105 



Percentage of ash in loliole pJant. 



Parts of plant. 



Ash, per 

 cent. 



In the stubble and root 

 In the straw and leaves 

 in the hull 



In the cotyledon and epidermis 

 In the clean rice 



36.08 

 36.08 

 14.20 

 11.07 

 1.94 



Total 



10 



Calling the mineral matter in the paddy 100 per cent we have : 

 Percentage of ash in parldy rice. 



Parts of fruit. 



Ash, per 

 cent. 



In the husk 



In the cotyledon and epidermis 

 In the clean riee 



51.01 

 42.03 

 6.96 



Total 



IdO 



The planter who burns his straw and sells his rice in the paddy loses 

 63 92 per cent of the total mineral matter of the crop. If the rice 

 straw and the hulls be returned to the soil as manure, 86.36 per cent 

 of the mineral matter of the crop will be restored, and the loss would 

 be only 13.64 per cent. The presan' method of burning rice hulls can 

 not be too severely condemned, but doubtless will be continued as long 

 as rice is sold in the paddy. Rice milling machinery is too expensive 

 and too complicated to be successfully and profitably operated upon 

 the farms, but hulling is a process requiring very simple and inexpen- 

 sive machinery. It can be done profitably upon the farm, and is done 

 in most of the great rice-producing countries. There is further 

 advantage in removing the hull before shipment to market. Both the 

 miller and the farmer can with greater exactness determine the quality 

 of the grain. All uncertainty as to quality operates against the seller. 

 Any broken rice resulting from the hulling would be retained and fed 

 upon the farm. Chalky or sun-cracked grains, instead of decreasing 

 the price of the entire crop, would generally break under the hulling 

 process and be separated from the solid kernels, which would then sell 

 for more than sufficient to compensate for any decrease in quantity. 

 Such a system of marketing would require the planters to have good 

 storage and do the hulling gradually through the year, as the product 

 was required for milling. If the entire crop hulled should be placed 

 upon the market at one time, as now, there would be great danger of 

 destruction by the rice weevil while stored. The hard husk of paddy 

 rice presents formidable difficulties to the attack of the weevil. 



