MISCELLANEOUS CROPS 61i 



These figures show that the high wages paid in the United States 

 need not stand in the way of the extension of the industry. 



Yield of Rice. The yield of rice varies with conditions of soil 

 and climate and methods of culture. The commercial standard 

 weight of "rough rice" is 45 pounds to the bushel. The product is 

 usually put up in sacks or barrels of 162 pounds each. A barrel is a 

 definite quantity 162 pounds. A sack is an indefinite quantity, but 

 usually contains from 150 to 200 pounds. In South Carolina and 

 Georgia the average yield is given as 8 to 12 barrels. Good lands 

 properly managed will give a considerably larger yield. Rice crops 

 on the lowlands along the Mississippi have been produced as high as 

 30 barrels (4,860 pounds) of rough rice per acre. This was upon good 

 land that had been in peas and had been fall plowed with 6-mule 

 teams. The average product per acre on the lower coast (Mississippi 

 River) will not exceed 8 barrels, and 12 barrels is considered a good 

 crop. The yield in southwestern Louisiana is said by good authority 

 to range from 8 to 18 barrels per acre. 



Rice Milling. The rice as it comes from the thrasher is known 

 as "paddy" or "rough rice." It consists of the grain proper with its 

 close-fitting cuticle roughly inclosed by the somewhat stiff, hard husk. 

 The object of milling is to produce cleaned rice by removing the husk 

 and cuticle and polishing the surface of the grain. The hulls or chaff 

 constitute from 12 to 25 per cent of the weight of the paddy, depend- 

 ing on the variety and condition. 



Modern Methods. The improved processes of milling rice are 

 quite complicated. The paddy is first screened to remove trash and 

 foreign particles. The hulls, or chaff, are removed by rapidly revolv- 

 ing "milling stones" set about two-thirds of the length of a rice grain 

 apart. The product goes over horizontal screens and blowers, which 

 separate the light chaff and the whole and broken kernels. The 

 grain is now of a mixed yellow and white color. To remove the outer 

 skin the grain is put in huge mortars holding from 4 to 6 bushels 

 each and pounded with pestles weighing 350 to 400 pounds. Strange 

 to say, the heavy weight of the pestles breaks very little grain. 



When sufficiently decorticated the contents of the mortars, con- 

 sisting now of flour, fine chaff, and clean rice of a dull, filmy, creamy 

 color, are removed to the flour screens, where the flour is sifted out; 

 and thence to the fine-chaff fan, where the fine chaff is blown out. 

 On account of the heat generated by the heavy friction al process 

 through which it has just passed, the rice next goes to the cooling 

 bins. It remains here for eight or nine hours, and then passes to the 

 brush screens, whence the smallest rice and what little flour is left 

 pass down on one side and the larger rice down the other. 



Polishing. The grain is now clean and ready for the last 

 process polishing. This is necessary to give the rice its pearly lus- 

 ter, and it makes all the difference imaginable in its appearance. The 

 polishing is effected by friction against the rice of pieces of moose 

 hide or sheepskin, tanned and worked to a wonderful degree of soft- 

 ness, loosely tacked around a revolving double cylinder of wood and 

 wire gauze. From the polishers the rice goes to the separating screens, 



