1 Ocr., 1901.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 415 
VALUE as A Foon. 
I am now in a position to give the analysis of rice from an acknowledged 
authority, as follows :— 
Per cent. Per cent. 
Starch ... ae 70:0 Sugarand gum ... 5:0 
Gluten. ... = 75 Epidermis... SoD 
Fatty matter ... 7-0 Ash ats ag Ero) 
Whilst the general-composition of rice from another analysis shows :— 
Per cent. Per cent. 
Water... son BP Y/ Non - nitrogenous 
Flesh-forming ...  6°5 substances ... 79°4 
Ash = an. KD) 
Of its value as a food there is no question. In India the natives use it 
boiled, roasted, or parched as their staple food (and also in China and Japan), 
undergoing great exertion and fatigue, on this diet alone. With rice and a 
simple drink of water, they will perform long journeys—1 1b. of rice is 
equivalent to 4 lb. of potatoes for nutriment—and hence is a food particularly 
adapted to tropical climates, capable of being made up into a large number of 
enticing dishes, healthful and easy of digestion. With the acquisition of small 
hand power mills for dressing and grinding the paddy, it is within the power of 
our farmers and settlers to grow and produce all that is necessary for their own 
consumption. And not only as a ‘ita is rice of value to our farmers, but then 
as a large number of by-products, such as starch, of which rice contains such{a 
large percentage, which make it most valuable for household use. 
RICE ENSILAGE. 
A. correspondent informs us that when he was farming in the north of 
Victoria, he sowed a swampy piece of land with rice. Conceiving the idea that 
it might make good ensilage, he built a silo of a capacity of 20 tons. When 
the rice came into ear, and before it began to harden, he cut the whole crop 
and put it into the silo. There it remained for about fourteen months, and when 
taken out it proved to be most excellent fodder, which was greatly relished by 
all the stock. This is worth knowing, seeing that so many farmers who, own 
dairy cattle and pigs are now growing rice as a grain crop. Our correspondent 
says that ricegrowing pays far better than wheat or maize. We are not 
surprised that such is the case in a district where, as he stated, the farmers 
had grown wheat on the same land for thirty years consecutively without the 
use of any kind of manure. 
RICE V/V. PETROLEUM. 
} 
The rice crop in Louisiana and Texas will be 25 per cent. short this year’ 
These two States went in so heavily for the cultivation of their swamp lands 
‘that it was predicted that in ten years they would furnish the demand of the 
world for rice. The rice lands were purchased at from 5 to 8 dollars per acre, 
and the price gradually rose to £8 per acre. Now the land cannot be purchased 
for love or money. Irrigating contracts have been thrown up. Pumping and 
boring machinery has been pulled down. Thousands of acres which were to 
have been planted with rice during the year 1901 have not been touched by the 
plough. The rice development has come to a dead stop. 
What has been the cause of this? ‘The cause is oil. The swamps have 
been shown to overlie oil deposits, and the oil craze has injured the rice crop. 
All the lands are being prospected for oil. The planters have left their fields 
to the hands and gone oil-hunting. The boring plants are taken from the 
pumping station to bore for oil. Like a thunder-clap the oil fever has burst 
