The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-07-07
AGRICULTURE.
mrrE HTs ORIGIN, VARIETIES, CULTH-
yATHON, GENERAL UsEs-bAND
RECLAMATION.
by r. ARMAET.


lana. and one whose increase can but
proftably reward the husbandman, is
rice. the orygd sdtiUG Of the precious
tsgraminaceous" family of plants, to
which the world is indebted for the
greater part of its food.
All authorities concord as to the In
dian origin Of rice, and it's culture can
be said to have originated with the first
attempts at tillage or cultivation in an
tiuuity.
An immense area of our globe would
still be unoultivated and totally desert
II rice had not been discovered and In
PRODUCED as plant food In the large
provinces of India and China. whose
dense populations depend almost exclu-
aiyely on this article Of food.
1t remained for long period On East
ern staple, of which some mention is
made by Pliny, Theophrastus, Dioseo-
rides and others, until the era OF the
Arabian Caliphs, when 1t was imported
from India to Syria, Arabia and Egypt.
The Romans employed rice for making
various refreshing beverages and
broths, but 1t does not appear that they
cooked it as the Indians, from whom
they imported 1t.
Soon after the import Of the plant In
Egypt IL was cultivated in Greece, in
the northern provinces of Africa, in the
Moorish kingdom Of Valencia in Spain,
la Piedmont, where the best rice is now
raised, and in America, where South
Carolina and Louisiana have become
the largest American rice producing re-
gions.
There Is only single species Of rice
which produces several remarkable va
rieties, some fifty being mentioned by
Roxburgh as cultivated In India.
These varieties consist In o difference
of the grains form, In its color, hulk,
smooth, rugged or bearded, etc.
or all these varieties very little posi-
tive Information is available, and their
distinctions are not OF sufficient correct
ness to allow Of their classification here.
The task of sorting them and Of test
ing their respective merits ia open to
our enterprise, and this is q virtue on
which we cannot yet plume ourselves.
The
BEARDED RICE,
nf which a good deal was said and writ
ten. 10 q variety imported from Cochin
China, and which grows there In noun
famous districts. The first trials made
iii the Isle Of Bourbon, where 1t was
first imported, did not answer to the
sanguine expectations OF those who
commended it. 1t was found to need
al al ,xfl
and inquiry into the causes of the error
soon brought out the fact, at first un-
needed, that the bearded rice grown on
the high plateau lands of Cochin. China
prospered at those attitudes, on account
Of the incessant rains falling In that re-
giun during the summer months.
Hence, the moisture necessary to the
plant was supplied In abundance by
natural means, instead OF irrigation, as
usually adopted elsewhere.
RICE WANTS WATER.
ITO il a wrong prejudice to look upon
rice as swamp plant; it Is merely
adapted to culture in low lands, and
wherever there is sufficient heat and
moisture available by natural or artitf-
cial means, 1t will grow in any soil. But
it needs water, and especially river
waters, and will not do well in dry
lands.
Another mode of ingenious culture
which we might adopt for our large
lake area is the Chinese
FLOATING RICE FIELDS.
These are bamboo RATS covered with
two to four inches Of dirt, and staked in
streams or lakes, where inferior mois-
ture, Joined with that Of the atmosphere,
dispense with the necessity of irrigation
and save good deal OF the expenses in
the raising of a crop.
AS the culture and harvesting Of rice
are familiar topics to all our country
readers, and pertain to the most print.
tive principles Of cultivation, the above
illustrations will prove amply sufficient.
In Louisiana there are no less than
A. 000, 600 acres Of lands, otherwise value
less and uneultivated, subject TO become
highly valuable IL cultivated with rice.
Statistical comparisons establish the
important fact that rice will yield five
times as much bulk in a given area as
wheat and profits equal to that proper
ton, since the OUTLAWS for its cultivation
and harvesting are twenty per cent less
than the expenditures for wheat crop.
These advantages in its culture have
made rice the favorite crop OF our small
planters and greatly increased its pro-
duction In our State, while future re-
clamatlons Of our swamp lands will
conduoe to still larger increase.
DRAWBACKS OF RICE CULTURE.
Notwithstanding the belief that ma
Iarial diseases are constant corollaries
To the culture of rice, experience teaches
us, however, that in India, in China
and la Egypt the fevers so frequent here
and i'm Italy are almost unknown.
These superior sanitary conditions OF
those regions is due to their mode of
culture as we'll as its unhealthiness here
is due TO an erroneous system.
Our rice fields are generally located
in the marsh, swamp or low lands of
the State and their water not sufficient
IN renewed; In many rice fields the
water is stagnant and must, therefore,
putrefy, while it should, on the contra
~, be slightly running and the soil SO
leveled that it can be completely dried
III at least forty eight hours after the
water is drawn off.
In the Indian rice fields the water is
lxaY1t constantly running and it is re-