Cultivation Experiments with Chinese Mountain Rice in the Bozen District in 1820

Appendix.

Economy.

On the results of the planting experiments with Chinese mountain rice in the year 1820 in the Bozen district.

The experiments begun in 1819 with the planting of Chinese mountain rice were continued in this country in 1820, and in so far as the Bozen district is concerned, we are in a position to communicate the following information:

The entire seed stock of the District Captain, Ritter v. Hauer, consisted of 590 grains of genuine Chinese mountain rice, 451 grains already produced in Bozen, and 24 grains produced in Hungary, which were distributed by him among 18 farmers. However, only 8 growers were fortunate enough to obtain actual yields.

In the mountain villages of Castelruth, Gufidaun, Ritten, Schlanders, Kaltern, and Sarnthal, the experiments failed completely; the very cold climate of these areas, which damages the seeds by frost in early planting and does not offer sufficient time for ripening in late planting, along with the unusually frequent cold winds and rain in the past year, as well as localized hailstorms, were the causes of this failure.

The places where this planting succeeded, however, were Bozen, Andrian, Mittellana, Meran, and Tramin.

The results of the experiments are as follows: out of 211 seed grains of genuine Chinese origin, 88 germinated, yielding a total of 16,633 grains, thus multiplying by an average of 189 times.

Out of 204 grains of such mountain rice produced in Bozen in 1819, 34 grains germinated, bearing 1,320 grains, thus multiplying on average by 39 times. Finally, out of 24 grains produced in Hungary in 1819, 9 grains germinated, yielding a harvest of 2,292 grains, thus multiplying by 255 times.

The planting took place in all these experiments in April and March of last year; it also deserves mention that those grains planted in Tramin stood under the water of the Adige twice for 13 days, which, however, did not harm them.

These experiments will be made in the coming year by the active District Captain Mr. v. Hauer in Bozen with a larger stock in three different places in the Bozen valley plain, the results of which will then be made publicly known without delay through these pages.

We reserve the right to deliver the general remarks on the cultivation of this mountain rice in the Bozen district to our readers subsequently, and at the same time cannot hide the wish that all other farmers who made experiments with the cultivation of this rice in the past year might also bring their results together with their remarks to the knowledge of the government as soon as possible.