526 
THE TROPICAL ATJRTCULTURIST, [February i, 1889. 
average Sumatra price, and the importers have been 
assured that with better sorting its market value 
may be still further improved. This is evidently a good 
opening for British capital, and, without risk to the 
most conservative of investors, we may wish well to 
the Tobacco Company of North Borneo. — L. & C. 
Express. 

OEOP BXPEEIMENTS. 
The acting director of land records and agricul- 
ture in Bombay has issued an exceedingly able and 
businesslike report on crop experiments in the Bom- 
bay Presidency during the past year. The accounts 
(Of detailed experiments sent in by the officers of the 
department are subjected to a searching scrutiny, 
and many defects in method and calculation are 
pointed out : while in two appendices written by him- 
self, Mr. Muir-Mackeuzie formulates some useful rules, 
^and lays down the general principles which should 
guide officers in the important experiment designed 
to ascertain the cost of cultivation. Among the many 
moot questions in Indian agriculture there is none 
involved in greater doubt and obscurity than this, 
and though a good deal of allowance must be made 
for the many difficulties which surround the investi- 
gation, much of the prevailing uncertainty is attri- 
butable to the lack of uniformity in the methods of 
different experimenters, a want of care on the part 
of many, and a haziness regarding the proper princi- 
pies which should regulate the inquiry on the part 
of all but a very few. Take, for instance, an experi- 
ment made by an Assistant Collector in Satara. It 
was a case of a family of nine living on a holding 
of thirteen acres. The Assistant Collector estimated 
the value of the crops at B103 As. 5, and the total 
cost at B62 As. 9, leaving the net outturn for the 
support of the family R40 As. 12. Two of the adult 
men are said to have lived by outside labour : but 
even allowing for this, and for B35 said to have been 
contributed by the four men from, their extra earn- 
ings, we have only a total of R75, out of which K15 
were given towards the expenses of a marriage, leav- 
ing R60, or R9 per head, for the support of a family 
of seven, which, Mr. Muir-Macki nzie remarks in 
so many words, is absurd. " The probability is that 
the charge for cultivation is over-estimated, and the 
earnings apart from cultivation are under-estimated. 
The bullocks were probably lent in exchange for labour 
of the adults, while the manures also probably cost 
much less." It should be remembered that this as- 
certainment of the cost of cultivation is more than 
a mere statistical fad : for until we succeed in at- 
taining a tolerable degree of accuracy in the quest, 
we can neither form just conclusions regarding the 
actual state of the cultivating class, nor answer with 
confidence the critics who declare that the Indian 
peasantry are in a state of starvation. For these rea- 
sons the general principles Mr. Muir-Mackenzie lays 
down deserve to be attentively studied by all agri- 
cultural officials. Incidentally the case of the Satara 
ryot family, to which allusion has been made, affords 
a striking illustration of the enormous burden which 
the prevailing marriage customs place upon the In- 
dian peasantry. The total value of the whole of the 
orops raised on the family holding in the year is 
only R103 ; yet for one marriage the family gave 
B15 of this R103 and borrowed R60 besides ! Under 
such circumstances for the ryot to better his condi. 
tion is a sheer impossibility.— Pioneer, Jan. 4th. 
[What strikes us is the entire absence of any allow- 
ance for dairy products in the support of the ryot 
family. Surely there was at least one oow yielding 
milk and butter?— Ed. T. A.l 
USE OF BICE, 
This country is the largest producer and one of the 
smallest consumers of rice among civilized countries. 
A comparison with the consumption of this grain in 
Great Britain scorns to show that its use is steadily 
e tending in that country and as steadily declining 
in the United States. Following are the figures of 
rice consumption per capita here and in Great Britain: 
Great Britain, 1886, 1076 pounds; 1885, 7 43 pounds ; 
1884. 9-70 pounds. United States, 1886, 3 55 pounds; 
1885, 3;62 pounds; 1884, 3 90 pounds. The relative 
estimaHon in which it is held in the two countries 
is aptly shown by the fact that in Great Britain it 
is used mainly as an article of food, while in the 
United States a large portion is used in making beer. 
That prices have but little effect upon the figures 
and comsumption is shown by the low price now 
ruling. It is thought that the real reason of the 
light demand for rice in the United States, is that 
in the greater portion of this country the art of 
coocking rice is absolutely unknown. This is more 
especially the case in the North and West. The 
consumption is greater in the South, where the mode 
of cooking is understood. The commercial value of 
this oereal is well known. Louisiana is especially in- 
terested in rice culture, and an improved demand for 
rice as an article of food would help the rice-growing 
interest of that State. It is suggested that the public 
needs to be enlightened as to rice as an article of 
food in order that the demand for this home product 
may be increased.— TV. Y. Record, Sept. 17, 1888. 
The above is an inexcusably careless, inaccurate and 
misleading statement. It is undoubtedly true that 
this country is the largest producer of rice among 
civilized countries, as the article is not cultivated to 
any extent in any other civilked country. The im- 
pression, however, given by reading the Record's 
statement is that the United States is a leading pro- 
ducer as compared with other rice-growing countries. 
Let us see about that. China, Japan, the East In- 
dies and adjacent islands are estimated to raise yearly 
two hundred and fifty billions (250,000,000,000) of 
pounds, against an average production in the United 
States yearly for the past three years of 150,000,000 
pounds, or about one-seventeen-hundredth of the 
crops of the East. 
The export of rice from various Eastern ports has 
averaged yearly for the past five years 1,892,943,808 
pounds, and for the year 1887 was as follows: — 
1887.— Pounds. 
Burmah 1,516,704,000 
Siam 141,120,000 
Bengal 109,760,000 
Japan 74 368,000 
Saigon 56,000,000 
Java 38819,200 
Madras 8,245,440 
Total ... 1,945,016,640 
The total production in 1887 in the United States 
was 156,088,890 pounds, or a trifle over eight per cent, 
of the quantity exported during the same year from 
the East. 
The consumption of rice in the the United States 
is restricted by reason of its high cost as compared 
with the price in the United Kingdom, where it sells 
for less than half the price charged here. And yet 
the quantity of rice consumed in the United States is 
not much less than the total quantity consumed in 
the United Kningdom, as the following table shown: — 
1887. 1886. 1885. 
Consumption — Lb. Lb. Lb. 
United States 246,158,927 252,237,415 229,812,233 
United Kingdom 286,908,160 398,298,880 272,063,680 
In 1887 the per capita use of rice in the United 
Kingdom was 7'64 pounds. The quantity varies 
widely from year to year, we finding it as low as 
6-72 pounds in 1870 and 16'09 pounds in 1881. During 
the three years 1885, 1886 and 1887 it was 7-43 pounds, 
10'76 pounds and 7'64 pounds respectively. In this 
country the per capita couFumption averaged a little 
over 4 pounds yearly for the past three years. 
The Record states that in Great Britain rice is used 
mainly as an article of food, while in the United 
States a large portion is used in making beer. Do- 
mestic rice does not enter into the manufacture of 
beer in this country, the only sort used being gra- 
nulated, imported rice, the quantity of which im- 
ported averaged 41,240,089 pounds yearly for the past 
