Of the nutritive value of oatmeal Professor Brewer notes: “Whether it is true that oatmeal is actually more wholesome or more nutritious than cracked wheat, for example, is very questionable, but it certainly is more palatable to work people. In the United States oatmeal in any form has been but sparingly used for human food until within a few years, but of late its consumption has increased enormously, many grocers now selling as many barrels a year as they sold pounds less than a score of years ago. This increase in the use of oatmeal is most marked in the cities of the older states, but it has extended to the villages and farms and even to the farthest frontier settlements.”
The enemies to the oat crop are not as many as of wheat. The rust and smut do some injury, as also the insects that feed upon wheat and other cereals.
Rice (Oryza sativa[4]) it is believed enters more largely into the nourishment of the human family than any other plant. It is a native of the East Indies, but is now cultivated in most tropical and sub-tropical climates. The rice plant requires an abundance of water in the soil, and thrives best on land subject to overflow for a portion of the year, or which is artificially flooded. Rice is most largely grown in India, China, Japan and Egypt—India alone producing nearly thirty million bushels per year. The rice grown in this country is confined to eight states, with an area of 174,173 acres in 1879, and a yield of 110,131,373 pounds, averaging 632 pounds per acre. Ninety per cent. of this crop is grown in the three following states: South Carolina, Louisiana, and Georgia. It is seen that the region suited to the growth of rice is much more limited than with the other cereals. The following description of rice growing in the South is from the American Agriculturist: “The method pursued on the rice lands of the lower Mississippi is to sow the rice broadcast about as thick as wheat at the North, and harrow it in with a light harrow having many teeth, the ground being first well plowed and prepared by ditches and embankments for inundation at will. It is generally sown in March. Immediately after sowing the water is let on so as to barely overflow the ground. The water is withdrawn on the second, third or fourth day, or as soon as the grain begins to swell. The rice very soon after comes up and grows finely. When it has attained about three inches in height the water is again let on, the top leaves being left a little above the water. Complete immersion would kill the plant. A fortnight previous to harvest the water is drawn off to give the stalks strength and to dry the ground for the convenience of the reapers.… The same area of ground yields three times as much rice as wheat.… Rice, like hemp, does not impoverish the soil.… The pine barrens of Mississippi would produce rice ad infinitum if it were not that the land, after a few years, owing to the sandy nature of the soil, becomes too dry for it.… No variety has been discovered which yields as much out of the water as it does in it.… It flourishes better when overflowed with pure running water than with the stagnant waters of impure lakes and marshes.”
The chemical composition of rice grain is as follows: Water 12.44, ash 0.38, albuminoids 7.44, fiber 0.19, starch, etc. 19.20, fat 0.35. It is seen to contain a less amount of the flesh forming or albuminoid compounds, and a greater per cent. of heat producing or starchy matter, than the other grains. The flour contains so little gluten that it can not be made into light bread. Rice is familiar to all as white, pearly grains, which are employed as the leading ingredient of puddings, etc. The outer covering or husk is removed in the process of threshing, but to separate the inner requires expensive machinery. “The rough rice is first ground between very heavy stones running at a high speed, which partially removes the hull chaff. The grain is conveyed into mortars, where it is pounded for a certain length of time by the alternate rising and falling of very heavy pestles shod with iron. From these mortars elevators carry the rice to the fans which separate the grain from the remaining husks. From here it goes through other fans which divide it into three qualities—‘whole,’ ‘middling’ and ‘small.’ The whole rice is then passed through a polishing screen, lined with gauze wire and sheepskins, which, revolving vertically at the greatest possible speed, gives it the pearly whiteness with which it appears in commerce.” The “small” rice is sometimes ground and employed to adulterate wheat flour. Rice, when prepared in the many forms of puddings, cakes, soups, etc., is very easy of digestion, and is specially fitted for the food of invalids. In Japan, where the rice crop is a leading one, an alcoholic drink called sake is made from it. A wine is made in China from this grain, and the Arrack of the East is also a rice beverage.
Buckwheat (Polygonnum esculentum[5]). The six grains already treated in this and the preceding article are all members of the great grass family. The remaining cereal belongs to another and distantly related group of plants. Buckwheat is a member of a small family containing the knotweeds, bindweeds, smartweeds, dock and rhubarb. The buckwheat plant in its growth and structure is very different from the grasses. It is supposed to be a native of northern Asia, and has been cultivated for its large, triangular seeds, from very early times. The name is derived from the German Buck-weizen, “beech wheat,” the shape of the grain closely resembling that of the beech nut.
The buckwheat crop in the United States for 1879 was 11,817,227 bushels, for 848,389 acres, or about fourteen bushels per acre. The increase in the total yield of buckwheat is not keeping pace with the increase in population. New York and Pennsylvania are the leading buckwheat producing states, sixty-eight per cent. of the whole crop of 1879 being grown within their borders. Hilly regions, with a thin soil, that are not suited to other grains, may be profitably devoted to growing buckwheat. It is known as a “wide feeder;” that is, the buckwheat plant produces long, wide-spreading roots which penetrate the poor soil for long distances and gather nourishment over a wide area. On this account this crop is frequently grown on worn-out soil and plowed under while green as a fertilizer, in preparation for some other crop requiring more plant food close at hand in the soil. The period of growth is short, being sown in midsummer and harvested before the autumn frosts have an opportunity to injure it. It frequently serves a good purpose as a second crop where the first has failed from poor seed, bad weather, destructive insects, or one or more of these or other causes. The grain is especially wholesome for poultry, and while the field is in bloom bees harvest a larger store of honey, though not of the best quality.
The chemical composition of buckwheat and its flour is as follows:
| WATER. | ASH. | ALBUMINOIDS. | FIBER. | STARCH, &C. | FAT. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buckwheat | 12.62 | 2.02 | 10.02 | 8.67 | 64.43 | 2.24 |
| B. flour | 13.52 | 1.05 | 6.48 | 0.28 | 77.34 | 1.33 |
The albuminoids are seen to be only about half as abundant as in wheat flour. The fiber (bran) is in large quantity and the starchy matter abounds. As a food buckwheat is less strengthening but somewhat more fattening than wheat. The popular notion that buckwheat when eaten regularly will induce a feverish state of the system and eruption of the skin, is probably well founded. The plant belongs to a family, many members of which have peculiar medicinal principles, and doubtless there is some oil or other substance present in the buckwheat that does not appear in a chemical analysis, though active upon the animal system.
There are very few enemies to the buckwheat plant. So infrequent are the attacks of insects that the crop is recommended by Professor Riley as a means of driving insects away from fields. It is a very cleansing crop as regards weeds also, the rank growth smothering out the various forms of plant pests that may spring up. The buckwheat field is, of course, not exempt from the ravages of those insects like locust and army worms, that devour everything green in their line of march.