THE MILLING OF RICE. 



15 



lute accuracy the classes of separated rice, they will serve for com- 

 parison and are more convenient for use in the tables which follow 

 than exact descriptions could be. Furthermore, the ideas to be pre- 

 sented are more readily grasped than if the separations were desig- 

 nated merely by consecutive letters or numbers. The weight of 1,000 

 kernels was determined by counting and weighing 250 of the whole 

 grains, separated as previously described. 



BREAKAGE IN MILLING. 



Unfortunately no figures are available from the literature which 

 show the breakage of rice in the mortar-and-pestle mills. It is 

 asserted, however, that this breakage was surprisingly small, consid- 

 ering the great weight of the iron-clad pestle. The decline in the use 

 of these mills was undoubtedly due to other economic factors, such as 

 their comparatively small daily output, considering the equipment 

 involved, and their incapacity for fine adjustment to suit varying 

 qualities of rice. 



The " plantation hullers," on the other hand, cause great breakage, 

 especially to rice of the Honduras type. The writers have examined 

 samples taken from one lot of the Honduras type and three lots of 

 the Japan type milled in " plantation hullers." Of the Honduras 

 .lot samples were secured of the partly milled grain and of the fin- 

 ished product, while the samples of the Japan type all represent the 

 finished milled rice. 



In Table III special attention is called to the excessive breakage of 

 the rice. The action of the second hulling as well as the first is 

 shown to be very disastrous to the whole-grain content. 



Table III. — Size separation of riee of the Honduras type milled i)i 



hullers." 



plantation 





' 



Grains (per cent). 



Milling stage. 



Whole. 



Three- 

 fourths. 



One-half. 



One- 

 third. 



Less than 

 one-third . 





32. 



12.7 

 8.8 



44.1 

 38.8 



7.0 

 24.8 



4.2 





fl.fi 



18.0 







Fifty-six series of samples of the Honduras type of rice were se- 

 cured from big modern mills in all parts of the rice-growing belts 

 of Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas, representing various grades 

 and qualities of rough rice. Table IV, which follows, has been pre- 

 pared from the figures showing the mechanical analyses of these se- 

 ries. The analytical results for the rough rice have been omitted 

 from the table, as the figures are not easily comparable and have no 

 particular bearing on the phase in question. 



