40 



The World's Commercial Products 



" ears " are cut off separately, leaving the straw standing. When cut the crop is tied up 

 into bundles and placed to dry on "the field, or piled up on the earth banks or arranged over 

 bamboo poles. The crop may now be stored in barns, or in a stack, to be used as required, 

 just as wheat is not necessarily threshed immediately it is reaped", but may be kept for months 

 in the ear. In some countries special rice store-houses are constructed for the careful 

 preservation of the crops. 



The grains are removed by some simple form of threshing, or by drawing the stalks through a 

 narrow slit so that they are pulled off. Each grain is now separate and covered by the 



outer brown or otherwise 

 coloured husk. Rice in this 

 state is called paddy, and 

 may be, and often is, stored 

 in this condition, as it is 

 found to keep better in the 

 tropics than when the husk 

 is removed. Thus it has 

 been noticed that the disease 

 " beri-beri " more frequently 

 attacks the men of a village, 

 away perhaps on a hunting 

 or other expedition, than the 

 women who remain at home. 

 Although nothing is as yet 

 known with certainty on the 

 matter, it is not improbable 

 that the outbreak of the 

 disease may be due to the 

 condition of the rice eaten. 

 The women at home can 

 pound daily the rice they 

 require, whilst the men take a supply of cleaned yice to last the whole time of their expedition. 

 This cleaned rice, being stored for some time, is much more likely to become infested by the 

 fungus which appears to play a part in bringing on beri-beri than the small quantities 

 prepared daily, and hence indicates the wisdom of storing the grain as paddy. Accordingly, 

 in eastern villages where rice is one of the staples of food, the next process — the husking 

 of rice — takes place daily, enough being husked each day to supply immediate wants. 

 The usual process is very simple : a small quantity of the paddy is placed in a wooden 

 or stone mortar and pounded with a pestle or with a large wooden mallet. As will be 

 seen from the .illustrations, pestles and mortars vary greatly in pattern and size in different 

 countries, but the principle is the same. Pounding rice is a very characteristic sound in the 

 East, and is often done to a certain rhythm. The blow from the pestle or mallet cracks the 

 outer husk, and sets free the rice grain which was inside. To separate the grains from the 

 husks or chaff some form of winnowing is adopted. A simple way is to fill one of the curiously 

 shaped baskets — really broad, shallow scoops — see pages 37, 38, and 45, and toss the contents in 

 the air, when the grains fall immediately to the ground, whilst the light husks are carried 

 some little distance by the wind. 



Natives in many parts of the world have displayed considerable ingenuity in devising 

 simple machines to save themselves labour. Sometimes a heavy weight is fastened to a beam 

 so arranged that by stepping on the end of the beam the weight is raised, and by stepping off 

 it is released to deliver its blow on the paddy in the mortar (p. 47). Other devices allow buffaloes 

 to be employed, whilst, with greater advancement in mechanical ingenuity and available 



THE WINNOWING MACHINE IS NOT UNKNOWN IN JAPAN 



