(see that article, and Oriza, Encyc.) is strongly recommended, in a late publication, as the best corrective of spirit flour, of which there is a great quantity in Scotland every year, and of course a great deal of unpleasing and unwholesome bread. The gentleman, who writes the short paper alluded to, directs ten pounds of flour and one pound of ground rice, with the usual usual quantity of yeast, to be placed, for about two hours before a fire, and then formed into bread in the common way. This addition of rice, besides correcting the bad qualities of the damaged flour, adds, he says, much to its nutriment; and he is undoubtedly right; for the flour of rice, though very nutritious, is so dry, that it is difficult to make bread of it by itself.

See Bread of Rice, in this Suppl.

As rice is a favourite substitute for bread in years of scarcity, it may not be disagreeable to our readers to know the method of cultivating the plant in those countries where it is the principal food of the inhabitants. We have the following full and perspicuous account of the Chinese practice by Sir George Staunton.

"Much of the low grounds in the middle and southern provinces of the empire are appropriated to the culture of that grain. It constitutes, in fact, the principal part of the food of all those inhabitants, who are not so indigent as to be forced to subsist on other and cheaper kinds of grain. A great proportion of the surface of the country is well adapted for the production of rice, which, from the time the seed is committed to the soil till the plant approaches to maturity, requires to be immersed in a sheet of water. Many and great rivers run through the several provinces of China, the low grounds bordering on those rivers are annually inundated, by which means is brought upon their surface a rich mud or mucilage that fertilizes the soil, in the same manner as Egypt receives its fecundative quality from the overflowing of the Nile. The periodical rains which fall near the sources of the Yellow and the Kiang rivers, not very far distant from those of the Ganges and the Burumpooter, among the mountains bounding India to the north, and China to the west, often swell those rivers to a prodigious height, though not a drop of rain should have fallen on the plains through which they afterwards flow.

"After the mud has lain some days upon the plains in China, preparations are made for planting them with rice. For this purpose, a small spot of ground is inclosed by a bank of clay; the earth is ploughed up; and an upright harrow, with a row of wooden pins in the lower end, is drawn lightly over it by a buffalo. The grain, which had previously been steeped in dung diluted with animal water, is then thrown very thickly on it. A thin sheet of water is immediately brought over it, either by channels leading to the spot from a source above it, or when below it by means of a chain pump, of which the use is as familiar as that of a hoe to every Chinese husbandman. In a few days the shoots appear above the water. In that interval, the remainder of the ground intended for cultivation, if still, is ploughed, the lumps broken by hoes, and the surface levelled by the harrow. As soon as the shoots have attained the height of six or seven inches, they are plucked up by the roots, the tops of the blades cut off, and each root is planted separately, sometimes in small furrows turned with the plough, and sometimes in holes made in rows by a drilling stick for that purpose. The roots are about half a foot in diameter. Water is brought over them a second time. For the convenience of irrigation, and to regulate its proportion, the rice fields are subdivided by narrow ridges of clay, into small inclosures. Through a channel, in each ridge, the water is conveyed at will to every subdivision of the field. As the rice approaches to maturity, the water, by evaporation and absorption, disappears entirely; and the crop, when ripe, covers dry ground. The first crop or harvest, in the southern provinces particularly, happens towards the end of May or beginning of June. The instrument for reaping is a small sickle, dentated like a saw, and crooked. Neither carts nor cattle are used to carry the sheaves off from the spot where they were reaped; but they are placed regularly in frames, two of which, suspended at the extremities of a bamboo pole, are carried across the shoulders of a man, to the place intended for disengaging the grain from the stems which had supported it. This operation is performed, not only by a flail, as is customary in Europe, or by cattle treading the corn in the manner of other Orientalists, but sometimes also by striking it against a plank set upon its edge, or beating it against the side of a large tub scolloped for that purpose; the back and sides being much higher than the front, to prevent the grain from being dispersed. After being winnowed, it is carried to the granary.

"To remove the skin or husk of rice, a large strong earthen vessel, or hollow stone, in form somewhat like that which is used elsewhere for filtering water, is fixed firmly in the ground; and the grain, placed in it, is struck with a conical stone fixed to the extremity of a lever, and cleared, sometimes indeed imperfectly, from the husk. The stone is worked frequently by a person treading upon the end of the lever. The same object is attained also by pulling the grain between two flat stones of a circular form, the upper of which turns round upon the other, but at such a distance from it as not to break the intermediate grain. The operation is performed on a larger scale in mills turned by water; the axis of the wheel carrying several arms, which, by striking upon the ends of levers, raise them in the same manner as is done by treading on them. Sometimes twenty of these levers are worked at once. The straw from which the grain has been disengaged is cut chiefly into chaff, to serve as provender for the very few cattle employed in Chinese husbandry.

"The labour of the first crop being finished, the ground is immediately prepared for the reception of fresh seeds. The first operation undertaken is that of pulling up the stubble, collecting it into small heaps, which are burnt, and the ashes scattered upon the field. The former processes are afterwards renewed. The second crop is generally ripe late in October or early in November. The grain is treated as before; but the stubble is no longer burnt. It is turned under with the plough, and left to putrefy in the earth. This, with the lime brought upon the ground by inundation, are the only manures usually employed in the culture of rice."