NIK Mil. I. INC OK KICK. 7 



paying about 50 cents per barrel cash for the milling, in which case 

 he retains the mixed hulls and bran, or of giving 30 cents together 

 with the by-products. The yield of milled rice from a plantation 

 huller approximates 80 pounds per barrel of rough rice of the Hon- 

 duras type. 



MODERN MILLING. 



The large profit formerly derived from the modern rice mill, as 

 well as the rapid extension of rice farming in western Louisiana and 

 Texas during the past 20 years, led to an overconstruction of mills. 

 In 1911 competition, which had become so vigorous as nearly to elimi- 

 nate profits, resulted in the consolidation of about 30 Louisiana mills 

 and the formation of the Louisiana State Rice Milling Company. To 

 secure greater business economy and milling efficiency 12 mills were 

 closed and many of the remaining 18 enlarged. In addition to the 

 30 mills of the Louisiana State Rice Milling Company, there are in 

 Louisiana 11 independent mills, all operating in 1913, of which 8 are 

 in New Orleans. Twenty mills are located in Texas, and all but 

 two were operating in 1913. In Arkansas six mills were running 

 during 1913 and one was closed. Tennessee has one operating mill 

 at Memphis. On the Atlantic coast there are five mills, all of the 

 mortar- and-pestle type, located in North Carolina, South Carolina, 

 and Georgia, but only one of these is at present operating, and that 

 on a very small scale. 



MILLING MACHINERY. 



The milling of wheat and of rice are fundamentally opposite. In 

 milling wheat the chief product, flour, must be ground very fine; 

 in milling rice the grains must be kept as nearly whole as possible. 

 According to the present commercial conception, an efficient rice 

 mill is one which properly cleans, scours, and polishes the rice grains 

 with a minimum amount of breakage. This fact must be kept in 

 mind in the study of each machine. 



Screens and fans. — The rough rice from the thrashers, stored in 

 bags in the warehouse or in bulk in the elevator bin of the rice mill, 

 generally is thoroughly screened and fanned in a combination screen 

 blower before being conducted into the hopper of the hulling stones. 

 Chaff, weed seeds, mud lumps, and other foreign substances are thus 

 removed, which, if present, would damage the machinery or intro- 

 duce impurities into the finished products. 



Hulling stones. — The first real milling operation consists of remov- 

 ing the hulls from the grain between the hulling stones. These latter 

 are a perfected form of those employed in the old mortar-and-pestle 

 mills already described, and differ little from the stones which are 

 widely used for grinding corn. In a modern rice mill of a daily 



