Edible Products, 



418 



[November, 1909. 



— i.e., sowing broadcast — it will take a 

 bushel (60 lb. of paddy) to the acre, the 

 seed being harrowed and treated in the 

 same manner as oats or wheat in the 

 after cultivation. But the plan most 

 generally adopted, and by far the best, 

 is plarting the rice in drills 2 ft. 6 in. or 

 3 ft. apart, and about 10 to 12 in. between 

 the plants, which may be done success- 

 fully with an automatic seeder. By this 

 method, about 35 to 40 lb. seed to the 

 acre are required. It ensures the crop 

 being more even and not so patchy as 

 when sown broadcast, and allows a 

 better chance of going through the crop 

 with hoe or cvltivator to remove any 

 weeds that may have made their appear- 

 ance before the rice hns got fairly 

 started. The system of planting in 

 nursery beds and transplanting out is 

 adopted chiefly in planting swamp rice 

 or the Aman variety ; but, as this 

 system of planting entails a lot of labour, 

 I do not think it will ever come into 

 active operation in this State. The 

 mode of operations with this variety is 

 briefly as follows :— Beds are prepared 

 according to the area to be planted ; a 

 bed about 20 ft. long and 6 ft. wide will 

 be amply large enough to grow plants 

 for a quarter of an acre, the beds being 

 well made and enriched, so as to produce 

 vigorous plants. Sow the seed and rake 

 in carefully, watering at certain in- 

 tervals. Care must be taken to keep the 

 plauts growing. When the plants are 

 about 6 in. high they are ready foi 

 transplanting to their permanent beds, 

 which is done by making holes about 

 10 in. to 1 ft. apart in the rows 

 and 2 ft. 6 in between the rows. But, as 

 before pointed out, this is a most tedious 

 and costly mode of planting, and the 

 labour involved is a serious item for 

 consideration. You might as well try to 

 transplant a field of oats or wheat, and 

 expect to get a profit. So that it will be 

 easily seen the planting in drills is at 

 once the most economical and systematic, 

 besides being the one most generally 

 adopted. 



Harvesting the Crop. 

 This was a difficult matter to under- 

 take with the rice formerly planted in 

 the Logan district, the China and some 

 of the Japan varieties being so brittle 

 that when ripe the least touch caused 

 the grains to drop off with a consequent 

 loss of seed. This has been happily 

 overcome to a certain extent by the 

 better variety planted. Not only does 

 the White Java give better facility for 

 harvesting, but the straw is of a better 

 colour and quality, of a good length, 

 averaging from 4 ft. to 5 ft., and in good 

 land even 6 ft. is no unusual length ; and 



no more fairer or gratifying sight to 

 the farmer's eyes can be imagined than 

 the rich appearance of a rice field ready 

 for harvesting : this is whilst the stalks 

 have still a bronze-green appearance, 

 the heads have turned a golden brown, 

 about half-way down, and appear what 

 a wheat farmer or an inexperienced 

 person would deem three-parts ripe. 

 The heads of rice, heavy with grain, 

 have a graceful, drooping appearance; 

 as many as thirty to forty heads have 

 been produced from a single grain 

 planted — the product weighing from 

 10 oz. to 14 oz. By cutting some varieties 

 of rice in this state, the loss is not so 

 great as with over-ripe grain. The 

 cutting is begun in the morning as soon 

 as the dew is off, the rice being bound 

 up into very small bundles, ready to be 

 threshed as soon as possible (which will 

 be explained later on). Rice is never 

 left stocked in the field, but is treated as 

 quickly as possible. 



The usual method pursued in harvest- 

 ing is to cut with the ordinary sickle or 

 reaping-hook, although where large 

 areas are now being planted it is thought 

 that the latest inventions of wheat- 

 harvesting machinery could be used 

 most effectively. A slight alteration in 

 the reaper and binder might be required 

 in the way of lighter and broader wheels 

 on the rich soft rice lauds, but other- 

 wise I see no difficulty in the harvesting. 

 At all events, it is the intention of the 

 writer to induce some firm to make a 

 trial at next harvesting as an experi- 

 ment, and if successful a machine will 

 doubtless be obtained on co-operative 

 lines for the use of the district. After 

 cutting with the sickle, the rice is 

 gathered into bundles and carted into 

 the barn or shed, or, if not sufficiently 

 dry, is left for a day or so to ripen ; but 

 this is not often the case, experience 

 having taught our farmers the right 

 time to cut, and it is generally taken 

 to the barn at once for stripping or 

 threshing. 



Threshing the Rice. 



Where there are large quantities, this 

 can be done with the ordinary flail 

 on a threshing-floor, but other systems 

 are in vogue where only small quan- 

 tities are grown. One plan of thresh- 

 ing is by driving four forks into the 

 ground, about 4 or 5 ft. apart iu width 

 and lO or 12 ft. long, placing two 

 long saplings lengthways and two cross- 

 ways. Over these a sheet or tarpaulin 

 is placed to hang and form a sort of 

 long trough. In the centre, resting 

 on the cross pieces, a rough kind of 

 ladder is placed, and the bundles of rice 



