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of southwestern Louisiana and southeastern Texas. Marked changes have taken place in the production of rice in the South Atlantic States, due to changes in economic conditions, and to some extent to increased variations in the water supply, caused by the removal of forests from the headwaters of the streams. In 1899 sixtyone per cent of the crop of the United States was raised in Louisiana, seventeen per cent in South Carolina and twelve per cent in Hawaii. The only other States raising more than one per cent of the total production were Georgia, North Carolina

SOUTH CENTRAL STATES

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SOUTH ATLANTIC STATES

Chart showing production of rice in million pounds by decades in South Central and South Atlantic States.

and Texas. While Hawaii produces twelve per cent of the rice in the United States, this is not sufficient to supply the consumption of the islands. The Philippines also raise a considerable quantity of rice, but not sufficient for domestic consumption.

530. Yield per Acre.-The average yield of rough rice per acre in the three census years, 1879, 1889, 1899, has been 746 pounds. In Hawaii the yield per acre in 1899 was reported as 3,663 pounds. In the Southern States a yield of ten to twelve barrels of 162 pounds each on irrigated land is considered satisfactory, while twenty barrels, and even thirty barrels, in exceptional cases, have been reported. The average price of rough rice in 1899 was three cents, and the value per acre was $22.46.

531. Marketing.-The weight of a bushel of paddy or rough rice is forty-five pounds. Paddy is, however, usually put up in barrels or sacks weighing 162 pounds, and commercial quotations are usually by the barrel, rather than by the bushel.

Quotations of milled rice are usually by the pound. The New Orleans Board of Trade recognizes the following grades: extra fancy, fancy head, choice head, prime head, good head, fair head, ordinary, screenings, common, inferior, No. 2. All grades between extra fancy and fair are for whole grains or head rice.

Grades between ordinary and inferior include broken grains; while No. 2 is composed of fine particles, which are sold principally to brewers. The wholesale price of rice of the highest grade is somewhat more than three times that of the lowest grade. Variations in grade of head rice depend principally upon the size of the kernel, the brilliancy of the polish and the pureness of the color.

The export of rice from the United States is insignificant, but the import is fully one-half as much as the domestic production. The principal sources are Japan, China, Germany and Great Britain.

III. HISTORY.

532. History.-In the annual ceremony of sowing five kinds of seeds, instituted by the Chinese Emperor 2800 B. C., rice is considered the most important, since the Emperor must sow it himself, while the other four species may be sown by princes of the family. (192) Rice was not known to the ancient Egyptians. It was introduced into Spain by the Saracens, and into Italy in the fifteenth century A. D. It was introduced into the Virginia Colony in 1647; but its cultivation cannot be said to have begun until 1694, when a small bag of rice seed was presented to the Governor of South Carolina by the captain of a trading vessel bound from Madagascar. The garden in Longitude Lane, Charleston, where the industry originated, so far as this country is concerned, is still pointed out."

1 Origin of Cultivated Plants, p. 385.

• Ramsey: History of South Carolina; U. S. Dept. of Agr., Div. of Stat. Misc. Ser. 6, p. 8.

Practicum.

533. STUDY OF THE RICE PLANT.-The plant may be studied in the laboratory, or partly in field, as opportunity offers. Compare Honduras, Carolina and Japan varieties.

1. Height of culm: average of ten culms to tip of upper flowering glume

2. Diameter of culms: average of ten culms just below raceme

3. Vigor of plant: strong; medium; weak.

4. Wall of culm: thick; medium; thin.

5. Foliage: scanty; medium; abundant.

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6. Length of raceme: average of ten racemes from base of lower spikelet to tip of upper flowering glume, not counting awn,

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7. Compactness of raceme: very open; open; medium; crowded.

8. Shattering: badly; medium; none.

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10. Density of endosperm: vitreous; mostly vitreous; partly vitreous; largely white.

11. Dimensions of grains: average of twenty-five: length thickness

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12. Dimensions of kernel: average of twenty-five: length thickness

13. Weight: average of twenty-five: grains

of hulls to grain .

14. Weight per bushel: obtained by weight of one pint

534. COLLATERAL READING.

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Rice: Its Cultivation, Production and Distribution in the United States and Foreign Countries. By Amory Austin. U. S. Dept. of Agr., Div. of Stat. Misc. Ser. 6, pp. 7-24.

The Present Status of Rice Culture in the United States. By S. A. Knapp. U. S. Dept. of Agr., Div. of Bot. Bul. 22 (1899), pp. 21-33.

Rice: Preparation, Cultivation, Flooding, Harvesting and Noxious Weeds in the Rice Fields. By Wm. C. Stubbs and W. R. Dodson. La. Bul. 61, 2d ser., pp. 385-392.

Irrigation of Rice in the United States. By Frank Bond and George H. Keeney, U. S. Dept. of Agr., Office of Expt. Sta. Bul. 113, pp. 14-20 and 60-68.

Pers.

XXVI.

SORGHUM.

1. STRUCTURE, COMPOSITION AND VARIETIES.

535. Name.-There is no common name which is applied generally to the different cultivated forms of Andropogon sor ghum vulgaris Hackel, A. sorghum Brot., Sorghum vulgare The cultivated forms may be divided into three groups: (1) Those varieties whose juice has a high per cent of sugar which is used for making sirup and from which sugar is sometimes produced, known as sorghum (Sorghum saccharatum Pers.), sometimes probably incorrectly recognized as a separate species; (2) those varieties cultivated for their grain, known as Kafir corn, African millet, Indian millet, durra (spelled also dura, dhura, doura, dourra), milo maize, Jerusalem corn, Guiana corn, and Egyptian rice corn; (3) those varieties cultivated for the production of their spikes which are used for making brooms, known as broom corn.

The first form may be distinguished from the second and third forms by the quality of the juice, the first being known as sweet or saccharine sorghums and the second and third being known as nonsaccharine sorghums. In this book the word sorghum will be used to apply to all cultivated forms, and statements made are to be taken as applying to all unless otherwise stated.

536. Relationships.-Sorghum belongs to the same tribe (Andropogoneae) and to the same genus as Johnson grass (Andropogon halepensis Sibth.), which is believed by Hackel to be the original form of sorghum,1

1 True Grasses, p. 59.

There are several species belonging to different genera of grasses which with sorghum often pass under the name of millet. Such are Choetochloa italica, formerly Setaria italica, Panicum crus-galli, P. colonum, P. frumentaceum, P. miliaceum, Penisetum spicatum (L.) R. & S. Several of these species have numerous cultivated varieties and numerous common names. Much confusion exists as to their botanical relationships and to the synonyms of the common names. The cultivation of some of these millets is very ancient, and the grain has been used extensively as human food. In the United States these plants are raised chiefly for hay. Canary grass (Phalaris canariensis L.), is raised for bird food, although sometimes in southern Europe for human consumption.

537. The Plant. The roots of the sorghum plant are said to have strong feeding capacity, which enables the plant to withstand unfavorable environment. The Kansas Station found that the roots reach out laterally in all directions from two to six inches from the surface. The culms vary in height with variety, climate, season, soil and culture usually from four to eighteen feet, with greater variations in extreme cases. The culms, like those of maize, are solid. The leaves are abundant, rather thicker and more glossy than in maize. The upper leaf sheath sometimes extends around the lower portion of the head or spike; when in broom corn it is called the "boot."

538. The Inflorescence.-The inflorescence is in a more or less compact spike-like panicle, usually referred to as the head. The different types vary greatly in the form, size, compactness of the head; the usual variations in length being from ten to eighteen inches, except in broom corn, where the "brush " may be twentyeight inches long.

The spikelets are one-flowered, some being sessile and others on pedicels of varying length, usually one of each at each joint of the rachis.

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