is
about the average, and it has only exceeded 170,000 on four occasions.

The amount of rice exported from South Carolina in 1724, was 18,000
barrels; in 1731, 41,957 barrels; in 1740, 90,110 barrels; in 1747-48,
55,000 barrels; in 1754, 104,682 barrels; in 1760-61, 100,000 barrels;
from Savannah, in 1755, 2,299 barrels, besides 237 bushels of paddy or
rough rice; in 1760, 3,283 barrels, besides 208 bushels of paddy; in
1770, 22,120 barrels, besides 7,064 bushels of paddy; from
Philadelphia, in 1771, 258,375 pounds. The amount exported from the
United States, in 1770, was 150,529 barrels; in 1791, 96,980 tierces;
in 1800, 112,056 tierces; in 1810, 131,341 tierces; in 1820-21, 88,221
tierces; in 1830-31, 116,517 tierces; in 1840-41, 101,617 tierces; in
1845-46, 124,007 tierces; in 1846-47, 144,427 tierces; in 1850-51,
105,590 tierces.

According to the census of 1840, the rice crop of the United States
amounted to 80,841,422 lbs.; in 1850, 215,312,710 lbs.

Rice being an aquatic plant, is best grown in low moist lands, that
are easily inundated.

The ground is ploughed superficially, and divided into squares of from
twenty to thirty yards in the sides, separated from each other by
dykes of earth about two feet in height, and sufficiently broad for a
man to walk upon. These dykes are for retaining the water when it is
required, and to permit of its being drawn off when the inundation is
no longer necessary. The ground prepared, the water is let on, and
kept at a certain height in the several compartments of the rice
field, and the seedsman goes to work. The rice that is to be used as
seed must have been kept in the husk; it is put into a sack, which is
immersed in the water until the grain swells and shows signs of
germination; the seedsman, walking through the inundated field,
scatters the seed with his hand, as usual; the rice immediately sinks
to the bottom, and many even penetrate to a certain depth in the mud.
In Piedmont, where the sowing takes place at the beginning of April,
they generally use about fifty-five pounds of seed per acre. The rice
begins to show itself above the surface of the water at the end of a
fortnight; as the plant grows, the depth of the water is increased, so
that the stalks may not bend with their own weight. About the middle
of June this disposition is no longer to be apprehended; the rice is
not so flexible as it was, so that the water can be drawn off for a
few days to permit hoeing