RICARDO
1610
RICHARD I
Ricardo (r%-kdr'dd), David, an eminent political economist, was born of Jewish parentage at London, April 19, 1772. At an early age he became a partner with his father as a stock-broker; but, when he married outside the Jewish race, a misunderstanding arose between them an4 the partnership was dissolved. Young Ricardo then set up in the same business himself, and in a few years realized a large fortune, while preserving an honorable reputation throughput his business career. In 1809 he published The High Price of Bullion a Proof of the Depreciation of Bank-Notes, which was a clear and able argument in favor of a metallic basis for the currency of a country. After publishing a number of other successful pamphlets, Ricardo brought out his greatest work, the one on which his fame chiefly rests: The Principles of Political Economy and Taxation. This work, while not a complete treatise on political economy, may be regarded as a very able discussion of some of its principal factors, as value, wages, rent etc. Ricardo entered Parliament in 1819, and retained his seat in that body until his death, which took place at Gat comb Park, Gloucestershire, Sept. n, 1823.
Rice, the well-known grain of Oryza sativa, extensively cultivated in Asia, where it is also native. The genus belongs to the grass family and contains about 20 described species, and perhaps these may all be considered as varieties of O. sativa. Rice supplies food for more human beings than does the product of any other plant. It is the principal, and often the only, food of millions in China, India and the May-layan Islands. It is the staple crop of China, and two food-crops a year are raised, while a third is plowed under as a green fertilizer. The Chinese do not always grow rice on alluvial flats, but cultivate a dry-soil variety on hill-slopes as if it were an ordinary cereal, only irrigating it. In India between a third and a half of all the land cultivated is given to rice-growing. In Bengal it is the staple crop, and the hill-tribes in all parts of India also raise rice. In 1647 Sir William Berkeley tried to raise rice in Virginia, but the experiment failed. In 1694, however, Thomas Smith of Charleston, S. C., grew almost enough to meet the needs of the colony, and the American rice-industry began. Water-culture began in 1784, and the superiority of American rice was well-established long before 1860. But since 1865 a still better quality has been produced. Before the Civil War Georgia and the Carolinas were the only states in which rice was raised to any great extent. Though they still retain their rice-fields, Louisiana and Texas have taken gigantic steps as growers of rice. In 1900 Louisiana was supplying 80 per cent, of all the rice raised
in the United States. The opening of the Calcasieu country — southwestern Louisiana from Atchafalaya River to Sabine River — called attention to Texas as a possible producer of rice. Experiments resulted so satisfactorily, that in 1905 Louisiana had ceased to raise so enormous a percentage of the American crop. Though Texas before 1900 grew practically no rice, in 1909 it raised 9,894,000 bushels as against Louisiana's 12,675,000. The total crop of the United States that year was 24,368,000 bushels, worth $12,955,748. South Carolina raised 476,792 bushels; Arkansas 1,120,-ooo; Georgia 100,000; Florida 25,000; Alabama 35,000; Mississippi 30,000; and North Carolina 13,000. (Total 24,368,000 bushels, including the yield from Louisiana and Texas.)
American rice-fields consist of reclaimed cypress-swamps and tidewater lands along the coast or of marshes higher up the rivers or in the interior upon level tracts, if these are so situated that they can be easily irrigated. The plant needs high temperature in summer and plenty of water, the amount depending on the strength of the plant and its state of growth. The seed, when planted, is wet thoroughly in order to make sure that it will sprout. When the plant appears, the soil is flooded four or five inches, the water standing till the leaves float. Then it is drawn off, the soil cultivated, and the plant allowed to take firm root. Then it is flooded again, the water staying till the rice is ripe. In order to protect tidal lands against saltwater, which would kill the rice, they are surrounded with dikes which prevent the tide from reaching them and freshets from flooding them.
Rich'ard I of England, surnamed the Lion-Heart, was born at Oxford, Sept. 8, 1157, and by the death of his father, Henry II, became king on July 6, 1189. Being a born soldier and thirsting for military glory, soon after his coronation Richard raised a large force of soldiers with which he joined the third crusade, then about to leave Europe for the Holy Land. He united his forces with those of Philip, king of France, at Vezelai; but at Lyons the two armies, numbering in all about 100,000 men, separated and proceeded by different routes to Sicily, where they again met. Here Richard betrothed Arthur, his nephew, to the infant daughter of Tancred, king of Sicily, with whom he formed a close alliance. On June 4, 1191, Richard reached the camp of the crusaders, then assembled near Acre, and shortly afterward that stronghold surrendered, the siege having lasted two years. Richard's march to Joppa along the seashore, his advance upon Jerusalem at Christmas, his capture of the fortresses in the south of Palestine, his second advance upon Jerusalem (the city he never beheld).
