OCR Text |
Show So BASIS OP AMERICAN HISTORY [ 1900 thousand bushels, of which over two- thirds is raised in New York and Pennsylvania. Rice is typically a plant of warm countries and requires a very wet soil for its growth. Before the coming of the whites the Indians obtained a considerable proportion of their food from the wild rice which grew not only in such states as Virginia, but in the Northeast and as far west as Minnesota. The cultivated species is probably a native of Hindustan, and in this country it has been grown only in the southern states. At first the bulk of the yield was produced by the Carolinis- and by Georgia, Louisiana beginning to be important about forty years ago. The former states now grow a much smaller quantity, while the last- named, with Texas, form the centre of the industry. Even now the yield, about one hundred and fifty million pounds annually, is only half of the quantity consumed in the country. - The sugar- cane is a tropical plant, which in the United States is produced almost entirely in the extreme South, Louisiana furnishing nearly the entire output for the country. This is but a fraction of the amount consumed, the balance being imported from the Hawaiian Islands, West and East Indies, and South America. Two other plants, exclusive of the maple, also contribute to the sugar supply. One is the beet, very extensively grown for this purpose in Europe. It was first employed in this country for sugar- |