364 
THF TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [November r, 1889. 
great as that of the former eight years, was still con 
siderable, the total being 294,673, of which 170,306 tons 
were Rangoon, 80,295 Akyab, 34,206 Bassein, and 9,866 
Moulmein; showing that while the Akyab had decreased 
by 18,456, the Rangoon had considerably more than 
doubled its total number of tons. During the next nine 
years (1879) the totals are 594,500, showing an increase 
of 524,680 tons for twenty-five years. 
In all probability the time is not very distant when 
the bulk of Burmese rice will be conveyed to European 
porta by the rapid and safe agency of steam vessels. 
It seems that about five-sixths of the rice imported 
into England is shipped from Burma, the quantity of 
lice shipped from the ports of India being comparatively 
email. 
During the year 1880 the exports from Burma into 
Europe reached 617,000 tons, viz : — 
To Great Britain 315,000 
To the Continent 302,000 
617,000 
It would thus appear that the people on the Continent 
are more of a rice-eating race than we are in Great Bri- 
tain, as the former consume nearly all that they import, 
whereas a large proportion of the imports into Great 
Britain are again exported in its cleaned state to dif- 
ferent countries. It is calculated, indeed, that niDe- 
•ixteenths of the crop sent to Europe is disposed of on 
the Continent. 
We shall now glance very shortly at some peculiarities 
of the different kinds of rice. Patna rice takes longest 
to boil ; it is hard and brittle. Java is similar, very 
highly finished and pretty to look at. Carolina is like 
Java in appearance, but hardly any is now imported to 
England, That sold as such is either Java or " Paris 
dressed" rice, i. e., some other rice polished with bees- 
wax to make it look like Carolina. Waxed rice seems 
a curious thing, yet it is now in the market. It 
ap pears that one or two per cent, of beeswax adds a 
peculiar lustre to rice, and makes it look so pretty 
hat the Dutch are profiting much by preparing it for 
English use. So much favour, indeed, does this waxed 
rice receive over the plain and genuine article that 
Carolina rice is actually sent over from England to 
Holland to be waxed, and is returned to Eogland in its 
" transformed deformed " condition to be sold at a high 
prioe as the finest Java. So much do appearances avail 
in such matters, and so gullible is the English public 
even in the all-important matter of food. Much that 
has been written against the food value of rice (which 
in reality shows only the necessity of a mixed diet) 
may be disposed of by showing the estimation in which 
it is held as a food by the people who eat it. In 
Southern India a working man indicates his prosperity 
by telling how often he can afford to eat rice, " once 
or twice daily, or weekly." Or to take larger statistics, 
the Burma export during the last thirty years has 
increased by £9,000,000, and the Italian crop last year 
■was valued at £5,000,000. If the proof of the (rice) 
pudding is in the eating, these figures showing the 
increasing popularity prove a great deal. 
The consumption in England, as we have seen, is 
small as compared with that on the Continent. Here 
it competes with potatoes ; people do not like to pay 
twopence per pound for rice when potatoes are a penny, 
but some shrewd housewives have found out that pota- 
toes at the same price as rice are four times as dear, 
and here is the scientific proof of it : — 
Water. Flesh-formers. Starch, &c. Total Food. 
Rice 13 6.5 80 86.5 
Potatoes 75 1.4 22.6 24.0 
This shows that 1 lb. of rice contains 3§ times as 
much food as 1 lb. of potatoes. Taking into account 
the loss in peeling potatoes, 1 lb. of rice is worth 4 l.b 
of potatoes ; and, as rice absorbs three times its weight 
of water in boiling, the 1 lb. of rice, costiug d., when 
boiled equals 4 lb. of potatoes, costing 4d,, in bulk and 
weight, and exceeds them in food value. 
Hassall states that rice is the most easily digested 
food known ; it will disappear in the stomach in one 
hour. The smallneKB and regularity of its starch-grains 
probably give rice this valuable property of being so 
easily digested. It is therefore, very remarkable that 
rice flour i the most valuable of all the farinas in food 
value, cheapness, and digestibility, which is so much 
used in America aud in Frauce as food for invalids and 
infants, where it is known as Oreme de Riz, is almost 
unknown in England for the same purposes. Its value 
may be seen by the following table : — 
Flesh-formers. Starch. Price per lb. 
Cornflour ... 0 100 5Jd. 
Arrowroot... 1 99 6d. to 9d. 
Tapioca ... 2 98 5d. 
Rice flour ... 6.5 93.5 2d. 
If it were only patented as a food for children and 
invalids, and called by some Greek name, it might pos- 
sibly command a ready sale. 
Sufficient attention has not been called to the danger 
of feeding children exclusively on those " starch foods " 
that contain little or no nitrogenous matter. Dr Bart- 
lett, in his evidence before the Adulteration Committee 
of the House of Commons, io 1874, stated that numer- 
ous instances of children reduced to skiu and bone 
from being fed with corn flour had come under this 
notice. 
Rice flour, which might well be used for food, has a 
prejudice against it, and in England is use! principally 
for "sizing" Manchester guods. It is sou-lit after 
however, for mixing with wheateu flour for bread-making 
both to bring up the colour and in times of a damp 
harvest as an " absorbent," to improve the rising pro- 
perties of the bread flour. Granulated or " ground 
rice " is made by crushing rice small between smooth 
iron rollers. It is used only for makmg light puddings 
and confectionery. 
Rice meal is used for cattle, poultry, and pig feeding, 
never for human food, because the taste is bitter and 
unpalatable. It is so little known, as compared with 
Indian meal that although its food value, as shown 
below, is better, it can be generally bought at two-thirds, 
the price — i.e., when Indian meal is quoted at 6s, rice 
meal cau be bought at 4s. 
Rice Meal. Indian Meal. 
Moisture 8.80 12.00 
Oil and fatty matter ... 9.50 7.00 
Albuminous compounds 12.75 11.00 
Starch, cellulose, &e. . . . 64.85 68. 50 
Ash 4.00 1.50 
In some markets — Derbyshire, for instance — rice meal 
has all its own way ; in Yorkshire it is almost unknown. 
The British farmer has a prejudice against feeding his 
stock on food that his ancestors have not used before 
him. Indian meal has had a long fight for it. Rice 
meal is competing, and in good time its cheapness and 
food value will be recognised. 
Lastly, the husk. Such husk as is quite clean and 
free from rice meal and rice is sold partly for Holland, 
where it is used for packing gin and nams. It is more 
elastic than sawdust, and does not so readily shift in ihe 
packing-cases with the motion of travelling. Part is 
ground into fine meal for the provender dealers, who 
use it for mixing with linseed cake, Indiau meal, rice 
meal, and other feeding stuffs, and a large quantity is 
exported to the Continent yearly for the same purpose. 
The coarser ground strude, called the strude bran, is 
sold for polishing tin plates, the large amount of silica 
it contains making it valuable for this purpose. As 
ground strude contains only fifty per cent, of feeding 
matter, a small proportion added to rice meal soon 
brings down the food value. If farmers were to coa- 
sult their interests, they would buy rice meal either 
direct from the maker, or, if from a dealer, on a given 
analysis guaranteed, then a pure article and money 
value could be depended upon. 
FINE VS. MEDIUM PLUCKING OF TEA 
The remarks of " Sigiriya " on this subject are in- 
teresting, but we regret that he should elect to take 
no part in the discussion because we and many of 
your correspondents have arrived at the conclusion 
that the system of fine plucking is altogether indefen- 
sible. As regards the test to which we alluded, where 
a gang of fifty coolies were divided, half being ordered 
to pluck fine and half as usual, no sort of test was 
sought to be made of the case as to the quantity of 
leaf likely to be obtained by the two different systems, 
