Cultivation Tropical at www.japanese-home-gardens.com

The wild ancestor of rice has been identified as Orysa sativa, a semiaquatic marsh grass, native to India and tropical southeast Asia. In addition some wild varieties of this species have been reported from tropical Africa. Wild wheat and barley were native to elevated dry lands ai Asia Minor, hence they could not be s^rown in marshy or even in tropical lowlands. Where tie cultivation tropical of rice began is not known, but India seems the most probable place. The oldest civilizations known in India are in the northeast where semiarid lands were favorable to wheat and barley, traces of which appear in the ruins of cities at least 4,000 years old, but no traces of rice have been observed.

In extreme cases, under tropical conditions, delicate soil structures may be replaced by a solid, impenetrable mass called laterite or hardpan. In recent years some countries have proposed the opening up of tropical and subtropical regions to cultivation tropical by clearing away rain forests, such as those of Amazoniain Brazil. The obliteration of the luxuriant but fragile vegetation of the rain forest, which plays a major part in maintaining the oxygen balance of the planet, might lead to an irreversible global catastrophe.

These facts also favor the theory that the cultivation tropical of rice first became established in humid, tropical, marshy lands. Further, the rice growers of India use the plow and harrow with draft animals, employ mechanisms for pumping water to flood their fields, operate hand mills for making rice flour, as well as many other mechanical devices which were known to the ancient wheat growers and probably invented by them; whereas outside of India, especially in many parts of the Philippines, the cultivation tropical of rice is successfully conducted by hand labor with the most primitive, crude tools conceivable.