The daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1848-1851, 1850-09-04

the wilderness should thus yield ITS voluntary mar
vest for the hunter and the pioneer The PhIa-
delnbia North American, which frequently treats
| Questions of natural history with much learning,
contains the following article, which we transcribe
" The Viii Rice Crop"-A paragraph with
the above heading was copied into our paper, on
Thursday from the Galena Advertiser, speaking of
the wild rice as the remarkable production of the
northern lakes, in Minnesota" and &C the main
dependence of the Indians for food during the long
cold winters of the region and expressing some
apprehension lest the unusual high water this sea-
son should destroy the years crop and leave the
poor red men to a winter of famine. A cores
pondent, whose curiosity has been excited asks us
for information respecting this crop with which,
well the wild rice ITSELF he does not seem to
have any very familiar acquaintance.
Amy one who will take walk TO the nearest
river bank Of the Delaware and Schuylkill, below
the city, or the first meadow ditch that can be
found, or will even cast an eye at Smiths Island,
or at any other place where the common reeds,
as they are called of the Delaware are to be seen
growing, will have perfect idea of what wild rice
is; these same reeds, or water oats, as they are
often called, being exactly the same plant as the
wild rice plant OF Minnesota and other regions of
the Northwest. 1t is now fiowerng-at least it
ought to be, though we cannot boast any special
intimacy with it, any other familiar friend OF the
| field or river side this summer-and, next month,
| it will be producing that natural CROP and
| a vast one 1t always IS, of rich and nutritious
| grain, somewhat resembling the Southern cult
waited rice which, here, fattens black-birds, reed
BIRDS rails, and various other marshbirds instead
of being collected 10 store Indian garner. Indeed
| it is no easy thing to collect the grain of the wild
rice in these regions. The blackbird is before
The grain too, when skaters ont at the slight
est stir OF the breeze ripple of the water, and
there is some need of squaw experience skill, and
| patience in collecting it. Perhaps there is even
some difference in the variety OF plants growing on
the coast rivers of this Southern latitude.
The wild rice is certainly collected in Wisconsin
| and Minnesota with an ease and in quantities which
| astonsh people previously only acquainted with
! the eastern plant. The great wild rice region OF
the interior may be said to extend from the Wis
| consin river the south to Lake Winnipeg Oh
| the NORTH and between Lake Michigan and St.
| Peters river The rice is exceedingly abundant
| in the Menomnee country Green Bay; and,
indeed the name Of the plant in the widely extend
| ed Chippewa tongue shows that it either took its
| name from the Menomnee Indians, or the Memo
minee Indians theirs from it. 1t grows In all the
shallow lakes and lagoon-lke expanses of the riv'
ers; and 1t is collected, at the harvest season, by
| the Indian women, who 60 in canoes, two in each
one Of whom pulling her way through the reeds
bends over the canoe each bundle as she grasps it,
while the other strikes off the seed with blow oil
| the paddle. In Tho way canoe-oad is soon
gathered and few industrious squaws in ordi-
nary seasons, find no difficulty in provisioning the
|
besides selling stores of it to all the trading lodges
OF the whites in their vicinity
Considering these facts the wild rice Of the
Northwest may well be deemed, as it really is,
highly important plant, destined perhaps in futur,
days, to have some influence on the population il
that country. 1t is very obvious that it may b,
cultivated, like ordinary rice, wherever it maj
| become an object to try the experiment; and Their
is every reason to believe it will prove, wheI
reclaimed, extremely productive.
From the few botanical books in our library, ant
the better collection in that of the Lyceum togethe
with our own observation, we have prepared tn
following description of this valuable and interest
ing family:
Zj=amia ag,lattcQ, Linn. Canadian Wild Rice
Tuscarora Rice.
The generic name Zzania was adopted by Gro
novus and Linneus, unappropriated classi
cal name, for the present genus, which yields al
inferior sort of grain used by the inhabitants o
some parts of North America. The wild rice
| grows the marshy borders OF sluggish fresl
water streams and shallow ponds from Canada t.
Florida The plant is an annual, putting up sew
| eral stems from the same root, and attans a height
of ten twelve feet with panicle two feet il
length at the top. 1t flowers in July Q4ouisiana)
and natures its seed in October. The grain is
about half an inch in length, and Of dark brown
color, before ii is hulled.
Sir Joseph Banks introduced the wild rice int
England in 1890, and cultivated it extensively /
the ponds at his Villa of Spring Grove. The seed
were obtained from Canada, in jars of water Til
species of Zizania is easily distinguished from til
rest by the greater height and diameter of tn
stems, the more expanded panicle, and greater siz
Of the grain.
/izGnGd mItltacea, Linn, is a hardy perennial
leaves frequently six feet in length, covering tn
ground with dense mass of coarse foliage, nearl
as tall the stems of tue plant; it flowers
April, and natures its fruit in May. These tw
species grow in similar localities, frequently occu
pying separate portions of the same pond-the la,
named is the predominant species in the tde-wate
region.
Zi5ani,t Ra,itanS, Mich. differs widely from til
+ two preceding species, being dmnutive gras
1 rarely attaining a height of more thaa three {
four inches, when growing erect but GROWN
several feet in length when its situation favors il
e extension over the surface of the water This sp,
cies was enormously said to have come from LAX
n Champlain, but is now ascertained to be a Soutl
ern plant. Dr. Baldwin found it growing abou
o Savannah. It is also met with in most of the d.
n pressed unocoupied lots in New Orleans. I'll
; pine lands and the river al'uvion appear equally
; favor its growth. A singular feature in this sp
, ces is, thatitrarely flowers or bears seed. Neith
= Mr.. Elliott nor Mr.. NuttalI ever saw it in howe
e and although we have been in the habit of obser
i ing it closely for many years. in every variety
n situation, yet we have only seen it in flower ono
Q in the month of July, 1888. A small tuft of til
!. grass growing from the top of a cypress stump,
is the water level, in large pond, bore flowers al
fruit in small quantities. For several succeedil
years the wild.lowl devoured the plants in IL
r. locality so completely, that possible chance
l. modification was allowed even had the dispost
is existed. From Seymour's interesting work {
4 Minnesota we make brief extract:
Or I" At one of our meals Mrs. Boutwell, furnish
II, us with dish OF wild race. found it very paat
d. BILE, resembling much, in flavor, the rice of col
merce, considerably modified however by that
the smoke employed by the Indians in curing
" In external appearance it resembles the black
Is more than rice, and it is called by the French Il
T. les GUOi1seS, or wild oats. 1t is brittle and ha
I'd however, like the rice of commerce. This era
~ grows in great abundance and beyond the he
~ waters of the St. Crox, on the Northern trbutar
II of the Mississippi, and in all the Lakes in t
G. Noithern part of Minnesota, and forms, with Fl
r. and maple sugar, the principal subsistence of I
le Chippewas. Their mode of collecting it is as f
Is lows: In the first place, to protect il from blac
r. birds, they collect the grain in lunches while {
q grain is in the milk and cover each bunch with
y band made of the bark of the linden or basswo
y tree. When the grain is sufficiently matured /
!, band is cut and removed, and one person, with
u long pole, bends down the heads over the canoe