tNfe tROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[June i, mby. 
These mortars are constructed of four pieces of the 
heart of pine seasoned. They are in figure a little more 
than a semi-ellipsoid and are made to contain four and 
a half bushels of ground rice each. 
" The pestles, also constructed of the heart of pine 
and corresponding in number and position with the 
mortars, are sheathed at foot with sheet iron, partially 
perforated from within by some blunt instrument, so as 
to resemble the rough surface of a grater. They are 
intended to weigh each 240 to 280 lb or thereabout, are 
lifted by levers six feet long attached to the large pestle 
shaft and make about forty-five strokes in a minute. 
A mortar of rice is sufficiently pounded in one hour 
and forty minutes to two hours. The grain thus pounded 
is again elevated to the upper floor to be passed through 
a long horizontal rolling screen slightly depressed at 
one end, where by a system of grading wire-sieves, 
becoming coarser and coarser towards the lower end, 
are separated first the flour, second the small rice, third 
the middling rice, fourth and last the prime rice 
which falls through the largest web, and forthwith 
descends to the polishing or brushing screen below, 
whence it descends through a fan into the barrel on 
the first floor, where it is packed, and the preparation 
is completed. The head rice or largest grains of all, 
together with rough unbroken by the stones, passes off 
at the lower end of the screen to be pounded over. 
''The brushing soreen consist of a vertical cylinder 
or drum, two feet in diameter, by from four and a half 
to six feet in height, to the surface of which are attached, 
vertically, shred of sheepskin closely packed ; this drum 
is made to revolve with great velocity within and lightly 
brushing a cylindrical frame of iron wire made into a 
fine sieve. In passing down spirally between this clothed 
drum and the exterior cylindrical wire sieve, the grains 
are relieved of the particles of flour, which still adhere 
to them, and which are brushed off by the wool and 
forced out through the meshes of the wire. The rice 
thus brushed clean and polished against the wire is 
packed into barrels constructed of pine staves to con- 
tain six cwt. net. The middling and smail rice is passed 
through a fan which blows off from the flour into an 
apartment kept for that purpose." 
In this colony the Chinese have introduced a sort of 
" quern " with stones, where such can be found ; and 
when not they make a circular casting in clay similar 
in appearance to a centrifugal machine, letting in 
pieces of hardwood in such a way that when the centre 
revolves, rice falls between the outer casing and revol- 
ving centre, and the husk is partially broken. Then 
it is winnowed ; the clean rice separated, and grain 
with husk only cracked is transferred to mortar and 
pestle, which is an ordinary foo-foo mortar sunk in the 
ground acted upon by a shod pestle with ferule project- 
ing a little below the wood. The pestle is fixed into a 
solid beam and this is again fixed on a pivot with the 
determination of weight towards the mortar. A man or 
woman at the far end of this lever by means of the foot 
depresses that end, when the other end rises in like 
proportion and is then allowed to drop with force upon 
the rice. Another winnowing, and the rice is ready 
for market. When brown rice is the aim, the paddy 
is scalded with boiling water. This swells the graiu, 
and in drying the skin cracks and leaves the kernel 
much easier to clean than when white rice is the aim. 
Of course the oil stains the grain, hence brown 
colour. 
In a paper of this nature, treating of such an impor- 
tant agricultural product, it is proper that some allusion 
should be made to the area of land available for prose- 
cuting the industry. I might spread my hands along 
the entire delta, from Oorentyn to Bariina, and say, 
wherever water can be stored against brought for 
purposes of irrigation, there rice can be grown to 
advantage. 
The lower Kssequibo coast may be now looked upon 
as the centre of the industry. Coming further up to 
that grand well-watered district embraced by the 
Itooribiscie and Supenaam Creeks, rice growing has 
already taken hold ; but the want of water in times 
of drought causes it to languish. Place barrages across 
those two creeks, and cause the water to spread along 
the face of the district as now so well accomp. | 
lished on the Boerasirie on the West Coast, and the 
Lama and its tributaries on the East Coast, and the 
finest rice fields in the world would be opened up. 
Huist-te-Dieren was selected for a coolie settlement 
simply because of its proximity to the Itooribiscie, 
and the natural formation of the land along the whole 
of that estate, and that district, which is laid off in 
terraces by ancient tidal action, affording swamps 
suitable for rice cultivation, alternately with bauds of 
high loamy land fit for the growth of vegetables call- 
ing for drained soil. 
The districts embraced by Mahaicony and Abary 
Creeks are exactly the same ; and allusion has already 
been made to the praiseworthy start made by the East 
Inrlian proprietors of Novar and Dundee. 
The Oanje Creek has long been noted for the superior 
quality of rice grown on its banks high up country. 
Within the last few years, the abmloned estate Prospect 
has been taken up by Indian rice growers, and con- 
sidering the meagre supply of water at their com- 
mand, they have done wonders, and now with a supply 
of fresh water from beyond the salt water compart- 
ment of the creek, the whole of the abandoned estates 
on the right bank will be fit for rice. 
From the valuable reports which are furnished to the 
Agricultural Bureau of the united States by their con- 
sular agents from all parts of the world, I cannot for- 
bear transmitting the concise report of the Honor- 
able Horace Capron, written in 1873 on rice culture 
in Japan, as it is so analogous in many respects to 
what one finds in the rice gardens of this colony, 
especially those belonging to the Chinese. I have 
not been to Hopetown, Oamoonie Creek, for years 
now ; but when last there the surface of the land 
and work done was exactly as described as prevailing 
in Japan. 
The concluding paragraph of this report is so to 
the point that I copy it. There is nothing in all the 
agriculture of our country that can compare with 
Japan. The grand secret is, drainage, irrigation, 
economy and use of fertilizers, and thorough tillage. — 
" Bice is the staple crop of Japan. In the present 
state of the census reports it is impssible to give 
the exact acreage of rice. The report of 1870 places 
the number of acres at 8,000,000. Whether the area 
devoted to cultivation is increasing or not, it is im- 
possible to tell. The production has been controlled 
entirely in the past by the home demand. Now, 
that the Imperial edict forbidding its export has been 
repealed, the production will be stimulated by the 
world's demand. 
" The last 'Red Book' of the Tycoon gives the 
total income of the Daimios, which was always paid 
in rice, at 6,000,000,000 pounds, or 111,000,000 bushels. 
This did not include the income of the Mikado's 
court at Kieto, for the support of which the income 
of the five richest provinces of the Empire was set 
apart. Thus the rice product was able to pay a tax 
of from seven to eight billions annually. Ninety five 
per cent, of the rice of Japan is low-land rice; 
almost the whole of the valley land is devoted 
to rice growing. It is the richest soil, and 
is the best adapted to irrigation. The land 
is divided into small lots, scarcely ever more than 
an acre in one lot, and often less than one quarter 
that amount, and banked. This is thoroughly levelled, 
so as to be entirely flooded. All the soil removed 
in levelling is put on a lesser space adjoining, which 
is planted in vegetables. The rice-ground is thoroughly 
flooded over several times, on different days, in April, 
after which it is dug up with a heavy hoe. This 
hoe or spud is unlike any civilized implement. The 
blade is about 16 inches long and 4 inches wide 
and will weigh from 6 to 8 pounds. The handle 
is 5 feet long. With a powerful blow it is sunk 
the full length of the blade iuto the soft soil, and 
with the long leverage of the handle a large amount 
of earth is lifted up and turned over. This process 
is slow, but it leaves the soil in a much better con- 
dition than can any plow. At 12h ceuts as the whole 
cost of a day's labour, it does not cost much more 
to dig up an acre of tilled land to this depth than 
it does to plow an acre with us. In May, the seed- 
