116. RICE (Oryza sativa, Fig. 39) is a well-known kind of grain, which is much cultivated in the East Indies, America, and some parts of Spain; and which, previously to its being sold for use, is freed from a brownish husk that covers it.
The rice plant has an erect, simple, round, and jointed stem. Its leaves are narrow and pointed; and its flowers appear in a kind of bunch, at the extremity, somewhat resembling, but more compact than, an ear of oats.
We are, at present, chiefly supplied with rice from America; and it is said that the Americans were indebted for this grain to a small bag of it which was formerly given as a present from a Mr. Dubois, treasurer of the East India Company, to a Carolina merchant.
A wet and morassy soil, appears in general necessary to the cultivation of rice. The parts of the farms or plantations in which it is grown are usually so situated as to admit of being flooded; and, in many places, reservoirs of water are formed for this purpose. These reservoirs have sluices, by which the rice fields may be inundated at pleasure. In reaping the crop, the labourers generally work knee deep in water and mud. As the rice is cut, the sheaves are put on drays, and carried out to be spread on dry ground. The rice thus produced has the name of marsh rice, and is that which is chiefly imported into Europe.
In some of the mountainous parts of the East Indies rice is cultivated on the sides of hills, where it can only be watered by rain. It is sown, however, at the beginning of the rainy, and reaped in the beginning of the dry season; so that, in fact, it has nearly all the advantages of being watered, which the marsh rice possesses. The general appellation of rice, in the East Indies, is paddy; but the kind just mentioned is denominated paddy gunung, or mountain rice, and is little known in Europe, though of late years it has been cultivated with success in Tuscany. Its grains are whiter, finer, and more palatable than those of the marsh rice.
After the harvesting of rice, the next process is to free the grains from the husk in which they are enveloped. There are several ways of doing this. In some places they are pounded in large mortars, and afterwards winnowed. In others large cylindrical pestles are lifted by a wheel worked by oxen; and between these one person sits and pushes forward the rice to be beaten, whilst another carries it off to be winnowed, and supplies fresh parcels. The inhabitants of several parts of the East throw it into hot water, by which the grains are slightly swelled, and thus burst through the husk. In the island of Ceylon, and in some parts of America, a hollow place, about a foot in depth, and nine or ten yards in diameter, is dug in the ground. This is filled with corn, which is trodden by oxen driven round it until the grain is cleared. The Sacred and other writings inform us that this was the mode which the ancients adopted with other species of grain.
In Spain, when the rice is ripe, it is gathered into sheaves, and put into a mill, where the lower grinding stone is covered with cork; and, by this means, the grain is separated from the husk, without being bruised.
Rice is said to have been lately cultivated, with success, in some parts of Scotland; and it is not improbable, that, by degrees, this species of grain may be naturalized to our climate.
No kind of grain is so generally adopted for food in hot climates as this. The inhabitants of many parts of the East subsist almost wholly upon it; and large quantities are annually imported into Europe, where it is highly esteemed for puddings and numerous culinary preparations. It is considered very nutritive, but it should not be eaten in too large quantities by languid or debilitated persons. In a scarcity of other grain, rice may be used with considerable advantage as an ingredient in bread. Indeed, on account of its excellence and its cheapness, it claims attention as a general article of sustenance for the poorer classes of society; as it is well known that a quarter of a pound of rice, slowly boiled, will yield more than a pound of solid and nutritive food. For the fattening of poultry, boiled rice has been adopted with success, and it would be more generally adopted than it is, were it not for an unfounded and very extraordinary notion that it tends to make them blind.
The inhabitants of the East obtain from rice a vinous liquor, which is more intoxicating than the strongest wine; and an ardent spirit, called arrack, is also partly made from it. The latter is chiefly manufactured at Batavia, and at Goa on the coast of Malabar; and is said to be distilled from a mixture of the wort or infusion of rice, and of toddy, or the juice of the cocoa-nut tree ([233]), to which other ingredients, and particularly spices, are added.