There were many openings in the banks of bayous and cut-offs, and the land was as flat as it had been during the last hundred miles of the voyage. The soil was very rich, and produced abundant crops where it was cultivated. A very few villages were to be seen; but each of them had its temple or pagoda, and the houses hardly differed from those they had seen in Siam.
"I suppose this is all an alluvial soil, Brother Avoirdupois," said Dr. Hawkes, as the ship was passing a rice-field.
"So say the books I have consulted, Brother Adipose Tissue. It is just the right land for rice, and that is the staple product of all this region," replied Uncle Moses.
Both of these gentlemen weighed about two hundred and twenty-six pounds apiece, and they continued to call each other by the appropriate names they had given each other even before the ship left New York on her voyage all over the world.
"What is alluvial soil, Doctor?" asked Mrs. Blossom, who had read very little besides her Bible and denominational newspaper.
"It is the soil or mud which is brought to its location by the action of water; and here it is brought down by the mighty river which spreads itself out into a delta where we are," replied the doctor good-naturedly, and without a smile at the ignorance of the worthy lady; for though her education had been greatly neglected, she was esteemed and respected by all on board, for in sickness she had been the nurse of the patients. "It is just the right soil for rice," he added.
"I have seen so many rice-fields out here, that I should like to know something more about them," suggested the good lady.
"Naturalists class it as a kind of grass; but I will not vex you with any hard words. Rice is the food of about one-third of all the people on the globe. It requires heat and moisture for its growth, and it is raised in considerable quantities on the low lands of Georgia and South Carolina and elsewhere in our country. The plant grows from one to six feet high. I don't know much about the culture of this grain in the East; but in South Carolina they first dig trenches, in the bottom of which the rice is sown in rows eighteen inches apart. The plantation is prepared so that water can be let in and drawn off as desired. As soon as the seed is sown, the water is let in till the ground is covered to the depth of several inches. As soon as the rice comes up, the water is drawn off, and the plant grows in the open air rapidly under the hot sun. The field is again flooded for a couple of weeks, to kill the weeds, and again when the grain is ripening. The rice is in a hull, like wheat and other grains; and you have found parts of this covering in the rice when you were cooking it. It is threshed out by hand or machinery after it is dried, and then it is ready for market. There is a rice-field on your right; and you can see the channels which have been dug to convey the water to the plants, or to draw it off," said the surgeon in conclusion.
"I see them, Dr. Hawkes; and I am very much obliged to you for taking so much pains to instruct an ignorant body like me," replied Mrs. Blossom.
"It is quite impossible for any of us to know everything, and I often find myself entirely ignorant in regard to some things; and I have lived long enough to forget many things that I learned when I was younger," added the doctor with a softening smile.