RICE,. “Rice bras," says Mr Marsden, “whilst in the husk, is in Indian called paddee, and assumes a different name in each of its other various states. We observe no distinction of this kind in Europe, where our grain retains through all its stages, till it becomes flour, its original name of barley, wheat, or oats. The following, besides many others, are names applied to rice in its different stages of growth and preparation: paddee, original name of the seed; oossay, grain of last season; bunnce, the plants before removed to the sawoors; bras, or bray, rice, the husk of the paddee being taken off; charroop, rice cleaned for boiling; nassee, boiled rice; peerang, yellow rice; jambar, a service of rice, &c.

“Among people whose general objects of contemplation are few, those which do of necessity engage their attention are often more nicely discriminated than the same objects among more enlightened people, whose ideas, ranging over the extensive field of art and science, disdain to fix long on obvious and common matters. Paddee, in Sumatra and the Malay Islands, is distinguished into two sorts; laddang or upland paddee, and sawoor or lowland, which are always kept separate, and will not grow reciprocally. Of these, the former bears the higher price, being a whiter, heartier, and better-flavoured grain, and having the advantage in point of keeping. The latter is much more prolific from the seed, and liable to less risk in the culture, but is of a watery substance, produces less increase in boiling, and is subject to a swifter decay. It is, however, in more common use than the former. Besides this general distinction, the paddee of each sort, particularly the laddang, presents a variety of species, which, as far as my information extends, I shall enumerate and endeavour to describe. The common kind of dry ground paddee; colour light brown; the size rather large, and very little crooked at the extremity. Paddee undal-long; dry ground; short round grain; grows in whorls or bunches round the stock. Paddee Mass; dry ground; large grain; common. Paddee galloo; dry ground; light coloured; scarce. Paddee sennce; dry ground; deep coloured; small grain; scarce. Paddee ejoo; dry ground; light coloured. Paddee kooning; dry ground; deep yellow; fine rice; crooked and pointed. Paddee coocoor badium; dry ground; much esteemed; light coloured: small, and very much crooked, resembling a dove’s nail, from whence its name. Paddee pesang; dry ground; outer coat light brown; inner red; longer, smaller, and less crooked than the coocoor ballum, Paddee santong; the finest sort that is planted in wet ground; small, straight, and light coloured. In general it may be observed that the larger grained rice is the least esteemed, and the smaller and whiter the most prized. In the Lampoon country they make a distinction of paddee crawrang and paddee jerroo; the former of which is a month earlier in growth than the latter.”

The following is the Chinese method of cultivating rice, as it is stated by Sir George Staunton: “Much of the low grounds in the middle and southern provinces of the empire are appropriated to the culture of that grain. It constitutes, in fact, the principal part of the food of all those inhabitants who are not so indigent as to be forced to subsist on other and cheaper kinds of grain. A great proportion of the surface of the country is well adapted for the production of rice, which, from the time the seed is committed to the soil till the plant approaches to maturity, requires to be immersed in a sheet of water. Many and great rivers run through the principal provinces of China, the low grounds bordering on those rivers are annually inundated, by which means is brought upon their surface a rich mud or mucilage that fertilizes the soil, in the same manner as Egypt receives its fecundative quality from the overflowing of the Nile. The periodical rains which fall near the sources of the Yellow and the Kiang rivers, not very far distant from those of the Ganges and the Burumpooter, among [7:19:235]the mountains bounding India to the north and China to the west, often swell those rivers to a prodigious height, though not a drop should have fallen on the plains through which they afterwards flow.

“After the mud has lain some days upon the plains in China, preparations are made for planting them with rice. For this purpose a small piece of ground is enclosed by a bank of clay; the earth is ploughed up; and an upright harrow, with a row of wooden pins in the lower end, is drawn lightly over it by a buffalo. The grain, which had previously been steeped in dung diluted with animal water, is then sown very thickly upon it. A thin sheet of water is immediately brought over it, either by channels leading to the spot from a source above it, or, when below it, by means of a chain-pump, of which the use is as familiar as that of a hoe to every Chinese husbandman. In a few days the remainder of the ground intended for cultivation, if stiff, is ploughed, the lumps broken by hoes, and the surface levelled by the harrow. As soon as the shoots have attained the height of six or seven inches, they are plucked up by the roots, the tops of the blades cut off, and each root is planted separately, sometimes in small furrows turned with the plough, and sometimes in holes made in rows by a drilling stick for that purpose. The roots are about half a foot asunder. Water is brought over them a second time. For the convenience of irrigation, and to regulate its proportion, the rice-fields are subdivided by narrow ridges of clay into small enclosures. Through a channel in each ridge the water is conveyed at will to every subdivision of the field. As the rice approaches to maturity, the water, by evaporation and absorption, disappears entirely; and the crop, when ripe, covers dry ground. The first crop or harvest, in the southern provinces particularly, happens towards the end of May or beginning of June. The instrument for reaping is a small sickle, dentated like a saw, and crooked. Neither carts nor cattle are used to carry the sheaves off from the spot where they were reaped; but they are placed regularly in frames, two of which, suspended at the extremities of a bamboo pole, are carried across the shoulders of a man, to the place intended for disengaging the grain from the stems which had supported it. This operation is performed, not only by a flail, as is customary in Europe, or by cattle treading the corn in the manner of other orientalists, but sometimes also by striking it against a plank set upon its edge, or beating it against the side of a large tub scolloped for that purpose; the back and sides being much higher than the front, to prevent the grain from being dispersed. After being winnowed, it is carried to the granary.

“To remove the skin or husk of rice, a large strong earthen vessel, or hollow stone, in form somewhat like that which is used elsewhere for filtering water, is fixed firmly in the ground; and the grain, placed in it, is struck with a conical stone fixed to the extremity of a lever, and cleared, sometimes indeed imperfectly, from the husk. The stone is worked frequently by a person treading upon the end of the lever. The same object is attained also by passing the grain between two flat stones of a circular form, the upper of which turns round upon the other, but at such a distance from it as not to break the intermediate grain. The operation is performed on a large scale in mills turned by water; the axis of the wheel carrying several arms, which by striking upon the ends of levers, raise them in the same manner as is done by treading on them. Sometimes twenty of these levers are worked at once. The straw from which the grain has been disengaged is cut chiefly into chaff, to serve as provender for the very few cattle employed in the Chinese husbandry.

“The labour of the first crop being finished, the ground is immediately prepared for the reception of fresh seeds. The first operation undertaken is that of pulling up the stubble, collecting it into small heaps, which are burnt, and the ashes scattered upon the field. The former processes are afterwards renewed. The second crop is generally ripe late in October or early in November. The grain is treated as before; but the stubble is no longer burnt. It is turned under with the plough, and left to putrefy in the earth. This, with the slime brought upon the ground by inundation, are the only manures usually employed in the culture of rice.”