in the lime-water, the fluid runs through in divided portions over the plants. This practice is found to be so efficacious, that the Chinese are said to hold its first inventor in the highest veneration.

"Towards April, when the plants cover thickly the ground that has been sown, the greatest part of them are pulled up with their roots and planted in tufts, pretty far asunder in a quincunx form, in fields prepared for their reception. A serene day is chosen for this operation, which must be performed quickly, so that the plants are as short a time as possible out of the ground.

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After this, water is admitted to overflow the rice, the grounds being, for this purpose, always situated near a rivulet, pond, or great pool of water, from which they are separated only by a bank which may readily be cut. It sometimes happens, however, that the water is below the level of the fields, in which case the necessary quantity is conveyed in buckets, which are worked chiefly by the aid of ropes, a most laborious occupation.

'Though a man cannot step in these rice-grounds without sinking up to his knees, the Chinese weed them three times during the summer, and that so carefully, that every weed they can find is pulled up by the roots.

"When the rice is ripe, which is known in the same manner as wheat, by its turning yellow, it is cut down with a sickle, made into sheaves, and conveyed into a barn, where it is threshed with flails very similar to those used among ourselves *.* The husk and inner pellicle are removed by beating and trituration, pretty much in the same manner as has already been described.

It is worthy of remark, that with the view of obtaining from the soil the largest produce it will yield, Culture de Terres, tom. ii. p. 180.

the Chinese are careful not to place the plants at all close together lest they should rob one another of their needful portion of nourishment. This and the farther practice of frequent weeding, which from their manner of performing the operation is equivalent to hoeing among us, brings their method completely into agreement with Tull's system of horsehoeing husbandry, which was not proposed for adop tion in Europe until its prosecution had been thus practised commonly, and for ages, in the Chinese empire.

In all its principal features the method of culture is the same in Hindostan as it is in China. In some parts of Bengal the farmer suffers much from the depredations committed by wild hogs during the night. In order to guard as much as possible against this evil, a sort of shed is erected upon bamboos in the field, wherein a servant is stationed to scare away these intruders,-a precaution that is accompanied by much trouble and expense, and which yet is not always completely efficacious in preserving their pro perty. These erections, which are very numerous in some districts towards the period of harvest, present a very curious appearance to the traveller.

The cultivators of rice in America sometimes suffer severely from the depredations of the rice-bird of Catesby (Emberiza oryzivora), known familiarly in the country by the name of Bob Lincoln. This bird is about six or seven inches long; its head and the under part of its body are black, the upper part is a mixture of black, white, and yellow, and the legs are red. Immense flocks of these birds are seen in the island of Cuba, where the rice crop pre cedes that of Carolina; but when from the hardening of the grain the rice in that quarter is no longer agreeable to them, they migrate towards the north, and pass over the sea in such numerous parties, as

to be sometimes heard in their flights by sailors frequenting that course. These birds appear in Carolina while the rice is yet milky. Their attacks upon the grain while in this state are so destructive as to bring considerable loss upon the farmers. The birds arrive in the United States very lean, but thrive so well upon their favourite diet, that during the three weeks to which their visit is usually limited, they become excessively fat, so as to fly with difficulty, and when shot to be burst with the fall. So soon as the rice begins to harden here, they retire to other parts, remaining in one place only so long as the rice continues green, When this food entirely fails, they

have recourse for their subsistence to insects, until the maize begins to form its grains, and then the milky substance which these contain is devoured with the same avidity that marks their attacks upon the rice-plant. Extensive flocks of the oryzivora are found during the spring and summer in New York and Rhode Island; there they breed, quitting with their young for the southward, in time for the tender rice-grains of Cuba. It is remarkable that the males and females do not migrate in company, the females being always the first to perform their voyages. These birds are eaten as a great delicacy, and the song of the male is said to be melodious.

The uses to which rice is actually applied may be easily defined. In a great part of India and China it forms the subsistence of the native population, more exclusively and to a greater extent than can perhaps be said of any other vegetable substance in any known region of the globe. In the countries just mentioned, as well as in those districts of Africa where it is used indiscriminately with maize, rice undergoes but little culinary preparation, being, for the most part, simply boiled with water, and eaten either by itself, or accompanied by some stimulating or oily substance. In countries, on the other hand, where it is employed only as an auxiliary article of food, rice is subjected to a greater degree of preparation for the table, and except when used to thicken broths, is seldom presented, unless after concoction with eggs, and milk, and sugar, which cover the natural insipidity of the grain.

In years when the harvest is deficient in this country, it is usual to hear a great deal about the practicability and advantage of mixing rice with wheaten or rye flour for making bread, and this may, without doubt, be done in a certain moderate proportion; such bread, however, speedily becomes

harsh and dry. A writer in the Journal des Sciences, des Lettres, et des Arts, has, indeed, given directions, by following which, it is said, fermented bread may be made of rice without admixture with the flour of any other grain *.

We are told that the Chinese make a kind of wine of rice, which resembles, both in colour and flavour, the white wine of Xeres; but it is not known by what process they are enabled to succeed in this manufacture. In the East, considerable quantities of ardent spirit are extracted from this grain by fermentation and distillation.

It has been declared impracticable to manufacture beer from rice, in consequence of the difficulty which attends its previous conversion into malt. M. Dubrunfaut has stated that this necessary process may be readily and completely accomplished in the mashtub, by mixing one part, by weight, of malted barley, with four parts of crushed rice, which has previously been mixed with its own weight of water. The

The method here referred to is as follows.-First reduce the rice to powder in a mill, or throw the whole grains into water at nearly a boiling heat, and allow them to soak during some hours. Then drain off the water, and when the rice shall have become sufficiently dry, beat it in a mortar, and pass the powder through a fine sieve. This flour must next be placed in a kneading-trough, and moistened in the necessary degree with water rendered glutinous by boiling whole rice in it for some time; add salt, and the proper quantity of leaven or yeast, and knead the whole intimately together. The dough must then be covered with warm cloths and left to rise. During this fermentative process, the dough, which was of a pretty firm consistence, will become so soft as not to be capable of being formed into loaves. It is, therefore, placed in the requisite quantities in tin forms, and these being covered with large leaves, or with sheets of paper, are introduced into the oven, the heat of which speedily sets the dough sufficiently, so that the tins being reversed, their contents are turned out upon the leaves or paper. The bread, when perfectly baked, will be of a fine yellow colour, similar to that imparted to flour by the yolks of eggs, and when new is said to be sufficiently agreeable.

K