:VoL. VI r. No. 157. 



THE AGRICULTUKAL NEWS. 



U3 



RICE PRODUCTION IN UNITED 

 STATES. 



Extracts from a British Consular Report, describ- 

 ing the methods of cultivation adopted with the rice 

 crop in the United States were given in the last issue 

 of the Agricultural Neirs. The following notes, from 

 the same source, give particulars of methods practised 

 in harve.sting, threshing, cleaning, and polishing the 

 grain, preparatory to placing it on the market : — ■ 



Rice is cut when the straw barely begins to colour, 

 when the lower part of the head (about one-eighth) is still 

 ' in the milk.' If cutting is delayed until the entire head 

 is quite ripe, the quality is inferior and the quantity greatly 

 reduced by the loss incurred by shelling out in handling. 



It is cut 10 or 12 inches from the ground, leaving 

 a high stubble on which the grain is laid to cure. In about 

 twenty-four hours, when the grain is thoroughly dry, it is 

 bound into sheaves, tied with straw and shocked, or stood 

 upright in the sun to dry. As soon as possible, the sheaves 

 are taken in carts and waggons to the threshing null, one 

 of which is placed on each plantation. 



In harvesting, more or less seed falls to the gi-onn<l, 

 especially at places where sheaves Lave been stacked and 

 along the driveway from the fields to the barnyards. The 

 .seed that is not destroyed by sprouting and burning remains 

 in the ground and grows up with the following season's plant- 

 ing. The self-set plant produces red rice, so called because 

 of the pink cuticle ne.xt to the kernel. The great objectii>n to 

 red rice is that it is so soft that it cannot be milled, and is, 

 therefore, unsaleable. The grain scatters out readily, and, 

 re-seeding the field, produces more and niore of its kind. 

 In some instances it has increased so rapidly, and taken so 

 firm a hold of the ground that it has been necessary to leave 

 whole fields idle for a year or more in order to free the 

 ground from the intruder. 



To eradicate red rice the field is flooded imniediately 

 after harvest. This .sprouts the scattered grain. When it 

 has grown up, the field is draiiieil as dry as possible and 

 then burned. 



Threshing is done on nearly all Jllajitations with a steam 

 thresher. The machines are stationary and very large. Thresh- 

 ing mills are erected on canals or on the banks of streams, 

 .in order that boats may come to the' mill and carry the 

 produce to market. In the process of threshing the grain is 

 thoroughly cleansed by fans and screens, which remove all the 

 light and inferior grains, chaff, etc., from the marketable 

 article. This is then carried by elevators inti.i large bins, 

 where it is stored. Great care is taken that the grain be 

 thoroughly dry before threshing. 



The rough rice or paddy, as it is tkken to the mill, has 

 two coverings — a thin, close cuticle, enca.sed by a coar.se, thick, 

 stitt' husk, ililling con.sists in removing the.se coverings. In 

 the process 20 ft), of husks are taken from 100 lb. of paddy. 



The grain is usually brought to null in boats and taken 

 from the boats by elevators. The first operation the paddy 

 undergoes in the mill consists in recleaning, after which it 

 passes between nulling stones, distant f/'om one another by 

 about two-thirds of the length of the ^I'ain. These tear otf 

 the husks, and, as theproditct passes over screens and bellows, 

 the chaft' and grain are separated. The grain is now placeil 

 in mortars, wherein the cuticle is removed by poiuiding with 

 jjestles. When the cuticle is removed the contents of the 

 mortar form an oily mi.xture of lice floiir and chatf. This 

 now passes over ' flour screens,' by means of which all flour is 

 removed. The 'chafi' fan' is then u.sed, and the rice, delivered 

 as clean grain, is run into cooling bin.s. In the preceding 



processes so much heat has been generated that cooling i.s 

 necessary. For about nine hours the grain remains in the cool- 

 ing bin, after which one more separation takes place. By 

 means of ' brush screens ' the large rice is separated from the 

 smaller, and the little flour that has not yet been removed is 

 brushed from the grain. The product is now ready for the 

 final proce.ss — polishing. 



The commercial article is always polished. This consist.s 

 in giving the grain a glossy appearance, and makes much 

 difterence in the market value. The process that gives the 

 gloss removes nuich of the most nutritious parts of the grain 

 including nearly all of the fats and most of the flavour. The 

 food value of rice flour is many times greater than the food 

 \alue of the polished product. Polishing is effected by pieces 

 of skins passing over the rice and by giving a thin, fine coat 

 of parartin. Within a c3'linder of wire gauze revolves ic cylin- 

 der of wood, around which sheep-skins are tacked, woo] inside. 

 This gives a soft surface, over which tanned skin, worked to 

 a velvet-like softness is fastened. The grain, wdth a [liece of 

 paraffin, is put into the large cylinder. The cylinder revolves, 

 and passing the soft surface over the grain gives the pearly 

 lustre. 



TIMBERS OF BRITISH HONDURAS. 



The Mmitldt/ Bulletin of the International Bureau 

 of the American Republics for December last contains 

 some interesting notes on the British Honduras limber 

 supply, from which the following particulars have been 

 extracted : — 



Cabinet wooils are one of the jirincipal export ]iiodui'ts 

 of the republic. The best known are the mahogany and 

 rosewood the former being called the king of the forest, 

 because of its beauty and good condition generally. It grows 

 \evy slowly, and [icrhaps is not fully developed ttntil about 

 200 years olil. Mahogany grows all over the republic, 

 especially in the valleys of the rivers and the lowlands adjacent 

 to the rivers which empty into the Bay of Honduras. 



The cutting season commences in August of each year, 

 since, in the opinion of experts, it is not advisable to fell or 

 cut the trees from April to August. Generally the trees are 

 cut at from 10 to 12 feet fnmi the ground, and to this end 

 a scaflbld has to be prepared for the woodman. Owing to the 

 dimensions of the trunks the latter are considered more valua- 

 ble than the limbs of the tree, but the branches are preferred 

 because of the beauty of their graining and the richness and 

 variety of their stripes. After the trees are cut they are 

 dragged along broad roads to the river into which they are 

 thrf>wn. 



Trade in Honduras woods is developing considerably, and 

 there is no douljt that its iniportance will increase as the 

 supply of wood from the West Indies and the Peninsula of 

 Yucatan decrea.ses, and the demands of the markets of the 

 world increase. In addition to mahogany, there are many 

 varieties of tropical woods in Honduras, such as rosewood, 

 which grows iji abundance on the northern coast ; lignum-vitae, 

 or 'guanaca.ste,' which also grows in profu.sion in the valley of 

 V\ivA, on the bank of the rivef.s, and in Camaguay and other 

 valleys of the republic. Among the dye-woods of Ho)idura.s 

 are yellow wood, yellow- sandid, Brazil wood, dragon blood, 

 Nicaragua or logwood, and arnotto. There are also many 

 rubber trees and medicinal plants, prodttcing gum arable, 

 c<jpaiba, liquid amber, copal, castor oil, ipecacuanha, and 

 caoutchouc The wood most extensively used in the republic i.s 

 resin pine, which deserves special mention, not only on 

 account of its superior quality, but also becau.se of its 

 extraordinary abundance. 



