8o 



CEREALS 



mildews and heats very readily. It is probable that 

 Burma rice in the husk (which contains about nj per 

 cent, moisture) would go wrong if stored in bins in the 

 condition in which it reaches Rangoon, and in the 

 presence of the high humidity and temperature there 

 encountered. But research work and some interesting 

 experience acquired with rape seed in recent years have 

 shown that the organisms that cause this form of trouble 

 are inhibited by drying. It remains to be seen whether 

 great masses of rice could be profitably treated with 

 modern drying appliances, and whether dehydrated air 

 should be employed in view of the high temperatures 

 and humidities encountered at some times and places in 

 India. 



At all events, the chart I have given (Chart 3) leaves 

 no doubt that the present system must glut the market. 

 Rice, like all similar materials, is wanted in constant 

 volume in the consuming markets. But not only does 

 Burma throw the bulk of her rice on the markets at one 

 time, but her doing so synchronizes with the arrivals of 

 the mass of the rice from the other principal sources. 

 The principal sources lie north of the Equator. The 

 Dutch East Indies lie south of the Equator, and the rice 

 harvest there is some six months later than in India, 

 Saigon, etc. Java rice, therefore, comes on the European 

 markets when they are bare, and it consequently sells at 

 a premium very much greater than can be accounted for 

 by its superiority. It remains for merchants and millers 

 in Burma to consider whether it would pay to dry rice 

 to safety point, to hold it in bins, and to send it forward 

 when the glut of other rices was over. This operation 

 would appear to offer the advantage that before the time 

 for export had arrived the "rains" would have defined 

 themselves for good or ill, and the holder would be able 

 to choose between the foreign and the Indian markets. 



There is no time at present to go at length into the 

 engaging habits of that prolific and pervasive insect 

 called the weevil, or to describe the devices that we are 

 adopting to circumvent him. No food-grain seems to 

 be immune to his activities ; and if only 5 per cent, of 

 India's food-grains are destroyed by him, the total loss 



