236 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Ava., 1901. 
endeayour was made to get a co-operative mill, but without success, the general 
opinion being that growing and manufacture were two different branches of 
the business, and that milling would be better undertaken by a local sugar-— 
miller, who would have the necessary engine power to work the rice-mill at 
times when the sugar season was over. ‘This was eventually the plan adopted. 
Mr. Wm. Heck, who owns a sugar-mill on Pimpama Island, sent for and — 
erected the necessary buildings and machinery as an adjunct to the sugar-milling 
industry. A neat weatherboard structure, the dimensions being 28 feet long, — 
18 feet wide, and 22 feet high (two story), was erected on stumps to keep the — 
floors dry—an essential in ricemilling operations —a floor being placed about 10 
feet high from the basement floor and extending the full length of the 
building. Upon this floor is erected the Engleburg Huller and Polisher, a neat 
little machine known as the “No. 4: size,” and capable of treating half-a-ton 
of dressed rice per day. The paddy, being run into the hopper of the 
machine, falls on to a cylinder which revolves at high speed and most 
effectually “ hulls’—that is, rubs off the cuticle or outer skin—and_ polishes 
the grain in one operation. The pollard or residuum from the rice (hulling and 
polishing) falls on the floor, whilst the grain itself descends to the lower or 
basement story of the building by means of a shoot which conducts it into a 
machine placed to receive it, and known as a grader, which is worked and fed 
automatically from the machine above. There are four sieves or sifters in this 
grading machine which separate the broken grains, and also the polished rice 
into first, second, and third quality, the rice being caught in bags or boxes 
placed to receive it. It is then ordinarily ready for market, but Mr. Heck has 
added another machine to his mill, known as an improved winnowing machine; 
this machine, by a series of cogs and cranks, makes the rice pass through another 
set of sieves, and, at the same time, the wind from a rotary fan contained in the 
machine and driven at a high velocity clears off any impurities of husk, dust, 
&c., that may be with the rice after leaving the grading machine, and completes 
the milling operations by finishing the product in a perfectly clean and_highly 
polished state. Samples of this rice were exhibited at the last National 
Agricultural Society’s Show in Brisbane, and submitted to experts, who 
expressed themselves as pleased at the improved samples displayed, which were 
equal ‘to any imported rice of the same variety and very little different from 
the best Japan. 
THE RICE CROP—WILL IT PAY? 
This is the question invariably put to the writer whenever advocating the 
growing of rice as one of the crops to be successfully undertaken in the coastal 
districts of this State. 
In the first place, take the cropping. In ordinary situations, with only fair 
cultivation, from 30 to 40 bushels of 60 Ib. of paddy can be obtained per acre, 
which is double the wheat yield, the average crop of wheat being from 15 to 
20 bushels per acre. I know in some instances these quantities have been 
exceeded in both crops, but I give a fair average for comparison. The value of 
wheat per bushel ranges from 3s. to 3s. 6d., whilst the value of rice sold to the 
local mill averages from 4s. to 5s. per bushel delivered at the mills. Then dry 
rice chaff is of great value as a feed for stock and horses, and I feel sure, . 
if placed on the market and once fairly tested, it would command a ready sale. 
The straw is less hard, and, when well dried, compares favourably with 
ome ot) ae cee 
oaten straw, and a fairly low estimate would give (according to variety grown) — 
from 8 to 4 tons per acre, of an estimated value of £2 to £3 per ton, or an 
average to the grower per acre of straw and grain of £15 10s. per six months’ 
crop. Of course, in favoured districts two crops can be obtained in the 
year—that is, where frosts do not appear. Then the above figures would haye 1) 
be doubled as a yearly income, but, in the Logan district, only one crop of rice 1s 
taken, to be followed by a late crop of some other kind, such as oats, &c. OF 
course, the greatest benefit is derived by the grower on a large scale if he does 
his own milling. A glance at the prices paid for paddy and the prices now | 
