CHAPTER X 



MINOR CEREALS, OIL-BEARING AND LEGUMINOUS SEEDS 

 AND THEIR BY-PRODUCTS 



I. RICE AND ITS BY-PRODUCTS 



The production of rice, Oryza sativa, is steadily increasing in Louisiana, 

 Texas, Arkansas, and California, where it already forms an important 

 industry. In 1921 about 34,724,000 bushels of rice, over 99 per ct. of 

 the entire crop of the United States, was produced in these states. 1 

 Like wheat, this cereal is used almost entirely for human food, only the 

 by-products from the manufacture of polished rice (table rice) being 

 fed to farm animals. 



234. Eice and its by-products. In preparing rough rice, often called 

 paddy, for human food, first the hulls are removed and next the rice bran, 

 consisting of the germ and the outer skin of the kernel. The kernels 

 are then " polished," both to separate the creamy outside layer of cells, 

 rich in crude protein and fat, and to produce an attractive, pearly luster. 

 The resulting floury particles form rice polish. A "barrel" of rough 

 rice, weighing 162 Ibs., will yield about 101 to 106 Ibs. of polished rice, 

 4 to 6 Ibs. of rice polish, 13 to 22 Ibs. of rice bran, and 29 to 34 Ibs. of 

 hulls, with a wastage of 3 to 5 Ibs. 2 



Rice hulls are tasteless, tough, and woody. They are heavily charged 

 with silica, or sand, and have sharp, roughened, flinty edges and needle- 

 like points. It has been claimed that they are irritating and danger- 

 ous to the walls of the stomach and intestines. 3 They are digested to 

 only a small extent by animals, and furnish but about one-third as 

 much digestible nutrients as wheat straw. They should therefore never 

 be fed to farm animals. Yet they have been extensively used by un- 

 scrupulous dealers for adulterating mixed feeds, and are sometimes 

 ground and sold as "husk meal" or "Star bran." 



Rice bran when pure is composed of the outer layer of the rice ker- 

 nel proper, together with the germs, and a small amount of hulls not 

 separated in the milling process. This feed, when adulterated with hulls, 

 is called "commercial bran." Unadulterated bran, which contains only 

 about 12 per ct. fiber, is a highly nutritious feed, as not enough hulls 

 are present to be injurious. It contains about 11 per ct. fat, and approx- 

 imately as much protein as barley or wheat, but less nitrogen-free extract. 

 As rice oil, or fat, soon becomes rancid, the bran is frequently distasteful 

 to animals. The Louisiana Station employed rice bran successfully as 

 half the concentrates for horses and mules, and it was found satisfactory 



'U. S. Dept. Agr. Crop Reporter. 3 Tex. Bui. 191. 8 La. Bui. 77. 



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