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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (April 1, 1956)
r T FOURTEEN MEDfORD (OREGON) MAIL TRIBUNE Sunday, April 1, 1958 Is That Hong Kong, with Japan Air Lines When we think of China naturally we think of rice. How ever this grass seed is the basic food of many more lands includ ing The Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, India, Pakistan and Japan. Because of the density of their populations, this means that more than 1,250.000,000 people half of the world's entire pop ulation eati rice. And unlike our. western diet in which wheat plays a secon dary role, hSte for these 1,250,- 000,000, rice is the main staple. Virtually the entire meal. This supplemented merely with veg etable oils such as soybeans, ol ives, and sesame, huge popula tions thrive with a minimum of animal food. Unlike wheat which must be reduced to flour usually and baked, rice grains are almost everywhere boiled and served up in that form. (If you are a guest in the Far East it is poor manners to eat only one bowl of rice. Always be DreDarpH to accept the second offering, or even a tnird, and then eat it to the last grain.) The world acreage for rice, despite feeding half the world's population, is but a fifth of that used for the other two leading food crops, wheat and maize (corn). Looking at a rice field in the distance, it does not look unlike wheat or rye but closer at hand, the loose drooping seed heads more nearly resemble oats. Rice seems to have come from a wild rice species native to In donesia's trrjpical, rainy, marshy areas. (Not to be confused with the black-grained wild rice, a distant cousin which grows in shallow lake water in north eastern Canada and the U.S. and Is prized by gourmets who fancy it with fowl and seafood and pay a good price. As for rice paper, that is made from the pith of a plant not even related to rice.) Began in India ' Quite likely the cultivation of rice began in India about 6,000 years ago, about a thousand years after wheat was first domesti cated in the Middle East. From there, the cultivation of rice went to China and Egypt. By 1,500 A. D., it was well established throughout southewestern Asia and west as far as Italy; by the mid-1 600's it was introduced to America and it is grown exten sively today in California, Tex as, Arkansas and Louisiana. To meet various growing con ditions, , many varieties have been developed in India, alone, there are more than 1,000 suit able to conditions ranging from hot to cool summers, from marshy to comparatively dry soils. But the yield and the quality is still best in areas where the climate is hot and humid and the land marshy or flooded. Basically, the growing of low land swamp rice has not changed much throughout the Orient dur ing the past thousands of years. Hours and hours of patient back breaking toil go into the prepar ation of what is eaten in a few minutes. In most areas, seeds are sown broadcast in specially prepared seed beds. Later these individual plants are transplanted into flat, dike-rimmed fields. These are then flooded and the water is kept at a five-inch level during the growing season. When weed ing is necessary, the water is drained off. and rows of men, women and small children, some times up to their knees in mire, seed out the offending plants. Created on Hillsides Where swampy lowland is scarce, these conditions are arti ficially created on hillsides. The sides of low mountains are ter raced and each terrace filled with loam and diked and flooded by crude but effective irrigation systems. Just before the plant's leaves turn from green to yellow from two to four months de pending upon local growing con ditions the fields are drained to make them ready for harvesting which is done with old-fashioned hand sickles. Once harvested, the grain is threshed a simple process of separating chaff from grain. The most primitive way, and still used throughout much of the Orient, is to tread barefoot the unhulled grain. Then the tramp ed mass is scooped into a shal low basket and tossed into the air above a mat. In the breeze, however gentle, the heavier grain falls straight down, the ligher chaff floats to one side. Covered With Coat of Brown For the most part, the hulled grains of rice are not white but covered with a coat of brown. This was good eating until the white man's "civilizing" influ ences came along then it was considered "better taste" to rub or beat the grain and with" this By EUGENE BURNS , Ranger-Naturalist "polishing" this outside brown layer was removed. In doing so, some of the most important vita mins were lost and unless this vitamin deficiency is corrected with other foods, beriberi often results. Yet today custom re gards white "polished" rice as preferable after all, isn't it more expensive? Even in the U.S., where rice is planted by airplane, the weeds controlled by airplane "dusting" and the harvesting and thresh ing is done by powered machin ery, this same ignorance holds: in fact, go to your grocer and just see if you can buy the tastier, more nourishing, and healthier unpolished brown rice. (Capyrigh, 1956, by Eugene Burns Released by McClure Newspaper Syndicate) Free: By special arrangement with the editors of the Encyclo pedia Americana, my panel of judges will award each week to the reader who sends me the best true-like nature adventure, the best nature observation, or the best question on nature and wildlife, a complete 30-volume set of this world-famous refer ence work in a handsome Seal craft binding. Each week new submissions will be considered. Sorry, I simply can't answer y o u r many friendly letters. Please address your letter to: IS THAT SO! co Medford Mail Tribune, Box 575, Sausalito, Calif. Central Committee Passes Resolution The Jackson county Repub lican central committee Wednes day passed a resolution express ing sympathy in the death re cently of Robert G. Fowler, for mer county agent and assessor at the time of death. The resolution: "Whereas. Robert G. Fowler has been, for many years, a loyal, devoted and capable public ser vent in Jackson County, Oregon, serving the public in the capacity of County Agent and as County Assessor, and "Whereas, he has been an out standing citizen of high courage, integrity and zeal and has en deared himself to us, and "Whereas, pur Heavenly Fath er on March 18, 1956, has seen fit to remove him from our midst. "Now, therefore, be it resolv ed, as follows: "That we deeply mourn his passing and deplore .the result ing loss which all the people have suffered thereby. "That we tender our 'deep sympathy ,and sense, of loss to his immediate family by sending copies of this resolution and also that we spread a copy hereof on the minutes of this meeting. Done this 28th day of March, 1956." Two Injured Friday In Four-Car Crsah Ashland Two persons were J hurt in a four-car accident just j south of here Friday afternoon. One of the injured was hospital-; ized, according to state police. The pile-up involved four cars, all northbound on Highway 99. j The lead car, driven by Paul ! Fletcher Nichols, 53, El Centro, Calif., stopped for a school 'bus which had halted on the other side of the road. A car driven by Jay Russell Wilson, 43, Port-: land, struck the rear of Nichol's car; a car driven by Wayne W. Dailey", 46, route 1, box 392, Ash land, struck the Wilson car, and a car driven by Dick Lee Dailey, 23, 2970 Diane st., Ashland, struck the Wayne Dailey car, ac cording to the police report. Wilson was taken to Ashland General hospital for treatment of head injuries which were not thought to . be serious. Wayne Dailye suffered possible neck in juries. No others were reported hurt. Two of the cars were towed away from the accident scene, which was near the junction of Clay st. and Highway 99. Breakfast Ride Set For Rogue Rangers - A breakfast ride to Prescott j park on Roxy Ann butte will be j held April 15 by the Rogue j Rangers. ' An advance crew at the park j will prepare a breakfast of , bacon, eggs, potatoes, pancakes, coffee and cocoa for the riders. ! All riding club members and ! public is invited. There will be a $1 breakfast charge for adults j and 50 cents for children under I 12. The Rangers held a skating party at Ashland earlier this ; month attended by about 37 members and guests. A playday was held March 25 ' at the Pierce ranch on Barnett rd. Games were played on horse-: back. lj w MEDFORD ft SENSATIONAL AFTER-EASTER HURRY DOWN TO PENNEY'S TOMORROW!. . . 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