RICE 30 RICE bored with great energy for the unity of Italy, and when that end was accom- plished was by Victor Emmanuel ap- pointed governor-general of Tuscany. On the death of Cavour (1861) he was called to the head of the ministry; but his government was undermined by Rat- tazzi, and he resigned in March, 1862. Ricasoli returned to power in June, 1866, but was again obliged to retire in April of the following year. At the same time ae withdrew altogether from public life. He died in Rome, Oct. 23, 1880. Five volumes of his "Letters and Papers" were published by Tabarrini and Gotti at Florence in 1886-1895. RICE (Oryza), a genus of grasses. The only important species is the com- mon rice (0. sativa), one of the most useful and extensively cultivated of all grains, supplying the principal food of nearly one-third of the human race. It seems to be originally a native of the East Indies, but is now cultivated in all quarters of the globe, and almost wher- ever the conditions of warmth and moist- ure are suitable. Rice is an annual, varying from one to six feet in height. There are many other distinguishing characters of the varieties in cultivation, some having long awns and some being awnless, some having the chaff (pale as) , when ripe, yellow, white, red, black, etc. The seed or grain of rice grows on little separate stalks springing from the main stalk; and the whole appearance of the plant, when the grain is ripe, may be said to be intermediate between that of barley and of oats. Rice requires a moist soil, sometimes flooded. In South Carolina rice is sown in rows in the bottom of trenches, which are about 18 inches apart; the trenches are filled with water to the depth of several inches, till the seeds germinate; then the water is drawn off, and afterward the fields are again flooded for rather more than a fortnight to kill weeds. They are flooded again when the grain is near ripening. In Europe the cultivation of rice is most extensively carried on in the plains of Lombardy and in Valencia in Spain. The introduction of rice into the United States took place only about the middle or close of the 17th century; but the date has been disputed, 1694 being the earliest year in which it is known to have been grown. The wild rice, plentiful in the marshy tropical countries of southern Asia _ as well as in northern Australia, is with- out doubt the plant from which all our forms of cultivated rice have been de- rived. Most modern authorities regard India as the first home of rice, though some say it was originally derived from China. It has been cultivated in India from time immemorial. Four thousand apparently distinct forms of Bengal rice have been exhibited. There are 1,400 different specimens of rice in the Calcutta Museum. There are as many as 1,300 names of rice. The obvious differences in the grain itself are indeed very re- markable. In color the specimens range from a bright golden hue through almost every gradation of tint to black; and in regard to size also they vary greatly. But all these forms of rice are referable to a very few well-marked and constant varieties of O. sativa, the result of semi- nal variation commonly observed in plants that have been long brought under cultivation. The rice exported from India is divided broadly into three qualities: (1) table rice; (2) ballam, named after the boats in which it is carried; and (3) moonghy, common or inferior rice. Cargo rice is that in which only one part in five is husked. In 1919 the East suf- fered from a shortage in the rice crop. British India prohibited export. The Japanese rice crop was about 426,000,000 bushels, Korean about a fifth, the United States produced 41,059,000 bushels; the price to farmers, $2.67 a bushel. The principal rice-growing States are Louisi- ana, California, Texas and Arkansas. In China rice is generally sown pretty thickly on very wet land, and afterward transplanted to the land which it is finally to occupy. In many parts of China and in other warm countries it is common to obtain two crops of rice in a year. Rice is husked and quickly dried be- fore being brought to market. Special milling machinery is required for re- moving the inner skin of the rice grain, and a large quantity of the grain is badly broken in the process, being sala- ble only as broken rice or rice flour. Good Indian rice has the following com- position: Moisture, 13.50 per cent.; ni- trogenous matter, 7.41; starch, 78.10; fatty or oily matter, 0.40; ash, 0.59. Rice contains a smaller amount of ni- trogenous elements than any other grain (wheat having as much as 22 per cent.) ; it is also deficient in fatty matter, and if taken by itself is less nutritious than other grain food; but combined with fatty nitrogenous substances it is a val- uable foodstuff. The beer made from rice by the Japanese is called Saki, and is in general use among them. Several kinds of wine are made by the Chinese and Japanese from rice, some of them highly esteemed and very intoxicating; spirit is distilled from the lees. Some of the common arrack of the East is made from rice; and rice is also largely employed by distillers in Great Britain.
