86 
Oil the Culture of Rice—Orange Co. Fair. 
A. Watson, Esq. one of the best planters in this 
Slate, concludes his answers to the foregoing queries, 
thus: 
“ I will now in a few words sum up the whole of the 
art, which, from my experience, is requisite :—fallow 
your land close in the winter; be industrious ; attend 
strictly to the hoeing; pick it clean, and you may 
always expect a fair crop.” He generally averaged 
60 bushels to the acre. Sou. Agt. 
Prior to the invention of Strong & Moody’s 
Patent Rice Mill, rice was cleaned by the pestle 
and mortar, wrought by hand, or by water, 
steam or horse power. When cleaned by hand 
the rice in its rough or unhulled state is put into 
a mortar holding about a peck; the pestle is 
then applied by the hand until the grain is di¬ 
vested of its outer hull and inner cuticle, after 
which the flour and small rice may be separated 
from the large by fans and screens, or it may 
be winnowed. In this manner rice is sometimes 
prepared for family use, but never in this coun¬ 
try for market. When rice is cleaned for mar¬ 
ket by pestle and mortar in all our rice-growing 
States, the following is the process, viz: It is 
first passed through what is called a sand screen, 
which removes most of the sand and trash from 
the rice. From that screen it goes through a 
pair of Liverpool millstones, so wide apart as 
only to remove the outer hull; as it comes from 
these it is carried by elevators to a fan which 
blows off the chaffy (which is the outer hull.) 
It passes from the fan into mortars, these mor¬ 
tars contain about four bushels each and are in 
number from 5 or 6 up to 22, seldom more, ac¬ 
cording to the work to be done and the power 
possessed where it is pounded with heavy pes¬ 
tles from one hour and a half to more than two 
hours, when it is removed from the mortars by 
hand into a place prepared for it, where it has 
to remain until the moisture which has been 
produced by the action of the pestle on the rice, 
is dried. Then it is carried up by elevators to 
what is called the rolling screen, which is about 
16 feet long, having three different size meshes. 
Through the first size the flour passes, through 
the second, the small rice, through the third, 
the large or merchantable rice, and over the 
end of this screen, the head rice. From that 
screen, the small and merchantable rice goes 
into a brusher, so as to remove the flour from 
the grain. Under this brusher is a fan through 
which it passes. From this fan it is carried to 
the barrel, where it is well packed, and com¬ 
pletely prepared for market. This mill was 
invented by a Mr. Lucas an Englishman, and 
has been in use for many years in our southern 
States, and has proved of great benefit 
Strong & Moody’s Patent Rice Mill was in¬ 
vented in the town of Northampton, Massachu¬ 
setts, about the year 1833. It cleans the rice 
on an entire new principle from that of the pes¬ 
tle and mortar. This mill, after overcoming 
the various difficulties which the most of new 
inventions have to contend with, is now in suc¬ 
cessful operation in Charleston, South Carolina, 
and various other parts of fhe world. It is 
thought by many who are well able to judge, 
that it will ere long come into general use. 
This mill can use all the machinery that is used 
in a pestle mill, excepting the pestle and mortar. 
Rubbers are substituted for them, made in the 
form of millstones, from 18 inches to more than 
five feet in diameter; the smallest drove by 
hand, the larger by horse, steam, or water pow¬ 
er. Through these the rice after it is hulled, 
is passed, and in its passage, is cleaned in the 
most perfect manner, is less broken than when 
pounded with heavy pestles, is cleaned much 
faster, is more free from grit, and keeps better 
than by any other mode of cleaning. The rea¬ 
sons for its keeping better in all climates, as it 
is found to do, (either on the sea or on the land) 
are caused by a greater degree of heat being 
produced by the rubbers; which is near 120 
degrees in place of 65 or 70 degrees, which is 
believed to be produced by the pestle and mor¬ 
tar. This degree of heat produced by the rub¬ 
bers, in a good measure kiln-dries the rice, and 
at the same times removes the dampness from 
the flour, so that it can he at once passed through 
the screen, brusher and fan into the barrel, when 
it is ready for market. In this process it is 
more perfectly divested of the flour, (on account 
of the flour being so well dried by the increased 
heat the rice receives from passing through the 
rubbers,) than by any other mode of cleaning. 
By this new mode of cleaning, the eye of the 
grain is much more effectually removed, which 
is another great reason of its keeping so well. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
Charleston , S. C. April , 1842. N. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
Orange County, its Fair, Stock, &c. 
May, 1842. 
Gent. — I beg to lay before you some items 
of information in relation to the fair and other 
matters in this county, and have to express my 
great surprise that no notice has yet appeared in 
the agricultural papers of the day, of our meet¬ 
ings here. A society was organized in Sep¬ 
tember, but such was the apathy manifested by 
the farmers generally, and the number of mem¬ 
bers so few, that it was deemed most advisable 
not to hold a fair in 1841. However after a 
few meetings of the friends of agriculture good 
and true, and great exertions on their paits to 
enlist their friends in the good cause, it was de¬ 
termined that a Fair should be held on the 17th 
November. This was strongly opposed even 
by some warm friends of the society, they pre- 
