RICE 



6603 



RICE-PAPER PLANT 



Rice. Coolies planting rice in the flooded fields on a Japanese plantation 



deficient in gliadin, the form of 

 gluten whose stickiness enables 

 wheat-flour to be converted by 

 fermentation into dough. Hence 

 rice-flour cannot be used for bread- 

 making. Rice food takes the form 

 of boiled or baked unleavened 

 grain, whole, broken, or ground. In 

 temperate climates. including 

 China, fatty and nitrogenous ele- 

 ments are habitually added. 



The commercial preparation of 

 rice demands complex mechanical 

 processes. Threshed grain or padd y, 

 after sifting and winnowing, yields 

 clean paddy, which by hulling is 

 separated into husked or cargo 

 rice, and husk. Husked rice is 

 separated by skinning into white 

 rice, and meal or bran. Polishing 

 of the white rice produces the 

 form preferred by European popu- 

 lations. It may also be coated or 

 glazed. The final yield is : polished, 

 44 p.c. ; broken, 24 p.c. ; dust, 

 3 p.c. ; meal and polish, 9 p.c. ; 

 husk, 20 p.c. 



Besides furnishing to the dietary 

 of mankind a larger contribution 

 than any other foodstuff, rice is 

 used in the manufacture of starch, 

 vinegar, and other commodities. 

 In Japan it yields an alcoholic 

 drink called sake, there being 

 20,000 breweries with an annual 

 output of 150,000,000 gallons. 

 Bran and polish are sold for 

 cattle -food as rice meal. In 

 Burma, the husk, forming one- 

 fifth of the weight of the paddy 

 crop, is used as fuel in specially 

 designed furnaces, or is converted 

 into producer gas. 



The world production of cleaned 

 rice, as estimated by the Imperial 

 Institute in 1920, is : 



British. India, 35,079,000; Egypt, 

 366,000; other parts of the Empire, 

 373,000 ; total, 35,818,000 tons. 



Non - British. Japan, 8,177,000 ; 

 Netherlands E. Indies, 4,244,000; 

 French Indo-China, 3,500.000; Siam, 

 2,500.000 ; Korea, 1,758,000 ; Formosa, 

 647,000; rest of Asia, 981,000 ; Mada- 

 gascar, 450,000; America. 957,000; 

 Europe, 474,000 ; total, 23,688,000 tons. 



Alice Hegan Rice, 

 American novelist 



China is excluded because re- 

 liable figures are lacking ; its pro- 

 duction is assumed to be almost 

 equal to that of India. The bulk of 

 the world's rice crop is consumed in 

 the countries of production. The 

 total exportable surplus for all 

 countries is only 6,400,000 tons. 

 See Plants, col. plate. 



Rice, ALICE HEGAN (b. 1870). 

 American novelist. Born at Shel- 

 byville, Ky., her maiden name was 

 Hegan, and her 

 husband, Cole 

 Young Rice, 

 wrote many 

 poems and 

 poetic dramas. 

 She is best 

 known as the 

 author of the 

 popular Mrs. 

 Wiggs of the 

 Cabbage 

 Patch, 1901. She also wrote Lovey 

 Mary, 1903 ; Sandy, 1905 ; Captain 

 June, 1907; Mr. Opp, 1909; A 

 Romance of Billy-Goat Hill, 1912 ; 

 and Quin, 1921. Several of her 

 stories were translated into Ger- 

 man, French, etc., and Mrs. Wiggs 

 proved a success in America and 

 England in dramatised form. 



Rice, EDMUND IGNATIUS (1762- 

 1844). Irish philanthropist. Born 

 near Callan, co. Kilkenny, he was 

 for several years in business at 

 Waterford. About 1796 he began 

 to take an active interest in the 

 poor of the town, and in 1802 

 opened a free day school for poor 

 children. Other schools followed, 

 and, with a few friends, he founded 

 the religious order of the Christian 

 Brothers (q.v. ). The movement 

 spread to England and Australia 

 before his death at Waterford, 

 Aug. 29, 1844. 



Rice, JAMES (1843-82). British 

 novelist. Born at Northamp- 

 ton, Sept. 26, 1843, and educated 

 at Queens' College, Cambridge, he 

 became a barrister, 1871, and took 

 up journalism. In 1879 he published 



James Rice, 

 British novelist 



a History of the 

 British 'Turf, 

 a n eminently 

 readable if not 

 strictly histori- 

 cal work. His 

 fame rests, 

 however, on his 

 collaboration 

 in the writing 

 of novels with 

 Walter, after- 

 wards Sir Walter, Besant, a partner- 

 ship which began with Ready Money 

 Mortiboy in 1872. Among other 

 novels written in collaboration are 

 This Son of Vulcan, 1876; The 

 Golden Butterfly, 1876, the most 

 successful of all; The Chaplain of 

 the Fleet, 1881 ; and The Seamy 

 Side, 1881. He died at Redhill 

 April 26, 1882. 



Rice Bird. Popular name for 

 the bobolink (q.v. ). The name is 

 also applied to the Java sparrow, 

 commonly seen in aviaries. 



Rice Flower (Pimelea). Genus 

 of trees and shrubs of the natural 

 order Thymelaeaccae, natives of 



Rice Flower. Stalks of foliage and 

 flowers of the Australasian shrub 



Australasia. They have opposite 

 or scattered leaves, and tubular 

 flowers, mostly in clusters or 

 dense heads, at the tips of the 

 annual shoots. They are largely 

 cultivated as greenhouse plants, 

 the best known being Pimdia 

 spcctabilis with white flowers in 

 dense globular heads, surrounded 

 by bracts with coloured margins. 

 Pimdia ferruginea has similar 

 heads of rosy flowers. 



Rice Paper. Thin, delicate 

 paper used by Eastern artists. It 

 is made from the pith of Fatsia 

 papyri/era, which grows wild in 

 Formosa, also from an aeschyneme 

 of China. Good artificial flowers 

 are made from the paper. The 

 Japanese also make a paper from 

 rice straw. See Paper. 



Rice-paper Plant (Fatsia papy- 

 rifera). Shrub of the natural order 

 Araliaceae. A native of Formosa, 

 it grows to a height of about 8 ft., 

 and has large, lobed, downy leaves 



