; after which the water is again let on, and
maintained to the height of the plant. In July it is usual to top the
stalks, an operation which renders the flowering almost simultaneous.

Rice generally flowers in the beginning of the month of August, and a
fortnight later the grain begins to form. It is at this period
especially that the stalks require to be supported, and this is
effectually done by keeping the water at about half their height. The
rice field is emptied when the straw turns yellow. The harvest
generally takes place at the end of September. In the Isle of France
rice is cultivated in very damp soils, upon which a great deal of rain
falls, but which are not flooded, as in other tropical countries: but
the process is not so certain nor the crop so great, as when
inundation is employed. In Piedmont the usual return of a rice field
is reckoned at about fifty for one. At Munzo, in New Granada, the
paddy fields which are not inundated, under the influence of a mean
temperature of 26 deg. centrigrade (79.0 deg. Fahrenheit), yield 100
for 1.--(Simmonds's "Colonial Magazine," vol. xi., p. 92.)

The rice now grown about New Orleans is as sweet, if not sweeter,
than that imported from South Carolina, but it is deficient in
hardness and brightness when ready for market, a defect owing entirely
to two causes, neither of which is beyond the control of the planter.
The one cause is the mode of culture, it being generally grown without
due attention to the seed--seeded at too late a period of the season,
and allowed to become _rare-ripe_ upon the stalk. The other cause is
the very imperfect mode of its preparation for market; this being
invariably accomplished by the primitive pestle and mortar, or the
old-fashioned "pecker mill." The same seed is planted in the same soil
from year to year, a system which, it is generally conceded, will
deteriorate the quality and production of any grain crop. A very large
proportion of the rice grown in Carolina is prepared for market at the
steam toll-mills, in the vicinity of Charleston; and a mill of this
description near New Orleans, would remedy the greatest defect in the
rice of the country, greatly increase the demand for the article, and
undoubtedly yield a large return for the investment. The toll mills at
and around Charleston are, and always have been, prosperous. The mills
of Mr. Lucas, in England, erected to clean "paddy," _i.e._ "rough
rice," sent there in bulk from Caro