442 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Jan. i, 1895. 
this way: — Water raised 16 feet : contents of bucket, 
= '45 cubic feet; number of discharges per minute, 
3 ; discharge per hour, 81 cubic feet ; actual discharge 
per hour, 729 cubic feet, or 455-4 gallons per hour. 
By making small shallow drains and litt'e embank- 
meats here and there over a patch of rice, the crop 
can be irrigated at will, wherever water can be got 
at a depth of 12 or 16 feot. The deeper the well 
the higher the forked sapling must be. 
Most farms have a bit of a hollo v or low land, 
dry in summer and very wet in the rains. Now, 
this is just the land for any of the varieties of the 
" aman " crop. All that is necessary to do is to run 
a drain, say 3 feet deep, down the c ntre, with the 
fall towards the lower end. At this end an embink- 
ment aboit 1 foot high should be raised the whole 
wi'Uh of the field. The land should be ploughed, 
cross-ploughed, and got ready. On the setting in 
of the rains, the end of the drain is closed up. and 
the water allowed to rise and flow over the Bidaa 
and thoroughly soak the whole field. It is then 
allowed to run out. The seed may now be sown 
broadcast or by transplanting as inclination 
By occasionally closing tin end of the drain the ti >ld 
may be irrigated at one's own will, and accordingly 
as it is observed the crop requires the application 
of water. It is not absolutely necessary that the 
wat°r should lay on the field during the whole period 
of growth, 1 ut the land should be kept moist during 
growth, and the above method is the simplest, 
cheapest, and most effective method r.f doing it. 
The lai-gest yields o> rice are got by turning the 
water on when the plant bunches for blossom, and 
should remain in on until fully ripened for harvesting. 
This is done to mature the grain uniformly. Irriga- 
tion works in connection with rice growing make it, 
without exception, one of the most paying crops to 
grow. The moral is obvious. 
In the ' boro ' varieties, the laud should be pre- 
pared against the rains setting in, and the seed may 
be showu broadcast, just after the first two or t ree 
showers have fallen, when as the hollow go's 
covered with water the plants will grow so as to keep 
their heads above. Broadcasting is not advocate 1 ; 
it is better to prepare a nursery, as before mentioned, 
and as soon aa the hollow has an inch or two of 
water on to commence transp'anting. The "boro" 
varieties must always have water lying on the field. 
No further care is wanted till ihe c op is ready for 
reaping. As before said, tin " bo o " i ' a biggr lined, 
coarse rice, not a table rice, and is capital feed for 
pigs, and if grown for this purpose alone, and fed 
to the pigs whole or groind up a3 a meal, <£ill 
more thai repay the former for his trouble. With 
the stoppage of the rains the water begins to dry 
off the land, an] the crop ripens; it is then harvested. 
HARVESTING. 
Owing to the brittleness of the crops, the harvesting 
must be done with sick'es or reaping-hooks. Care 
must be taken, however, to cut the croi) befor-) it 
ge's thoroughly rips, as a' dea' of grain is sli d, 
consequently lost. Some difference of opinion exists 
on that point. Expedience in the Cairns district 
goes to prove that when thoroughly ripe, the ears are 
not so brittle or liable to drop off as is the case in 
India. Harvesting is therefore done when the crop 
is thoroughly ripe. If this is a fact, then there is 
no reason «hy mowing or reaping machinery should 
not be U3ed in the ha vesting. When cut the crop 
is tied in bundles and c rried off to the th'-ashin,' 
floor at once, or if tho wea'her b • fi.ie and dry, it 
may be left on tin fi Ids for a diy or two to dry. 
To save the straw, which is good fodier for cattle, 
the crop shou'd bs cut as cose to the groun.1 as 
possible. 
In Louisiana, Florida, and the other rice-growing 
States of America where large areas are put under 
rice, harvesting machinery has of a necessity to 
be used. The ordinary wheat-harvesting machinery, 
"reaper and binder," or, still be'.te\ a "stripper" 
could be made to answer the purpose, by having 
broaden tyre3 to the wheels, so ai to prevent the 
machine sinking into the soft, we,, rice lands. An 
ordinary moving machine, with the same improve- 
ment to the wheels, would be effective. The pric$ 
1 of harvesting machinery, ho *e'er, Lein» great, the 
i ex >ense would on y be w arranted with large areas 
under rice. 
PBEPAUIN'G CHOP FOB MAUKET. 
Up to this point the crop is known ai ' paddy,' 
*nd before it can be called "rice" it has to go 
through tho foil twin.: processes :— Thrashin/, to 
separate the grain f.om the s raw and stalks ; hulling, 
removing tin outer skin or husk; separating, clean- 
ing the rice of thrash and any unhulled grains: 
and finally, polishing, to complete the process of 
I rice cleaning for the market by remcviu? the inner 
cuticle. Machinery for the above operu'ions can be 
purchased in eeta or separately for eith r hand, 
an<nial, or steam power. A co nplete set of hand-power 
rice-cleaning machinery, with acapaclv of from 300 lb. 
to 5O0 lb. per day, will co t £53 2s. (id. in Ne.vYork; 
a s t for animal power of same capacity £S7 lo j 
a fet for steam po^er, including engine and boiler, 
with a c ptcity of from (MtJ lb. to 1,0.* J lb. per day, 
£225. The best know 1 manufacturers of r ce-clc-aaiu« 
machinery are the Geo. L. Bquier Manufac uring 
Company of Buffalo, Ne* York, their mach nery 
being in use in almost every rice-growing countr. in 
the world, and giving universal sa'.isfa:Uon. A set 
of this firm's machinery, kno*n as the " Nn, X.' 
set, is in use in Oairm at tin present time b; the 
local ric • company. With the use of a haller. only 
costing £'16 13*. 8a., our farmer can co .suiue his own 
rice, the thrashing being done as aW-ribed farther 
on. Hullers »'e provable capable of prod-icing a? 
finish, d an article, polishe] and all, as comes out 
of the mode ran rice mils. Where smiil quanti iea 
of rice are trowu. aud intended for home <-.o . sump- 
tion, the fo lowing primitive method of manufac. ure, 
in use by the natives of India, may be adopted. 
THRASHING. 
A level bit of ground will have to b<? sot leady, 
the crop spread out evenly over this, and trampling 
rcsor.ed to by means of two or thr< e bullocks yok-d 
abreast and tethered to a pos: suuk into the ground, 
be ug made to move round a d rouud, forkiug up 
the straw now and Kgain; or the thrashi.-g may be 
done by beating it out by ha^dfuh ovc a block or 
into a box, with two or three tars railed cross • 
the bundles of paddy are struck over these bars two 
or three times, a d the paddy drops into the box 
or b ating with flaih nutil all the grain has b-en 
det ched from the straw. It is then winnowed to 
remove light and inferior grain. Tho wiunoving j a 
performed by letting th-; grain drop from a height 
in a li*ht breeze ; the irrain fal s nn one side, and 
the chaff and light stuff to leeward. With ihe ose 
of a modern hu ling machine tee winnowing is not 
neces-ary. The thrashed paddy has only to be put 
in the mach ne, and it is delivered clean rice. The 
grain -still paddy — should then be spread in the sun 
for a day or two, then packed awiy in bags, out of 
reach of moisture or rats, till wa ted for use or sale 
to the mill-owner. For home consumption, sma I 
quantities of the paddy can be prepared as follows: 
— The impleme t mo t commonly used by the natives 
of India for hailing or removing the husk is known 
as tin " dheko i " which consists of a heavy beam of 
timber or round log, 8 feet long, aud weighing about 
300 lb., into one end of which a share staff shod 
with iron is fitted at right angles to the log The 
centre of the beam rests on a cross bar, tj which 
it is fixed, resting on two uprights sunk into t e 
ground. The iron-suod shafi rests in a wooden cup 
sunk below the level of the ground. The implement 
is worked by one or more persons pressing the free 
end of the log down with one foot, and let in" <*o, 
when the shod end drop3 i uto the cup holding the' 
pad iy. A cross bar is usually fix-d breast high, by 
leming on wh ch assis auce is afforded in depressing 
the log. Oni person is cojstantly engaged in pushing 
back th 1 grain into the cup as the poundiug g es 
cm. The other iiwplemeut is in reality a pest e and 
mortar made of wood, and is known as the "ukhli." 
A block of wood 2 feet in leng h by 18 inches in 
diameter is hollowed out to 9 inche3 in depth. Tue 
