The Phoenix herald., 1879-10-31
A Valuable Plant.

LAS E6AS, U. n-s SCiJtCAlDCi ~h
 As more important than any other
 facts learned in this my seventh trip to the Rocky Mountains, l pre- 1 sent to the reader of the Tribune an
 account of new grain, which, if it
 fulfills the promise of my informant, Deacon James Hollister, of Chicago,
 is worth more to Colorado than half
 a dozen of her best mines Of course, it is equally valuable to Western Kansas, New Mexico and Montana.
 MT. Hollister call it
 RICE,oR EGYPTIAN CORN.
 As the facts in relation to this new cereal are new and so curious and in teresting, they are here given in de- tail fIr. Holiister bought a couple of years ago, q rancho of some 1 800 acres, three or four miles south of Kinsley, on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway. KiAey is stu ated in the valley of the Arkansas, ill
 phat is often called the dry belt, 315 miles west of Kansas city, and about the same distance east of PIeblo. NIT. Hollister's son and son-in-law occupy the place Last year neigh Dor Of the Holiister ranche raised some of the rice corn, and his success induced Deacon Hollister to recom- mend it's introduction to his rancho. He had forty acrese of sod turned over last spring, and having procured
 several quarts of the seed, with an ordinary seed planter, he deposited two or three grains a foot or two apart in the sod. There had not been a drop of rain for the previous eight months, and it did not rain for five weeks after the planting, yet the seed gcrminated. The corn
 CAME UP AND GREW FINELY
 After it got fairly started, the hot blasts came up from the Plano Esta cado (Staked Plains) burning mp the grass and every green thing in the gardens, scorching like the blasts from q furnace, and yet it did not affect the newcomer from Egypt 3
 particle It grew right alongiu spite of the heat. Then the ra in came on, and the sturdy grain was equally indifferent to that. IL grew right on, and ripencd about the 1st of September, yielding, Deacon Hol- lister thought, some sixty bushels to the acre, weighing sixty pounds to the bushels. The stalk for some three feet from the ground is about as large as a mans coat sleeve, and is about as large as a mans coat sleeve, a perfect wood. This, in all the tree less regions east of tLe mountains is
 4 MOST IMPORTANT FACT,
 as an acre or two will furnish fuel for a family for an entire year. From tine top of this w'.ody substance is sues stalk. on the top of which tuft something like that of sorghum issues: this soon droops over and the whole bunch is one mass of the grain. The kernel is about the size of grain of wheat, perhaps little smaller and more nearly round Each one is enclosed in a shuck or independent capsule. The grain can be ground into an excellent four from which bread and other food can be made; it can be boiled and eaten as rice and cracked wheat, and in fact can be used for any purpose f-r sdh 1n employed. \ neighbor of Deacon | Hollister, who raised a small crop last year assured him that it fattened his pigs faster than he had ever known common corn or any other 1 feed to do it.
 Now, the only thing about this | story is that it seems
 ALMOST roo GOOD TO BE TRUE. No estimate can begin to rate its | value if all that Deacon Hollister | claims for it should prove true. ! From New Mexico tO the British line 1 there are tens of thousands of square { miles too far away from the noun | tainS to be successfully irrigated and yet-thus far at least-too far beyond | the line of reliable rainfall to be | used for any other purpose than pas -AItt HOV NOlliGS AutS can plant apparently adapted 10 fur | nish both food and fuel for all this vast country. If it should fulfill tn promise thus far given its value to tlle country and to humanity, must be told in thousands of millions of | dollars. MT. Hollister thinks the | seed was brought to this country | from Southern Russia I,y the Men nonites; but beyond this he knows nothing of it's history I can find no | account of it in the Encyclopedias, | unless it be d species of miliet 10 the of which it seems to bear some resemblance. II seems very strange, indeed, that no traveller l or fore; gn consul has brought its value before the public Had not so reii- ! able gentleman as I know Deacon | Hollister to bc, given me the above | facts. 1 should net have dared tc | hsve given thiS account tc 1t1s public. l