
remained in the way of the rice planters, and that was the threshing
of the crop by flail. The labor requisite to accomplish this was so
great, that we once heard a distinguished planter say, while having
one large crop threshed out by flail, that he would regard another
large crop as a calamity. Previous to 1830 threshing mills had been
tried by various individuals, but with no apparent success. In that
year the attempt was renewed, and we were present and witnessed the
first trial of a thresher, constructed in New York, and which was
tested on Savannah river, under the auspices of General Hamilton.
The machinery was driven by apparatus similar to that employed for
driving the cotton gin. The result was not very satisfactory, but
there was ground for hope, and after an outlay of very large sums,
and after many disappointments, the happy expedient was thought of,
of testing the mill with steam instead of animal power. The
experiment was completely successful, and it was manifest at once
that the difficulties had not been in the imperfect construction, of
the thresher, but in the insufficiency of the moving power.

It is now twenty years since we witnessed the working of the small
mill alluded to, and the rice threshing-mill, with steam-engine
attached, is now a splendid piece of operative machinery. The rice
in sheaf is taken up to the thresher by a conveyor, it is threshed,
the straw taken off, then thrice winnowed and twice screened, and
the result in some cases exceeds a thousand bushels of clean rough
rice, the work of a short winter day.

Humanity rejoices at these inventions--at this transfer to water and
steam, of processes so slow and so exhausting to the human as well
as to the animal frame--and in this feeling we are confident every
planter deeply sympathises. Moreover, the relief they have afforded
in other respects has been perfectly indescribable. Previous to
these improvements all the finer portions of the winter were
appropriated exclusively to the milling and the threshing of the
crop with the flail, yet it is manifest they added not one particle
to the value of the property; indeed, while going on, all other
work, and all preparation for another crop had to be suspended, so
that the condition of the plantation was not progressive, but
retrograde.

A short recapitulation will show what has been accomplished by the
enterprise of our planters in the last seventy years. At the close
of the Revolution it is believed the rice fields were poorly
drained, and when broken up were chiefly turned with the hoe, then
trenched with the hoe; then came three or four hoeings and as many
pickings. The rice was then cut with the sickle and carried in on
the head, then threshed with the flail, then milled and dressed, in
some cases wholly by human labor, and in others by a rude machine,
called a pecker mill. Now, in 1852, the hoeing, the pickings, and
the cutting with the sickle remain unchanged; but the lands are
better drained, and in the turning the plough has superseded the
hoe; the trenching, when, necessary, is done by animal power; the
rice, when cut, is carried in on a flat and wagon, then threshed and
milled by machinery, so perfect that it is difficult to imagine how
it can be surpassed.

It is one hundred and fifty-nine years since the introduction of
rice into Carolina, and there are grounds for supposing that our
people have accomplished more during that period, in the cultivation
and preparation of this grain, than has been done by any of the
Asiatic nations who have been conversant with its growth for many
centuries. We had the rare opportunity, a few years since, of seeing
a Chinese book on rice planting, which contained many engravings.
The language we could not read, but we comprehended a sufficient
number of the engravings to institute a comparison between their
system and our own, and the result was, in our method of irrigation
we were their equals, while in economy of cultivation, and in the
preparation of the grain for market and for use, we are greatly
their superiors. Again, some six or seven years since the East India
Company, of London, sent an agent to this country to procure
American cotton seed, gins, and overseers, for the purpose of
testing the practicability of raising cotton by our method in India.
This agent, Captain Bayles, when in Savannah, was heard to say that
he had especial directions from the Company to inform himself
minutely of our system of rice culture. Here, then, was an embassage
from the banks of the Ganges, a spot where rice has been cultivated
probably for twenty centuries, to inquire into the method of
cultivation and preparation, of a people amongst whom the grain had
no existence one hundred and sixty years ago."

The following is the mode of culture for rice in Carolina:--It is sowed as soon as it conveniently can be after the vernal equinox, from which period until the middle, and even the last of May, is the usual time of putting it in the ground. It grows best in low marshy land, and should be sowed in furrows twelve inches asunder; it requires to be flooded, and thrives best if six inches under water; the water is occasionally drained off, and turned on again to overflow it, for three or four times.

When ripe the straw becomes yellow, and it is either reaped with a sickle, or cut down with a scythe and cradle, some time in the month of September; after which it is raked and bound, or got up loose, and threshed or trodden out, and winnowed in the same manner as wheat or barley.

Husking it requires a different and particular operation, in a mill made for that purpose. This mill is constructed of two large flat wooden cylinders, formed like mill-stones, with channels or furrows cut therein, diverging in an oblique direction from the centre to the circumference, made of a heavy and exceedingly hard timber, called lightwood, which is the knots of the pitch pine. This is turned with the hand, like the common hand-mills. After the rice is thus cleared of the husks, it is again winnowed, when it is fit for exportation.

A bushel of rice will weigh about sixty or sixty-six pounds, and an acre of middling land will produce twenty-five bushels.

Various machines have been contrived for cleaning rice, of which one secured by patent to Mr. M. Wilson, in 1826, and thus described by Dr. Ure, may be regarded as a fair specimen:--It consists of an oblong hollow cylinder, laid in an inclined position, having a great many teeth stuck in its internal surface, and a central shaft, also furnished with teeth. By the rapid revolution of the shaft, its teeth are carried across the intervals of those of the cylinder, with the effect of parting the grains of rice, and detaching whatever husks or impurities may adhere to them. A hopper is set above to receive the rice, and conduct it down into the clean cylinder. About eighty teeth are supposed to be set in the cylinder, projecting so as to reach very nearly the central shaft, in which there is a corresponding number of teeth, that pass freely between the former.

The cylinder may also be placed upright, or horizontal if preferred, and mounted in any convenient framework. The central shaft should be put in rapid rotation, while the cylinder receives a slow motion in the opposite direction. The rice, as cleaned by that action, is discharged at the lower end of the cylinder, where it falls into a shute, and is conducted to the ground. The machine may be driven by hand, or by any other convenient motive power.[43] The growth of rice in North America is almost wholly confined to two States; nine-tenths of the whole product, indeed, being raised in the States of South Carolina and Georgia. A little is grown in North Carolina, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

The aggregate crop, for 1843, amounted to 89,879,185 lbs., while in 1847 it had risen to 103,000,000 lbs.

Besides the rice which is raised in the water, there is also the dry, or mountain rice, which is raised in some parts of Europe on the sides of the hills. It is said to thrive well in Cochin China, in dry light soils, not requiring more moisture than the usual rains or dews supply. By long culture the German rice, raised by the aid of water, is stated to have acquired a remarkable degree of hardness and adaptation to the climate. The upland rice of the United States is thought by some to be only a modified description of the swamp rice. It will grow on high and poor land, and produce more than Indian corn on the same land would do, even fifteen bushels, when the corn is but seven bushels. The swamp rice was originally cultivated on high land, and is not so now, because it is more productive in the swamp, in the proportion, as is said, of twenty to sixty bushels per acre; and the use of water likewise, it is stated, makes it easier of cultivation, by enabling the planter to kill the grasses. It is thought that on rich high land, rice may be made to produce twenty-five or thirty bushels to an acre in a good season. A letter from a gentleman in North Carolina gives the following account of some rice raised there. He says:--

"I have planted it the two past years with a view to private
consumption only; not, however, with the success of my neighbours,
who are famous, and have the things under their own management. They
make from forty to fifty, and some, sixty bushels to the acre, on
fine land that produces ordinarily from ten to fifteen bushels of
Indian corn or maize. It is a larger grain than the gold or swamp
rice, and very white; hence it is commonly called here the 'white
rice.' It is planted generally about the middle of March, or 1st of
April, in small ridges two-and-a-half feet apart, in chops at
intervals of about eighteen inches, on the top of the ridge, ten or
twelve seeds in each chop. A season that will make Indian corn,
will, if long enough, make this rice; but it requires about four or
five weeks more than the corn to mature. It ought to be cut before
quite ripe, as it threshes off very easily, and is liable to great
waste. Instead of the flail, we take the sheaf in the hand, and whip
it across a bench in a close room until the rice leaves the straw.
It does not stand the pestle as well as the swamp rice, but breaks a
good deal in the beating; this, however, I have heard attributed to
the dry culture."

A new variety of rice is mentioned as having been discovered in South Carolina, in 1838, called the big-grained rice. It has been proved to be unusually productive. One gentleman, in 1840, planted not quite half an acre with this seed, which yielded forty-nine and a half bushels of clean winnowed rice. In 1842, he planted 400 acres, and in 1843, he sowed his whole crop with this seed. His first parcel when milled, was eighty barrels, and netted half a dollar per cwt. over the primest rice sold on the same day. Another gentleman also planted two fields in 1839, which yielded seventy-three bushels per acre. The average crop before from the same fields of fifteen and ten acres, had only been thirty-three bushels per acre.

The following were the returns of produce on some of the leading estates of South Carolina, in 1848:--

-----------------+----------+-----------+---------+------------+----------
| Barrels | | | |
| Shipped | Barrels | |Average Net |Net Income
Plantation |__________| of | | Produce | Amount
|Whole|Half|600 lbs.net| Weight |per barrel. | Dollars
-----------------+-----+----+-----------+---------+------------+----------
1. Prospect Hill |1,387| 10 | 1,495½ | 897,166|16 08-100ths| 24,001
2. Springfield | 737| 5 | 801½ | 480,937|16 60-100ths| 13,264
3. Brook Green |1,571| 15 | 1,716 |1,026,405|16 53-100ths| 28,261
4. Longwood |1,113| 4 | 1,227½ | 736,413|15 53-100ths| 19,021
5. Alderly | 484| 6 | 533 | 319,912|16 68-100ths| 8,851
-----------------+-----+----+-----------+---------+------------+----------
Total |5,292| 40 | 5,773½ |3,460,833| | 93,398
-----------------+-----+----+-----------+---------+------------+----------

Nos. 2 and 3 were sown with long grain rice, the others with small grain. These plantations were all on the river Waccamaw. The expenses of a well supplied rice plantation may be stated at 33-1/3 per cent. on the net income.

A gentleman from the United States, named Colvin, proposes to establish the cultivation of rice in the colony of Demerara. This is no new experiment, rice having been already grown with success in several parts of the colony--for instance, in Leguan, up the Canje Creek, and elsewhere; and some of it is of superior quality, preferable, indeed, to that imported. If Mr. Colvin's object be not merely to demonstrate the practicability of rice being grown in British Guiana, but to promote its cultivation on such a scale as may tend to render it in time one of the staples of the colony, he is deserving of support, and I hope that his efforts will be crowned with complete success.

The editor of the _Gazeta_, a local paper, has been shown some sprigs of rice raised near Matanzas, in Cuba, the smallest of which contains at least three hundred grains, perfectly opened, and of a larger size than is usually produced on the island. He observes that this phenomenon is not limited to a certain number of sprigs, but that the whole crop is similar--that this excess of production is to be attributed to the extraordinary abundance of rain this year. "Here we have a specimen," says the editor, "of the enormous production that could be raised in our fields of this excellent and nutritious grain, if it were cultivated in places contiguous to the rivers, where it could be flowed during drought."

The experiment of cultivating rice in France appears to have succeeded perfectly. A piece of ground of 100 hectares in extent (250 acres) was sown with rice last year in the lands of Arcachon, near Bordeaux, and the crop proved a highly satisfactory one. The seed is sown about the middle of April, and almost immediately appears above ground.

Rice may be kept a very long period in the rough--I believe a lifetime. After being cleaned, if it be prime rice, and well milled, it will keep a long time in this climate; only when about to be used (if old) it requires more careful washing to get rid of the must, which accumulates upon it. Some planters--the writer among the number--prefer for table use rice a year old to the new. The grain is superior to any other provisions in this respect. If a laborer in the gold diggings, or elsewhere, takes with him two days' or a week's provisions, in rice, and his wallet happens to get wet, he has only to open it to the sun and air, and he will find it soon dries, and is not at all injured for his purpose. Rough rice may remain under water twenty-four hours without injury, if dried soon after.

Passing eastward, rice begins to be found cultivated in Egypt, becomes more general in Northern India, and holds undisputed rule in the peninsulas of India, in China, Japan, and the East India islands--shares it in the west coast of Africa with maize, which, on the other hand, is the exclusively cultivated corn plant of the greatest part of tropical America, with only some unimportant exceptions. On the coast of Africa rice ripens in three months; they put it under water when cut, where it keeps sound and good for some time.

Rice is now the staple commodity of Bourbon, and it produces about 26,000 quintals annually. It forms, together with maize and mandioc, the principal article of food amongst the negroes and colored people.

_The Bhull rice lands of Lower Sind_.--Like all large rivers which flow through an alluvial soil, for a very lengthened course, the Indus has a tendency to throw up patches of alluvial deposit at its mouth; and these are in Sind called _bhulls_, and are in general very valuable for the cultivation of the red rice of the country. These _bhulls_ are large tracts of very muddy swampy land, almost on a level with the sea, and exposed equally to be flooded both by it and the fresh water; indeed on this depends much of the value of the soil, as a _bhull_ which is not at certain times well covered with salt water, is unfit for cultivation. They exist on both sides of the principal mouths of the Indus, in the Gorabaree and Shahbunder pergunnas, which part of the province is called by the natives "Kukralla," and was in olden days, before the era of Goolam Shah Kalora, a small state almost independent of the Ameers of Sind. On the left bank of the mouths of the river these _bhulls_ are very numerous and form by far the most fertile portion of the surrounding district. They bear a most dreary, desolate, and swampy appearance--are intersected in all directions by streams of salt and brackish water, and are generally surrounded by low dykes or embankments, in order to regulate the influx and reflux of the river and sea. Yet from these dreary swamps a very considerable portion of the rice consumed in Sind is produced; and the Zemindars, who hold them, are esteemed amongst the most respectable and wealthy in Lower Sind.

To visit a _bhull_ is no easy matter. Route by land there is none, and the only way is to go by boat, in which it is advisable to take at least one day's provisions and water, as the time occupied in the inspection will be regulated entirely by the state of the tide and weather. Very difficult is it too, to land on any of these places, the mud being generally two or three feet deep, and it is only here and there that a footing can be secured, in the embankment surrounding the field.

Let me now describe the mode of cultivating these anomalous islands, floating as it were in the ocean, and deriving benefit both from it and the mighty river itself, whose offspring they are. Should the river during the high season have thrown up a _bhull_, the Zemindar selecting it for cultivation, first surrounds it with a low bund of mud, which is generally about three feet in height. When the river has receded to its cold weather level, and the _bhull_ is free of fresh water (for be it remembered, that these _bhulls_ being formed during the inundation, are often considerably removed from the river branches during the low season), he takes advantage of the first high spring tide, opens the bund and allows the whole to be covered with the salt water. This is generally done in December. The sea water remains on the land for about nine weeks, or till the middle of February, which is the proper time for sowing the seed. The salt water is now let out, and as the ground cannot, on account of the mud, be ploughed, buffaloes are driven over every part of the field, and a few seeds of the rice thrown into every footmark; the men employed in sowing being obliged to crawl along the surface on their bellies, with the basket of seed on their backs; for were they to assume an upright position, they would inevitably be bogged in the deep swamp. The holes containing the seed are not covered up, but people are placed on the bunds to drive away birds, until the young grain has well sprung up. The land is not manured, the stagnant salt water remaining on it being sufficient to renovate the soil. The rice seed is steeped in water, and then in dung and earth for three or four days, and is not sown until it begins to sprout. The farmer has now safely got over his sowing, and as this rice is not as in other cases transplanted, his next anxiety is to get a supply of fresh water; and for this he watches for the freshes which usually come down the river about the middle and end of February, and if the river then reaches his _bhull_, he opens his bund, and fills the enclosure with the fresh water. The sooner he gets this supply the better, for the young rice will not grow in salt water, and soon withers if left entirely dry.

The welfare of the crop now depends entirely on the supply of fresh water. A very high inundation does not injure the _bhull_ cultivation, as here the water has free space to spread about. In fact the more fresh water the better. If, however, the river remains low in June, July, and August, and the south-west monsoon sets in heavily on the coast, the sea is frequently driven over the _bhulls_ and destroys the crops. It is in fact a continual struggle between the salt water and the fresh. When the river runs out strong and full, the _bhulls_ prosper, and the sea is kept at a distance. On the other hand, the salt water obtains the supremacy when the river is low, and then the farmer suffers. In this manner much _bhull_ crop was destroyed in the monsoons of 1851 and 1852, during the heavy gales which prevailed in those seasons. The rice is subject to attacks also of a small black sea crab, called by the natives _Kookaee_, and which, without any apparent cause, cuts down the growing grain in large quantities, and often occasions much loss.

The crop when ripe, which, if all goes well will be about the third week in September, is reaped in the water by men, either in boats, or on large masses of straw rudely shaped like a boat, and which being made very tight and close, will float for a considerable time. The rice is carried ashore to the high land, where it is dried, and put through the usual harvest process of division, &c.: and the _bhull_ is then on the fall of the river again ready for its annual pickling.

The process of preparing the field for rice culture, in the Kandian country, Ceylon, is very simple.

When the paddy is to be cultivated in mud, a piece of ground is enclosed in a series of squares or terraces, by ridges raised with mud and turf; a quantity of water is directed into the field from an adjacent stream or tank, and is allowed to remain on it for fifteen days; at the expiration of this time the field is ploughed with a yoke of buffaloes, which operation is repeated at the end of fifteen days more, when, by the rotting of the weeds and other matter, the field has become manured. After another interval of fifteen days the field is again ploughed and the broken ridges are repaired. Eight days after the field is harrowed, and subsequently rolled or levelled; and when the water has been let out the seed is sown, having in most instances been previously made to germinate, by being spread on platforms and kept wet.

The water is turned in during night, to prevent crabs and insects from destroying the seedlings, and let out during the day; and this they continue to do till the plants attain the height of one foot. Water is only retained in the field until the ears are half ripe, otherwise they would ripen indifferently and be destroyed by vermin. A variety of coast paddy, called "moottoo samboo," was introduced into the Kandian province in 1832, which was found to produce a more abundant crop, by one third, than the native. It is of six months growth.

In Kashmir rice is the staple of cultivation, and the practice adopted there is thus described by a writer in my "Colonial Magazine," vol. x. p. 130. It is sown in the beginning of May, and is fit to cut about the end of August. The grain is either sown broadcast in the place where it is intended to stand till it is ripe, or thickly in beds, from which it is transplanted when the blade is about a foot high. As soon as the season will admit after the 21st of March, the land is opened by one or more ploughings, according to its strength, and the clods are broken down by blows with wooden mattocks, managed in general by women, with great regularity and address; after which water is let in upon the soil, which for the most part of a reddish clay, or foxy earth, is converted into a smooth soft mud. The seed grain, put into a sack of woven grass, is submerged in a running stream until it begins to sprout, which happens sooner or later, according to the temperature of the water and of the atmosphere, but ordinarily takes place in three or four days. This precaution is adopted for the purpose of getting the young shoots as quickly as possible out of the way of a small snail, which abounds in some of the watered lands of Kashmir, but sometimes proves insufficient to defend it against the activity of this destructive enemy. When the farmer suspects, by the scanty appearance of the plants above the water in which the grain has been sown, and by the presence of the snail drawn up in the mud, that his hopes of a crop are likely to be disappointed, he repeats the sowing, throwing into the water some fresh leaves of the Prangos plant, which either poison the snails or cause them to descend out of the reach of its influence. The seed is for the most part thrown broadcast into about four or five inches of water, which depth is endeavoured to be maintained. Difference of practice exists as to watering, but it seems generally agreed that rice can scarcely have too much water, provided it be not submerged, except for a few days before it ripens, when a dried state is supposed to hasten and to perfect the maturity, whilst it improves the quality of the grain. In general the culture of rice is attended with little expense, although dearer in Kashmir than Hindostan, from its being customary in the former country to manure the rice-lands, which is never done in the latter. This manure, for the most part, consists of rice straw rejected by the cattle, and mixed with cow-dung. It is conveyed from the homestead to the fields by women, in small wicker baskets, and is set on the land with more liberality than might have been expected from the distance it is carried. Many of the ripe lands are situated much higher than might be thought convenient in Hindostan, and are rather pressed into this species of culture than naturally inviting, but still yield good crops, through the facility with which water is brought upon them from the streams which fall down the face of the neighbouring hills. In common seasons the return of grain is from thirty to forty for one, on an average, besides the straw.

The rice of Bengal, by the exercise of some care and skill, has recently been so far improved as nearly to equal that of the Carolinas. Dr. Falconer has introduced into India the numerous and fine varieties of rice cultivated in the Himalayas; of these some of the best sorts were at his suggestion distributed to cultivators along the Doab canal.

A species of hill rice grows on the edge of the Himalaya mountains. The mountain rices of India are grown without irrigation, at elevations of 3,000 to 6,000 feet on the Himalaya, where the dampness of the summer months compensates for the want of artificial moisture. The small reddish Assamese rices, which become gelatinous in boiling, and the large, flat-grained, soft, purple-black Ketana rice, of Java and Malacca, shown at the Great Exhibition, were curious.

The fertility of the province of Arracan is very great, its soil being fit for the culture of nearly all tropical productions; rice, however, is alone cultivated to any great extent; the low alluvial soil which extends over the whole country, from the foot of the mountains to the sea, being admirably suited for its growth. About 115 square miles are under culture with rice. The export trade in rice of the district, is seen by the following statistical return; and it gives employment to from 400 to 700 vessels, aggregating 60,000 to 80,000 tons.

QUANTITY OF PADDY AND RICE EXPORTED FROM AKYAB, THE PORT OF ARRACAN.
-------+---------+-------+---------+----------------------------------
| | | |Average price per 100 baskets
| | | Total | of 12 seers, in Rupees
|Maunds of|Maunds | value +------------------+---------------
| Paddy |of rice| Rupees | Rice | Paddy
-------+---------+-------+---------+------------------+---------------
1831-32| 380,600| 28,970| 130,591| 15.4 to 16.6 | 8 to 9
1832-33| 502,740|175,560| 232,915| 16 17 | 7.5 8
1833-34| 555,540|418,950| 430,830| 19 20 | 9 10
1834-35| 127,050|260,650| 176,717| 18 19 | 8 9
1835-36| 783,870|548,460| 354,791| 10 11 | 5 5.8
1836-37|1,737,841|641,010| 666,732| 10.8 12 | 5 6
1837-38|1,621,566|248,783| 650,385| 21 23 | 9 10.8
1838-39|1,364,100|332,380| 821,168| 24 25.1 | 8.8 11.12
1839-40|2,033,698|529,961|1,121,311| 21.8 23 | 9.8 10
1840-41|2,212,068|446,941|1,131,087| 20 21.8 |10 11
1841-42|1,265,388|270,000| 553,014| 19 20 | 8 9
1842-43|1,310,900|393,900| 472,889| 14 15 | 7.8 8
1843-44| 848,922|707,780| 633,710| 17 18 | 7 8
-------+---------+-------+---------+------------------+----------------
(" Colonial Magazine," vol. vi., p. 348.)

EXPORT OF RICE FROM MOULMEIN

Baskets Value
1840 67,318 38,708
1841 11,175 6,900
1842 64,055 40,034
1843 35,635 35,289
1844 71,822 44,529
1845 149,815 73,034
1846 193,267 101,465

--(Simmonds's "Colonial Magazine," vol. xii., p. 462.)

From Tavoy and Mergui rice was also exported, equal in value to 41,000 rupees, in 1846; 100 baskets of 12 seers each, are equal to 30 Bengal maunds. The basket of rice named above, is equal to 55½ lbs. English.

Paddy means rice in the husk--rice, the grain when unhusked--a distinction to be kept in mind.

The daily average consumption of rice in a family of five, is rated in the Straits' settlements at three and a quarter chupahs.

The Burmese and Siamese are the grossest consumers of rice. A common laboring Malay requires monthly 30 chupahs, or 56 pounds of rice, value 3s. 9d. or 4s. The Burmese and Siamese about 34 chupahs, or 64 pounds. Rice land in Penang yields a return which cannot be averaged higher than seventy-five fold--or nearly thirty guntangs of paddy for each orlong (1-1/3 acres); but it has been considered advisable to rate it here at sixty fold only.

The rice land of Province Wellesley gives an average return of 117½ fold; the maximum degree of productiveness being 600 guntangs of paddy to an orlong of well flooded, alluvial land, or 150 fold, equal to 300 guntangs of clean rice, weighing nearly 4,520 English pounds. The present average produce has been very moderately estimated at 470 guntangs the orlong of paddy. The quantity of seed invariably allotted for an orlong of land is four guntangs. In Siam forty fold is estimated a good average produce. At Tavoy, on the Tenasserim coast, the maximum rate of productiveness of the rice land was, in 1825, and is still believed to be, nearly the same as the average of Siam; while their _average_ was only twenty-fold.--(Low, on "Straits Settlements.")

Rice in Cochin-China is the "staff of life," and forms the main article of culture. There are six different sorts grown; two on the uplands, used for confectionery, and yielding only one crop annually; the other sorts affording from two to five crops a year; but generally two, one in April and another in October; or three when the inundations have been profuse.

The late Dr. Gutzlaff stated, at a meeting of the Statistical Society of London, that the population of China was about 367,000,000, and the returns of the land subject to tax as used in rice cultivation there, gave nearly half an acre to each living person; and he further stated that in the southern and well watered provinces, it is anything but uncommon to take two crops of rice, one of wheat, and one of pulse, from the same land in a single season. Rice is the only article the Chinese ever offer a bounty for; the price fluctuates according to the seasons, from one and three-quarter dollars to eight dollars per picul. Siam and the Indian Islands, particularly Bali and Lombok, supply the empire occasionally with large quantities.

The price of rice in China varies according to the state of the canals leading to the interior; if they are full of water the prices rise; if on the contrary they are low, prices fall in proportion at the producing districts. The amount of consumption is controlled, in a considerable degree, by the cost of transit; when this is cheap prices rise from the general demand; but when land-carriage to any extent has to be resorted to, they fall; it raises prices so much at any great distance, that rice must be used very sparingly, from its enhanced price. It is obvious that if the waters are sufficiently high to allow a boat to pass fully loaded, she does so at an expense of nearly 50 per cent, less than she would do, if, from want of water, she could only take half the quantity; when transport is cheap every one obtains a full supply; when it is dear the rice districts have more than they can consume.

At home we are so much accustomed to the facilities of transit offered by railroads, canal boats, &c., that we do not readily take into consideration, that in China, except by water, all articles are conveyed from one place to another on men's shoulders. Taking the population of Canton at the usual estimate of a million, and allowing to each a catty a day, the quantity of rice required for one day's consumption alone in that city would be 10,000 piculs, of 133 lbs. each = 1,340,000 lbs.

Java is the granary of plenty for all the Eastern Archipelago; and the Dutch East India Company occupies itself in this culture with solicitude, well persuaded that a scarcity of rice might be fatal to its power. Ordinances to encourage and increase this branch of agriculture, have been promulgated at different times by an authority called to watch over the physical well-being of many millions of inhabitants.

As an evident proof that the culture of rice, of which it would be difficult to fix the quantity produced annually, increases considerably, I may mention that the exportation from Java, in 1840, was 1,488,350 piculs of 125 Dutch lbs.

Rice is cultivated in Java in three systems. The name of _sawah_ is given to the rice fields, which can be irrigated artificially; _tepar_, or _tagal_, are elevated but level grounds; and _gagah_, or _ladang_, are cleared forest grounds. The two last only give one crop; a second crop may be obtained from the _sawah_, which then most commonly consists of _katjang_, from which oil is extracted, in _kapus_ or fine cotton, and in _ubie_, a kind of potato.

There are, says Mr. Crawfurd, two distinct descriptions of rice cultivated throughout the Indian islands, one which grows without the help of immersion in water, and another for which that immersion is indispensably requisite. In external character there is very little difference between them, and in intrinsic value not much. The marsh rice generally brings a somewhat higher price in the market. The great advantage of this latter consists in its superior fecundity. Two very important varieties of each are well known 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 we constantly find cultivated in rich lands, where one annual crop only is taken; and the last in well watered lands, but of inferior fertility, where two crops may be raised.

Both of these, but particularly the marsh rice, is divided into a great number of sub-varieties, characterised by being awned or otherwise, having a long or round grain, or being in color black, red, or white. The most singular variety is the _O. glutinosa_, of Rumphius. This is never used as bread, but commonly preserved as a sweetmeat. The rudest, and probably the earliest practised mode of cultivating rice, consists in taking from forest lands a fugitive crop, after burning the trees, grass, and underwood. The ground is turned up with the mattock, and the seed 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 rice is of course of that description which does not require immersion.

The second description of tillage consists also in growing mountain or dry land rice. This mode is usually adopted on the common upland arable 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 be the larger or the smaller variety.