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The temporary fields, "risage da vicenda," are found among the bet ter soils of irrigated districts and are subjected to systems of rotation, a practice as old as the introduction of rice into the country. These systems are many and various; in one, maize, with barn-yard manure or guano, alternates with the rice; in another, clover, well fertilized, or wheat and clover planted together are followed by pasture, rice being planted the third year. A nine years' rotation is also mentioned, generally taking the following order: First year, wheat, with grass seed; 2d, 3d, and 4th, hay; 5th, 6th, and 7th, rice; 8th and 9th, maize, this last being sometimes replaced by other crops.

The rice grown in Italy is almost all lowland rice. It is said that Chinese variety of seed is preferred, since it ripens in from one hundred to one hundred and twenty days after sowing, and fifteen or twenty days sooner than the Japanese seed, and is therefore less liable to attack by "brusone."

In Italy a clay soil, having a small proportion of sand at the surface and some humus, is considered the best for rice. It is also stated that an abundance of nitrogen and of potassium salts, with some phosphoric acid, is desirable, but that too great a proportion of lime is injurious. Clay soils, being but slightly penetrable by water, require less irrigation. Rice does not bear subterraneous infiltration, as the water thus supplied to the plant is too cold and impedes its growth.

The system of cultivation followed in Italy resembles that followed in South Carolina rather than that of Asiatic countries, and transplanting is apparently never performed. The land is carefully leveled, slopes or hillsides being terraced, after the Chinese fashion, and the embankments are generally about 2 feet high. Connections are established between compartments or fields at different levels so that the water may flow from the higher to the lower level. Italian rice fields are always so arranged that the water may be constantly flowing through them with a gentle motion, not strong enough to disturb the tender young plants, yet enough to keep the supply always fresh and prevent stagnation, a fruitful source of malaria in the Italian climate. All trees are removed from the immediate vicinity of the rice fields, since their shade is considered hurtful to the crop. The fields are generally left dry during the winter, though in some cases very muddy water is left upon them for the purpose of improving them by alluvial deposit or raising their level. Plowing is generally done in March or April or, sometimes, in the autumn. In marshy localities, too wet for plowing, the land is broken up by the spade, a tedious and unhealthy process. The plowing is never very deep. After the ground has been broken up the fields are flooded, partly in the regular process of preparation and partly, also, to verify the levels and to consolidate the banks by pressure of the water.

Fertilizers are also applied to the soil. When rotation has been practiced, especially when meadow or pasture-land has entered therein,

the soil is considered to be sufficiently fertile, so that additional manures might be prejudicial rather than of benefit. In such cases manuring is sufficient once in two years. If cereals—for instance, wheat or maize— which exhaust the soil have been grown, manuring must be done every year, and it is a practice in Italy to alternate the manures as well as the crops. Superphosphate of lime and calcined bone are often used and are much appreciated, as are also guano and guano phosphates. Another fertilizer in common use is the ashes of various plants. Young wheat, oats or rye, red clover, turnips, or chick-peas are also grown and plowed under as green fertilizers.

The rice fields having been prepared, and the soil brought to a state of thick, soft mud, the sowing commences, generally about the last of March or the first of June. New fields are sown earliest and those one year or more old later, as the soil is benefited by a more or less prolonged exposure to the heat of the sun. From 3 to 4 bushels of seed per acre are used, according to the state of the soil, sowing being done broadcast or in furrows and the seed being prepared by soaking in water for twenty-four hours. The sprouts appear above the surface in from twelve to twenty days after sowing, being later in appearance when the seed is older or the water colder. Should no sprouts appear before the twenty-fifth day, the field is resowed. At the time of sowing the field is covered with a layer of water, and when the sprouts appear the water is drawn off until it is only about a centimeter (0.39 inch) deep, thus allowing the warm earth to more easily develop the plant. It is easy to maintain this level against loss by evaporation by the system of constant but gentle flow above mentioned. The water should not be many degrees colder than the atmosphere, and in many cases percolating filters are used. As the plants increase in height the depth of the water is increased with them, so that merely their tops show above it, the water being always let in very gently. When a depth of from 15 to 30 centimeters (say 6 to 12 inches) is reached, the level is kept constant, the lower level being used upon cold and the higher upon warmer soils. The fields are kept flooded until the plants flower, which is from the middle of July to the middle of August. Weeding commences in June, and is done by men or women who wade in the water, using the hoe or pulling up the grass by hand. There are generally two weedings, about three weeks apart. When flowering occurs, the low level of the water is replaced by regular but abundant irrigation at intervals of a tew days. When the head forms and begins to ripen the land is drained, and in from ten to fifteen days the crop is ready for the harvest. This occurs in northern Italy generally during the latter half of September, and the crop is cut with the scythe or reaping hook. The plant is cut a constant length of 18 inches and the stubble is afterwards turned under by the plow as a fertilizer.

Thrashing is generally done in a primitive manner by treading by oxen or horses, though in some cases thrashing machines are used, and

the grain is subsequently dried by exposure to the sun. The method of curing practiced in the United States does not seem to be followed. Husking is often done at small mills attached to the farm, or the crop is sold as paddy for exportation.

A system of insurance of the rice crop against damage by frost is practiced in Italy, the premium being from 6 to 9 per cent of the gross value of the crop.

DISEASES OF RICE.

These have been especially studied by Prof. Santo Garovaglio, of Pavia, whose researches have been published.* The conclusions of these researches show that many of the diseases to which rice is subject in Italy are due to the microscopic fungi belonging to the group of Spheriacia, and more particularly to the genus Pleospora, which is analogous to that producing certain diseases of the vine, the mildew and rust of wheat and maize, the potato disease, etc.

This parasite is found in the deepest recesses of the plant and under favorable conditions feeds upon its juices, impeding its growth and the formation of the head. The brusone is the most serious form of this disease and often destroys a crop in a few days. It first appears by showing a deep green color in the cavities of the leaves and stems, which gradually spreads over the whole plant. The spots become yellow and then brown and collect at the nodes of the stems and the joints of the leaves just above the water, and then afterwards below its level. Later the plant withers and dies and nothing is left but the stalk, which has a scorched appearance, whence the name brusone.

The circumstances which favor the development of the disease are said to be the irregularity of summer weather, especially sudden changes of temperature in July and August, which produce a general attack of brusone all over the country. Other causes are the presence of an excess of organic matter in the soil, dense shade by trees near the rice fields, or the use of very cold or impure water in irrigating. Brusone is said to be comparatively rare upon strong clay soils and more frequent upon loose soils containing too much sand. Remedies have not been suggested.

SPAIN.

Rice is said to have been introduced into Spain by the Moors at a very early day. Its cultivation, however, appears to have died out and to have been reintroduced in recent times.

The most important rice-growing district of the country is in the

*Triennial Archives of the Laboratory of Cryptogamic Botany at Pavia, 1871–

1874.

+ This account of Italian rice-growing has been condensed from a Monograph upon the Cultivation of Rice in Italy and from Tropical Agriculture, by P. L. Simmonds, London, 1877.

province of Catalonia, upon the delta of the Ebro, between the mountains and the Mediterranean, and some cultivation is also carried on in Valencia, farther southward. The following account of cultivation upon the Ebro delta is mainly taken from a report by the French viceconsul at Tortosa, M. Ducloux, published in the Bulletin of the French Ministry of Agriculture for 1889.

The area of the delta is about 30,000 hectares (74,130 acres or 116 square miles), and is divided into almost equal parts by the Ebro. The southern part, upon the right bank of the river, is irrigated by a canal which is derived from the river above Tortosa. Rice has been cultivated here since 1860, the first rice fields having been established, it is said, by Frenchmen. The cultivation was so successful that the Spaniards took it up and so extended it that land soon rose in price from 16 to 60 francs per hectare ($1.25 to $4.70 per acre) up to 800 and 1,000 francs per hectare ($62.50 to $78 per hectare). The part of the delta north of the river is still without irrigation and remains a sandy desert covered with saline efflorescence, while upon the right bank there are fertile rice fields. The whole surface of the delta forms a vast plain, which at no point rises more than 4 meters (13 feet) above sea level, and which here and there has depressions formerly filled with salt water and now containing layers of crystallized salt utilized by the peasants. There are also pools communicating with the sea, in which there is a thick vegetation of marine plants, and which are well stocked with fish, while there are also marshes and peat beds.

The soils of the rice fields may be divided into three classes-the rich loamy soils, the medium, and the sandy soils. The first are composed of fine alluvium deposited by the river, and contain neither pebbles, gravel, nor coarse sand. They are poor in organic matter, and consist of at least one-half pure clay, and are difficult to render productive. In the rainy season the water penetrates this soil but imperfectly, remaining at the surface and forming a sticky mud, which becomes very hard upon drying, so that the plow is often powerless to break it up, although by contraction. in drying it becomes full of fissures. Upon this soil, which contains elements of fertility in abundance, all sorts of crops have been tried, and rice alone has given satisfactory results. In the first years of trial yields of 60 and 70 hectoliters per hectare (from 69 to 80 bushels per acre) were obtained without the use of fertilizers, but of course this yield could not be kept up without returning to the soil the elements taken from it by the crop.

The medium soils are better provided with organic detritus, and present an advantageous mixture of clay, sand, and lime, so that many plants may be successfully grown upon them, yet rice does not seem to succeed in these soils, probably on account of the slight elevation of their surface above the underlying water layer.

The sandy soils, almost as poor in humus as the clay soils, are yet composed of a mixture well enough adapted for cultivation, and all sorts of crops grow well on them.

The mean annual temperature of the region of the Delta is 17.6° C. (63.7 F.), the highest observed temperature being 41° (105.8° F.), and the lowest 20 C. (+28.4° F.). The year averages 247 cloudless days, 44 cloudy days, and 74 days of rain. The annual rainfall is 427 millimeters (16.81 inches) and the mean daily evaporation is 8.8 millimeters (0.35 inch), the annual hydroscopic mean being 64. The south wind is the prevailing wind, and blows through the hot season. From December to March, inclusive, the north wind generally prevails with violence.

The area of irrigable territory at Tortosa, Amposta, and San Carlos de la Rapita, upon which, after investigation, the Government has authorized rice cultivation, is about 12,000 hectares (29,652 acres, or about 46.3 square miles), yet through various causes the area annually occupied does not exceed 5,000 hectares (12,355 acres, or 19.3 square miles). It is difficult to fix the actual value of land upon the Delta with any accuracy, as there are no buyers, yet 250 francs per hectare ($19.52 per acre) is probably not far from the actual value. Rents have notably diminished in the last fifteen years, but not in proportion to the value of real estate. In 1889 they averaged 70 francs per hectare ($5.47 per acre) per annum. At San Carlos the rice fields were

exempt from taxes at this time.

There are other rice lands outside of the Ebro district, in territory declared to be agricultural colonies, where the cultivators are exempt from real estate and other taxes, and even from military service.

The fee payable to the Royal Ebro Canal Company is fixed at a uniform rate of one-ninth of the value of the rice crop standing in the fields at the moment of harvest. This system is an evident obstacle to intensive cultivation, and its replacement by some other system is desirable. Certain owners have arranged with the company to pay a fee of 54 francs per hectare ($4.22 per acre) instead of the above proportion. The waters of the principal canal are distributed to the vari ous rice fields through the instrumentality of a syndicate, which regu. lates their use and maintains secondary canals, roads, and canals for drainage. The expenses of this syndicate are paid by proprietors of rice fields at a pro rata, according to the surface cultivated by each, the expense amounting to about 16 francs per hectare ($1.25 per acre) annually.

Cultivation commences in the autumn as soon as the preceding harvest has been gathered and removed. The first operation is to burn the stubble and straw remaining upon the ground, after which the soil is plowed deeply. This work, together with the repairing of embankments and ditches, occupies until January, or sometimes until February. Before the flooding of the fields, which is in April, the soil receives a second or even a third working, after which the surface is made as level as possible, sometimes the level of the water being used as a guide, as in Italy. The seed is then sown broadcast, the soil having

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