8 THE TEXAS RICE BOOK. 



made that a 6-inch tube has been pu!; down to the full depth re- 

 quired -200 feet in 14 hours. 



The total cost of a well or wells and pumping outfit sufficient 

 for 200 acres of rice is from $1500 to $2000, and for 500 acres 

 about $3500, or $7 per acre. It is probable that over 50,000 acres 

 of rice will be irrigated by wells the ensuing season. The cost 

 of such irrigation is from $i to $2 per acre for the season, de- 

 pending upon the cost of fuel and other conditions. Where plan- 

 tations are remote from timber and the railroad, the gasoline en- 

 gine will be used. Since it has been found possible to transmit 

 electricity with very small loss to distant motors the plan has 

 been in contemplation to equip ten or twenty thousand acres with 

 wells and electric motors, and furnish power from a central plant 

 using the same power for milling the rice, when not in use for 

 pumping. 



The evolution in milling rice has been as great as "he pro- 

 duction. 



PRIMITIVE RICE MILLING. 



The primitive method of milling rice was to place a small 

 quantity in a hollow stone or block of wood and pound it with a 

 pestle. The blow with the pestle cracked the hull, and the fric- 

 1ion created by the sliding motion of the rice under the blow re- 

 moved the hull and the cuticle. The bran and hulls were then 

 removed by winnowing. The first advance upon this primitive 

 mechanical process was to take the receptacle for the rice out of 

 a short section of a hollow log, using a heavy wooden pounder, 

 bound to a horizontal beam 6 to 8 feet long, resting on a fulcrum 

 4 to 5 feet from the pounder. The pounder was raised by step- 

 ping on the short end of the beam, and by suddenly removing the 

 weight the pounder dropped into the rice tub and delivered a 

 blow. 



As one passes along the street in an oriental city, a peculiar 

 sound is brought to the ear as of a blow delivered upon some 

 yielding substance. Looking to the right or left one sees a rice 

 mill, consisting of a one-man power, jumping on and off the 

 beam of the pounder and one one-woman power at a crude fan- 

 ning mill cleaning the grain. Such a mill cleans about 11 bush- 

 els (a trifle over 3 barrels) of paddy rice per day, at a cost of 6 

 cents (gold) per barrel. 



Where practicable water power is used to turn an over-shot 

 wheel, which is geared to a long horizontal shaft with arms at 

 distances apart equal to that of the rice pounders. 



In every mountain village in Japan such mills may be found 

 preparing the rice for local consumption. They usually have 

 about eight pounders and mill 96 bushels daily, or 26 2-3 barrels, 

 of paddy rice, at a cost of about 2 cents per barrel, which is more 

 than paid for by the offal. In cities steam power is used, ar-cl the 

 number of pounders greatly increased, but the process is practi- 

 cally unchanged. 



