36 RECENT FOEEIGN EXPLORATIONS. 



complete the milling- process. There is no charge for milling", the 

 hulls and bran being considered by the natives full compensation. 

 As late as 181>1 there were only two modern power mills in India. 

 Most of the rice exported to Europe from Bengal is cargo rice, four- 

 fifths husked and one-fifth padd3\ It is claimed by shippers that cargo 

 rice is not as liable to heat on shipboard as that completely milled. 

 In Burma the grower markets all his rice in the paddj" and in bulk, 

 except such as goes b}' rail, which must be sacked. The larger part 

 is delivered by boat, and is carried to the mills in baskets by coolies. 

 It is weighed and delivery actually takes place in the mills. At first 

 the mills were merely husking mills to prepare the large crop of paddj^ 

 for export, but gradually other processes were added until complete 

 modern milling plants were equipped. The hulling stones in the best 

 mills are made of emery. Some of the machines are cruder than 

 simihir machines in the United States, but they appear to do the work 

 satisfactorily. Permission was freel}' granted to inspect the Kemen- 

 dine mill in Rangoon, which has a daily milling capacit}^ of 500 tons 

 of rice for native use or 300 tons for Europeans. A larger mill has 

 just been completed for the same company. The Kemendine does no 

 custom milling. The paddy is bought and the milled product sold on 

 the market. There are over fifty mills in Rangoon, and many of them 

 do custom work. The usual price for custom milling ranges from 2i 

 to 3f cents per bushel, or an average of 11 cents per barrel, giving the 

 farmers all the by-product. The breakage in milling for native use 

 amounts to 6i pounds per hundred. For European use or for export 

 rice milling the charges are 18 cents per barrel. The laborers 

 employed are mostlv Tamils from Madras, who are paid from 2-1 to 32 

 cents per day. Women employed in the rice mills are paid 12 to 16 

 cents per day. Most of the mills use the hulls for fuel. Over 

 21,000,000 barrels of paddy rice were milled last season at Rangoon 

 for foreign account. This furnished a large amount of l)ran and pol- 

 ish, which the thrifty Chinese in Burma and the Straits Settlements 

 bu}^ and feed to pigs and cattle. Many mills are owned by Chinese. 

 Last 3"ear Burma furnished about 2,000,000 tons of cleaned rice for 

 exj^ort. 



RICE FOR FOREIGN :\IARKETS. 



India and Burma rice is not generally raised on a commercial basis. 

 Each farmer or tenant produces enough for home consumption, and 

 the surplus is sold for whatever it will bring. If the j^rice falls ever 

 so low just the same amounts are produced and placed on the market. 

 It is true that if rice is abundant and cheap in India home consump- 

 tion is increased. Rice is raised in those countries commercially very 

 much as eggs are generally produced in the United States. No account 

 is kept of the expenses, and it is sold regardless of cost. Where no 

 cash wages are paid it is impossible to determine the cost of production. 



