Rice

Oryza saliva, IMG:p495_23.png:Chinese characters Mi, grown in all the provinces south of the Yellow River, and by dry cultivation to a small extent in South Manchuria. The chief centres of production are the Yangtze, especially the Anhui-Kiangsu belt, which, with the plains of IMG:p495_24.png:Chinese characters and Kuangsi, are the sole regions from which, normally, rice is exported. The production of the former belt is estimated at from forty to forty-eight million piculs, and in a year of bumper crops (such as 1909) over six million piculs are available for exportation. Rice is imported from these districts by the northern provinces in large quantities and is also sent to the South, but very little is exported abroad, Japan being an occasionjal importer. South China imports from Tonkin, Cochin-China, aad Siam, but also from Kuangsi, where rice is the staple export. It is claimed that Chinese rice is much superior to the imported sorts. In South China two crops are obtained annually, further north only one. The yield per acre is estimated by King at forty bushels for water rice and twenty bushels for dry rice, and HosiE gave the yield on the Ssuch'uan central plains as forty four bushels. The official figures of rice production, as given in the China Year Book, are three and three quarter million tons per annum. This differs greatly from those given by King (p. 271), where the estimate, derived by deduction, is 61,500,000 tons, — thus illustrating very well the vaguene of statistics on Chinese products. King has taken the population at 410,000,000, and multiplied this figure by 300 lbs. = the amount of rice known to be consumed per capita annually in Japan. But, 1 — the population of China is probably far short of 410,000,000; 2 — the many millions of people in the northern provinces never taste rice; 3 — the estimate of 300 lbs. may be too high; 4 — large quantities of rice are imported to China annually. For these reasons it is at least safe to cut his figure in half, making 37,500,000 tons, which is just ten times the official estimate. Compare India's production of about thirty million tons (cropped from about seventy million acres), and Japan's of over seven million tons (cropped on something over seven million acres). Glutinous rice, Oryza glutinosa, Rumph., IMG:p495_25.png:Chinese characters no mi, which is easily distinguished from 0. sativa by its whitente and opaquene , as well as its more globular shape, does not take the latter's place as an article of diet, nor is it cultivated for that purpo.e. (HosiE, IMG:p495_26.png:Chinese characters p. 8). It is occasionally eaten as a change of diet', but is more usually baked in a peculiar manner and eaten as cakes between meals. But sugar is extracted from it and a weak spirit (lao chiu IMG:p495_27.png:Chinese characters is also manufactured. It amounts in Ssiich'uan to only 20 to 30 per cent, of the total rice cultivation. Glutinous-rice dumplings are made at the time of the Fifth Moon Feast and consumed in large quantities. Puffed rice is eaten by persons with weak digestions, and sweetmeats are also made from this rice; it is used in diarrhoea, in the shape of 496 a congee, as a diuretic in fevers, and cakes of it fried in camel fat -are used for hemorrhoids. The rice flowers are used as a dentifrice, the stalk is recommended for biliousne , and its ash for the treatment of wounds and discharges. The water-grown rice is named shui-mi, andl the upland, han-mi. Rice, the Chinese staff of life, is said IMG:p496_1.png:Chinese characters Materia) to benefit the breath, remove anxiety and thirst, check discharges, warm the viscera, harmonize the gases of the stomach and cause the growth of flesh. If taken in the form of congee, with Euryale ferox, it will benefit the vital principle, strengthen the will, clarify the hearing, and brighten the eye. The second water in which Oryza saliva is scoured is called Hsiirh-kan IMG:p496_2.png:Chinese characters and is regarded as cooling to the blood, and diuretic. Even the rust growing on rice is made use of, being administered in acute paralysis of the fauces, while the lixiviated ash of rice straw is used as an antidote in arsenical poisoning. Red rice IMG:p496_3.png:Chinese characters saliva, var. praecox) is a third well-marked variety, which is hardier than the others and cultivated at higher altitudes. The upland rice is 0. saliva, var. montana. The many uses to which rice straw is put make it, almost as important as the rice itself. As food and bedding for cattle and horses, as thatching material, as fuel, as mulch, as a source of organic matter in the soil and as a fertilizer, it represents a money value which is very large. Besides these ultimate uses the rice straw is employed in the manufacture of artic lets used in enormous quantities. It is estimated that nearly 200 million bags for storing rice and beans are made annually in Japan (from which the figures for China can be imagined); matting, sandals, and rough rope are also made in great quantities, and coarse paper [q.v.). [N.S.]