OF 
TBG UWOl OF AGHK^OLTOKG, 
COLOMBO. 
Added as -. >Siqu>lcment monthli/ to the TliOPICAL AGRICULTURIST," 
The following pages include the cont'^nts of the Magazine of the School of 
Agriculture for March : — 
RICE. return oi 500 fold, would do well to note) is 
given. A single grain is said to have produced 
more than ninety for the first crop, and over 
110 for the second. After removing the im- 
perfect grains, the whole number of grains 
from the one original grain was found to be 
2o,706 ! 
Thrashing, to separate the grain from the 
straw and stalks ; hulling, removing the outer 
skin or husk ; separating, removing the trash 
and any unhulled grains ; and finally, polishing, 
to complete the process of rice-cleaning for the 
market by removing the inner cuticle, may all 
be done by machinery, which can be purchased 
in sets or separately for either hand, animal 
or steam power. A complete set of hand-power 
rice-cleaning machinery, with a capacity of 
from 300 lbs. to 500 lbs. per day, will cost 
£53 is. Qd. in New York ; a set for animal 
power of the same capacity, £ 87 1 3*-. The best 
known manufacturers of rice-cleaning machinery 
are George L. Squier Manufacturing Company 
of Buffalo, New York. 
Such machinery is a great improvement on 
the primitive methods adopted for cleaning rice 
in Eastern countries. The mode of thrashing 
paddy by trampling with bullocks, and winnow- 
ing the grain by dropping it from a height 
in a light breeze are too well known to need 
description. The hulling or husking of paddy 
is, however, done in more than one way : — 1. 
The implement most commonly used by the 
natives of India consists of a heavy beam of 
timber about 8 feet long, into one end of which 
a short shaft shod witli iron is fitted at riglit 
angles to the log. The centre of the beam 
rests on a cross bar, to which it is fixed, rest- 
ing upon two upriglits sunk into the ground. 
The iioii-sliod slmft rests in a wooden cup sunk 
below the level cf the ground. Tlie implement 
is worked by one or more persons pressing 
the free end of tlie log down with one foot, 
and letting go, when the shod ends drops into 
tiic cup holding the paddy. 2. \ second ij^ 
he growth and preparation of 
rice for the market is dealt with 
in a bulletin issued by the Bris- 
bane Department of Agriculture. 
Witli regard to its value as a 
food, it is stated tluit the nutritious value 
of rice has hitherto been considerably un- 
derrated, that one pound of rice cooked 
for the table gave up 88 per cent of 
it back as nutriment, whereas the same quan- 
tity of beef only gave 25 per cent, and fur- 
ther that boiled rice was digestible in an hour, 
while roast beef (costing three times its price) took 
3 hours. The following is the general compo- 
sition of rice : water 13'7, flesh-forming sub- 
stances 6'5, non-nitrogenous substances 79'4, 
ash '4 per cent. ; while analysis shows rice to 
contain of starch 86'9, gluten 7 '5, fatty matter 
"7, sugar and gum "5, epidrmis 3"o, asli '9 per 
cent. The following comparison between rice 
and potatoes is interesting, as showing the former 
to contain three times as much nutriment : — • 
Eice. Potatoes. 
Water 130 75-0 
Klesh-formers. . . .fi'S 1"4 
Starcli, &c 80-0 22-6 
Total Food 86'5 24-0 
Thus 1 lb. of rice is equivalent to 4 lbs. of 
potatoes. Hice contains 70 per cent of starch. 
The great and rapid digestibility of starch, and 
the large ))erecutage of carbo-hydrates or 
heat-produc-iug substances it contains no doubt 
accounts for llie fact of the coolies of our 
pliMiting districts being able to perform so much 
work while subsisting on an almost pure rice diet. 
To prove the jirolilic nature of rice, the re- 
sult of an American i-xperiment (which those 
"tvho cannot ccnteiAe how j'addy could give a 
