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1 Junz, 1900.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL, 501 
Tropical Industries. 
» RED RICE. 
WE have not heard that ricegrowers in the North of the colony have met with 
red rice in their crops. Should they do so, however, they will be glad to learn 
that although the colour at present injures the sale of the grain, yet the red 
rice is quite as valuable as an article of food as the white. ‘he Savannah News 
says :—The rice planters and millers of South-west Louisiana are having some 
trouble with the crop of this season. For some unaccountable reason a 
considerable percentage of itis red. This is not the first season that grains 
have appeared among the white, to be sure, but never before has the proportion 
been so large. An examination by chemists has shown that the red rice is 
equally as nutritious as the white. The value of the article as a matter of food 
is not in the least injured by the red grains. But the fact remains that the 
coloured grains injure the sale of the rice they appearin. There isa movement 
on foot among the millers looking to the removal of the prejudice against red 
rice on the part of the consumers, but it may be doubted that it will be 
attended speedily with gratifying results. It is very hard to removea prejudice, 
especially when it has to do with the food one eats. 
BAGASSE (OR MEGASS) PAPER. 
Tre Louisiana Planter says that the coming sugar season will see the establish- 
ment at Baton Rouge of a paper-mill which will use the megass of the 
diffusion refinery at that place. Mr. Webb, one of the owners of the refinery, 
is an old paper manufacturer, having spent twelve or fifteen years in that 
business in Ohio. The sugar-mills already have the power, which is idle ten 
months in the year, and Mr. Webb intends to devote these ten months to the 
manufacture of mapping paper. He says a fine grade of “ news’—the paper 
on which newspapers are printed—can be made from the megass. At present 
the raw material is thrown into the Mississippi River. 
In Queensland the megass is usually burnt. It would be interesting to 
know whether it would pay better to buy firewood for the mills and save the 
megass for the purpose of paper-making, or to burn it. There would doubtless 
be an advantage in being able to employ the steam power which lies dormant for 
so many ORL on the sugar plantations. 
COFFEE REPLACED BY RUBBER. 
Ar the annual general meeting of the Selangor Planters’ Association on the 
24th February, 1900, Mr. H. N. Carey remarked that they had undergone a 
most hard and severe struggle during the last two years, and it wasmost creditable 
to find that so few had gone under, and they had every reason to be proud that 
the acreage under coffee had not decreased. The low prices of coffee had 
induced many planters in Selangor and other States to plant up large areas with 
Para and other rubbers, and this promised to be a most profitable investment, as 
he had reliable information that in the case of a Para rubber tree in a 
neighbouring State, which was tapped twice in ten months, half the tree at 
each tapping had yielded the enormous quantity of 16 lb. of rubber, and the 
tree in no way harmed. Now the most sanguine of men could not expect such 
a result all over; but, even supposing they got one-tenth of the above amount, - 
it would mean a fortune.—Planting Opinion. 
