30 
THE TROPICAL AGEICULTUEIftT. [July 1, 1900 
not long ago, Mr, Marshall told nie ot a native 
niercliant, who had offered him 700 tons at £11. 
>lo bids could be obtained at this limit, and 
shortly after the price went right away to £40. 
" There was," as Mr. Marshall said, " a fortune 
in it." 
Eft'orts are being made, I understand, from in- 
formation received in other quarters, to form a 
more open market in plumbago, aud it is hinted 
that, sending the stuff to the brokers who do 
the bulk of the present business, nieanssimply 
getting the price wliich the Morgan Crucible 
Company care to pay. 1 do not know how this 
may be, but Mr. Marshall told me an amusing 
story of the result of an attempt recently made 
to effect a sale througli a broker who got a con- 
.signment aud who had to come to Mr. Marshall 
to get him to value it for him. A monopiy does 
not generally conduce to good prices being paid 
for any article, but the recent rise goes to show 
that, in the ciseof plumbago, the Morgan Crucible 
Cempany does not always have things its own way. 
— London Cor, of local "Times." 
ON EICE MEAL, 
A SUGGESTION FOR INDIAN FAMINE RELIEF. 
(By George S. Keith, M.D.. Author of A Plea 
for a Simpler Life, Fads of an Old Physician, &c.) 
I have always believed — and this is the general 
belief — that rice, which is the principal food of 
the natives in many parts of India, is mostly a 
pure starch, and contains very little from which 
to form a strong body of muscle Bnd bone. I was 
undeceived as to this when on a recent voyage to 
Kangoon. I had asked if brown bread was to be 
had on board, and was told that it was not, and 
that tliere was no wheaten flour to make it from. 
A few days after I was surprised to see it on the 
table, and of excellent quality. On inquiring of 
the baker, a very intelligent Scot, he told 
me the bread was made from white 
flour and rice-meal, four parts of the 
former to one part of the latter. He had 
used this for more than twelve months when 
brown bread was asked for. This rice-nieal is got 
in 
THE PROCESS OF CLEANING EICE 
in the rice-mills of India. From the rough paddy 
the husk is first rubbed off' ; part of it is used in 
the mill as fuel, and the rest is thrown into the 
sea. What is next removed is the rice-meal. This 
is sent to England, and is given to the pigs or 
made into oil-cake for fattening cattle. On my 
return voyage the vessel brought nearly one thou- 
sand tons of it in bags to Liverpool, where it is 
in great demand. It is not known to any of the 
corn-dealers in Edinburgh. Twelve months ago it 
was selling at about three pounds a ton ; lately, 
owing to the hisrh price of all feeding-stuffs, it has 
been quoted at from four pounds fifteen shillings 
to five pounds. I brought some of it home, and 
it makes excellent brown bread when used in the 
?,bove proportions. I have also some of the partly- 
cleaned rice, from the further cleaning of which 
the rice-meal is obtained in quantity varying from 
7 to 16 per cent. In a specimen of the partially- 
cleaned rice which I got from the lartre.st mill in 
liangoon, a considerable poriion of the rice meal 
lias evidently been lost in cleaning off the husk, 
as only 10 or 12 per cent, of the grain, and this 
(he sras^Uer mQ, has retained its natural red 
colour, which is somewhat darker than the natural 
grain of wheat. Hence it is probable that the 
rice could give even a Itigher proportion of meal 
than 16 per cent. I have got 
AN ANALYSIS 
made of this meal by the chemist of Messrs. 
Duncan & Flockhart, Edinburgh, and, although 
it had lost some of its flesii and bone-makiug 
ingredients, it was found to contain 12\ per 
cent, albuminoids, and 4J per cent, phos- 
phoric acid, which, in union with lime, as 
phosphate of lime, makes up the greater part 
of the ash, amounting to 71 per cent. The 
meal is thus very rich in albuminoids and phos- 
phates. On the bank oc the Irrawaddy I hap- 
pened to see about a ton of rice which had been 
freed from the husk, but still retained its red 
colour ; and I was told in Kangoon that the 
natives sometimes clean the rice for then:selves, 
aud use it in the form in which I saw it. I heard 
recently from an engineer who has foi some time 
been in charge of railways in Assam that red 
rice used by the nativea, who are a finer and 
stronger race than the Hindus. I have also been 
told of a family in the West of Scotland who 
have been in the habit of 
GETTING RED RICE REGULARLY FROM CEYLON. 
In this country the value ot rice as a food is 
reduced still further by the mode of cooking. It 
is boiled in a large qtiantity of water. This takes 
out most of the albuminoids, and as the water is 
thrown away, these are lost. In India the water 
used is just enough to swell the rice, and every- 
thing is preserved. Parkes gives 5 per cent, 
as the proportion of albuminoids in white rice, 
and 11 per cent, in white flour. I have endea- 
voured to get the Government of India interested 
in the rice-meal question. It is a pity that 
the best part of the rice should be sent to 
this country for cattle when it is so much 
needed in India, especially for the young. As a 
matter of pure economy it is important that it 
be retained in the country. Two parts of our 
brown v^fheaten bread go as far as three parts 
of white bread, both in satisfying the appetite 
and in supplying the wants of the system. If the 
same ratio holds as to red rice and white rice, 
a great money-saving would be effected by sub- 
stituting the former for the latter. The price of 
rice-meal got in cleaning white rice for this and 
other countries is also less than that of white 
rice ; but this is of small importance compared 
with its value as a food. It makes excellent 
porridge. A time of famine may be the best for 
introducing 
A CHANGE 
in the habits of the people. As red 
rice is already used in some parts of India, its 
general use should not be a great difficulty. When 
we consider that brown bread is so little used 
among ourselves, though its use is increasing among 
the upper classes, and that as yet for the greater 
quantity of wheat consumed in this country goes 
to the pigs, we need not be surprised that in India 
also this thriftless sy.stem prevails, to the deteriora- 
tion of many millions of people. In this country 
the matter is of less importance as, overfeeding 
being the rule, the poor white loaf may often do 
less harm than the richer brown one. In a poor 
country like India, wh&re the people are underfed, 
the case is very diff'erenti.— C^Awrt&ers' Joitmalt 
