The History Of Rice: The history of rice culture in Louisiana dates back to 1718, but, during all the years prior to the Civil War, this industry was confined chiefly to the parish of Plaquemine. Experience had shown, however, that, in Louisiana, rice was a sure crop, upon which a fair price could be realized quickly without the outlay of a great amount of money, and so, in the uncertain days that followed 1864, it was to rice that the planters turned. Although many difficulties were encountered in adapting prairie wheat-growing practices to rice culture, the efforts of these planters were finally successful and soon made Louisiana the large rice-growing state.
The rice plant grows best in paddy fields [4], although there is a variety that thrives on dry land [5]. Early records refer to Chinese irrigation systems for rice-growing in 770 BC, and in India and the Philippines terraces built 2,000 years ago still support rice cultivation. Today, as centuries ago, rice plants are grown in water until they flower then the field is slowly dried out as the grain ripens.
Rice provides a staple diet for more than half the population of the world, for whom it provides 80 per cent or more of their total diet. It is thought that altogether there are more than 7,000 cultivated varieties of rice of which over 1,000 are grown in India alone [3]. Of the long-grained variety. Patna and Basmati are among the most widely known. Although their names do not necessarily denote their origins, other varieties include Java or Spanish rice, with more oval-shaped grains;
Piedmont rice, which is short, round and very white; and Carolina, which is another long-grained kind of rice but one that is suitable for puddings.
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