June 1, 1891.] SuppUment to the " Tropical AgjncuUurist. 
857 
is always beat to use a little extra seed, and 
select the best plauts for transplanting. The 
nursery will be ready for transplanting in 8 
weeks. Care should be taken to have the nursery 
plauts ready for transplanting at a time when 
the operation can be most advantageously per- 
formed, particularly when there is snfficient rain 
for the purpose. But on no account should the 
transplanting be delayed longer than a week 
more, for provided the field is in good tilth, it 
is better to put the plants out when 3 or 4 weeks 
old than to wait 5 or 6 weeks for rain. The 
plants are simply pulled up by the hand, tied in 
bundles, and carried to the field, where they are 
dibbled in, putting 2 or 3 plants in each of the 
holes, which are about 6 to 9 inches apart. 
Three men should plant an acre in a day. In 
transplanting it is often the custom to crop the 
tops as well as the roots of the seedlings, when 
pulled from the nursery, before planting them 
out, the reason being that it not only makes the 
plant hardier, but prevents their falling down 
and the remaining leaves withering, as growth 
begins at once. This system has a good deal to 
recommend it, and is advocated. 
In discussing the subject of irrigation by wells, 
the following reference is made to the capacity of 
the appliance known as the " Piccolta " — the 
common form of water lift in Eastern countries ; 
water raised 16 feet; contents of bucket = '40 cubic 
feet ; number of discharges per minute, 3 ; dis- 
cliarge per liour, 81 cubic feet ; actual discharge 
per hour 72'9 cubic feet, or 4o5 4 gallons per hour. 
Machinery can now be obtained for thrashing, 
to separate the grain from the straw and stalks ; 
hulling, to remove the outer skin or husk; 
separating or cleaning the rice of thrash or any 
unhulled grain ; and finally polishing, to remove 
the inner cuticle and thus complete the process 
of rice cleaning for the market. The machinery 
for the above operations can either be had in 
sets or separately for hand, animal or steam 
power. A complete set for hand-power, with a 
capacity of from .300 to 500 lbs. per day, will cost 
£53 2s. fid. in New York ; a set for animal-power 
of the same capacity £87 10s. ; while a set for 
steam-power, including engine and boiler, with a 
capacity of GOO to 1000 lbs. per day, £22.). The best 
known manufacturer of rice cleaning machinery 
are tiie Geo. L. Squier Manufacturing Co, of 
Bufi'alo, New York, their machinery being most 
extensively used, and giving universal satisfaction. 
A luiller, which is capable of producing as finished 
an article, polished and all, as comes out of the 
modern rice mills, co.-ts only £16 13s. 6d. 
Messers. Geo. Squier Co. supply hand rice 
hullers with a capacity of 200 lbs. in 12 hours, 
for £10 8s. 4d. in America. The machine is 
simple in construction and durable. The Engel- 
burg Iluller Co. of Syracuse, U. S. A., keep a 
combined hullerand polisher with a capacity of 
76 to 150 bushels in 10 hours, costing £100; 
while a complete modern rice mill, automatic in 
action, and costing £1,230, can put throuuh 
13,000 lbs. or 300 bushels of paddy i)cr day. The 
initial cost of the more ex)H'nsive machines, taking 
into consideration ;he work tliey perform, is not 
e-vcessive, but tlieir prices place them beyond 
tho reach of small growers. Co-operation of" rice 
growers is the only moans of solving tliis 
difficulty. The primitive methods iu voyuo in 
India for cleaning rice for the market are both 
slow and tedious, but in the absence of winnowing 
and husking machinery they are the only possible 
makeshifts available. Paddy loses one-third 
weight by husking ; three bushels of paody when 
husked producing 2 bushels of rice. A bushel of 
paddy equals from 40 to 43 lbs. and a bushel of 
clean polished rice 60 to 6-5 lbs. dependent on the 
size of the grain. 
As regards the question of " will it pay?" the 
following concluding remarks on the subject of 
the rice industry iu connection with Queensland, 
are interesting :— " Under favourable circum- 
stances one acre under rice will produce from 
50 to 90 bushels of grain per acre. Quite recently 
on the Clarence Eiver, N.S.W., a crop 
gave 67 bushels of grain per acre. In the Cairns 
district the average rice yield per acre is estimated 
at z tons. Taking 2 tons or 74 busliels as a basis 
for calculation, we find that paddy being worth to 
the grower, say, £9 .5s. per ton or os. per bushel 
(the price varies between £8 and £10) 2 tons 
per acre will realize £18 10s., and this multiplied 
by 2 crops gives £37. The straw should realize 
from £2 to £3 10s. per ton for fodder, and taking 
the yield at 5 tons per acre, will realize another 
£10 per acre, or in all, £57 per acre for two crops 
The cost of putting the land under crop will be 
amply met if set down at £9 per acre. Profit per 
acre, say, £18 10s., at which price it cannot but 
be admitted that rice growing will pay. 
Rice milling is olso said to be a remunerative 
enterprise. Taking rice at the present market 
value, viz., £23 per ton, to produce which 3 tons 
of paddy would have to be milled, we find 3 tons of 
paddy at £9 5s. equals £27 15s., producing 2 tons 
rice at £23 equals £46 ; difference, £18 5s., or 
equivalent to £6 Is. Bd. per ton of paddy, from 
which deduct the cost of milling, amply met by, 
including all charges, £2 per ton. Net profit, 
£4 Is. 8d. per ton. Further, rice chaff has a 
commercial value, and is commanding a good 
price in Europe to-day. It is used extensively 
for packmg glass, canned goods, and like 
packages, for which purpose it cannot be equalled. 
This chaff realises in the German market some- 
thing like from £3 to £4 per ton." 
CALATROPIS GIGANTEA. 
This is a shrub of two varieties, tlie only 
difference between them consisting in the colour 
of their flowers. It is conimouly to be found 
in waste ground among rubbish, ruin, and such 
like places. But tlie plant has gained much 
prominence from tlie many and important uses 
to which it may be applied. An acrid, milky 
juice flows from ever>- part of the shrub when 
wounded, and this the natives use medicinally 
in different ways, besides prescribing prepara- 
tions ot the plant itself iu epilepsy, i)arnlysis, 
bites of poisonous animals, as a vermifuge, 
etc. In almost all cutaneous affections it is 
frequently employed, but its virtues liave been 
largely tiied in tlie. cure of leprosy. The root, 
bark, and inspissated juice are used as iK>wer- 
ful alteratives and purgatives. Tlio activity of 
tills drug is said to be owing to a principio 
called Mudarine, discovered by Ur. Duncan, of 
Edinburgh, who found tho juice to possess the 
