IMPERIAL INSTITUTE INDIAN TRADE ENQUIRY REPORTS ON RICE LONDON A XT AT -mni/r A T*T M LIBRARY. IMPERIAL INSTITUTE INDIAN TRADE ENQUIRY REPORTS ON RICE IMPERIAL INSTITUTE REPORTS of the INDIAN TRADE ENQUIRY HIDES AND SKINS RICE OIL SEEDS RESINS , JUTE AND SILK TIMBERS AND PAPER MATERIALS DRUGS AND TANNING MATERIALS ETC. ETC. IMPERIAL INSTITUTE INDIAN TRADE ENQUIRY REPORTS ON RICE LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W. 1920 IMPERIAL INSTITUTE Committee for India Sir CHARLES C. McLEOD (Chairman). Sir HARVEY ADAMSON, K. C.S.I. A. YUSUF ALI, C.B.E. (late I.C.S.). Sir CHARLES H. ARMSTRONG. SIR ERNEST CABLE. Sir ROBERT W. CARLYLE, K.C.S.I., C.I.E. The Rt. Hon. LORD CARMICHAEL, G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E., K.C.M.G. D. T. CHADWICK, ESQ., I.C.S. Sir JOHN P. HEWETT, G.C.S.I., K.B.E., C.I.E. L. J. KERSHAW, Esq., C.S.I., C.I.E. Sir MARSHALL F. REID, C.I.E. Sir JAMES DUNLOP SMITH, K.C.S.I., K.C.V.O., C.I.E. Sir GEORGE H. SUTHERLAND. A. J. HEDGELAND, Esq. (Secretary). The Chairman of the Executive Council of the Imperial Institute (The Right Hon. LORD ISLINGTON, G.C.M.G., D.S.O.) and the Director (Professor WYNDHAM R. DUNSTAN, C.M.G., F.R.S.) are ex-officio members of the Committee for India. INDIAN TRADE ENQUIRY Special Committee on Food Grains Sir MARSHALL F. REID, C.I.E. (Chairman). Sir CHARLES H. ARMSTRONG. Sir John P. HEWETT, G.C.S.I., K.B.E., C.I.E. A. E. HUMPHRIES, Esq. Dr. T. A. HENRY, Imperial Institute (Secretary). PREFATORY NOTE IN August 1916 the Secretary of State for India invited the Imperial Institute Committee for India to conduct an enquiry into the possibilities of further commercial usage in the United Kingdom of the principal Indian raw materials. It was also proposed that the enquiry should include the possibility of the usage of these materials in other parts of the Empire. The invitation was accepted by the Committee for India, and a number of Special Committees were formed to deal with the principal groups of materials selected for inclusion in the Indian Trade Enquiry. The groundwork for the consideration of the various Committees has been supplied from the information as to the raw materials concerned which has been systemati- cally collected at the Imperial Institute, chiefly in the Scientific and Technical Department and in the Technical Information Bureau. The Committee have also had at their disposal the numerous reports made by the Scientific and Technical Department of the Institute during recent years on the composition and commercial uses and value of Indian raw materials, and have also utilised the collection of raw materials of India derived partly from Technical Depart- ments in India and partly from commercial sources which are included in the Indian Section of the Public Galleries and in the Reference Sample Rooms of the Institute. It has now been decided by the Secretary of State that, subject to certain reservations, the reports of these various Committees which have been forwarded by the India Office to the Government of India shall be pub- lished. The reservations referred to are that at the request of the Government of India paragraphs in certain of the vii viil PREFATORY NOTE reports as presented should be omitted, such paragraphs being indicated by asterisks, and that it should be stated that the reports represent the personal opinions of the members of the Committees, and that the Secretary of State is in no way committed to accept these opinions. C. C. McLsoD, Chairman, Committee for India. November 1919. CONTENTS REPORTS ON RICE PAGE I. THE TRADE IN INDIAN RICE (WITH FOUR APPEN- DICES) I II. THE PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE J SUMMARY OF GENERAL INFORMATION PREPARED AT THE IMPERIAL INSTITUTE FOR THE COMMITTEE . 69 III. UTILISATION OF BURMESE RICE AND ITS BY- PRODUCTS J SUMMARY OF SPECIAL INFORMA- TION PREPARED. AT THE IMPERIAL INSTITUTE FOR THE COMMITTEE . . . . .156 REPORTS ON RICE i THE TRADE IN INDIAN RICE INTRODUCTION THE Special Committee appointed to investigate the possibility of increasing the trade of the United Kingdom and other parts of the Empire with India in food grains con- sisted of Sir Marshall F. Reid, C.I.E. (Chairman), Sir John P. Hewett, G.C.S.I., C.I.E., Sir Charles H. Armstrong, and the late Mr. George Allen, with Dr. T. A. Henry, of the Imperial Institute Staff, as Secretary. At its first meeting the Special Committee decided to invite Mr. R. E. Prothero, M.P. (now President of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries), and Mr. A. E. Humphries (President of the National Association of British and Irish Millers), to join the Committee, and these gentlemen consented to serve. On his assumption of the office of President of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, Mr. Prothero was unable to continue his work on the Committee. The work of the Committee has been much facilitated by the fact that many of the firms interested in the sale and milling of rice kindly consented to make statements and to give their evidence jointly. Among the firms and associations consulted are the following : (1) Rangoon Rice Shipping Firms: Messrs. Steel Brothers & Co., Ltd., Messrs. The Arracan Co., Ltd., Messrs. Bulloch Brothers & Co., Ltd., and Messrs. The Ellerman Rice Mills, Burma, Ltd. (2) The London Rice Brokers' Association. (3) The Committee of the Rice, Rice Bran, and Kindred Trades of Liverpool. 2 INDIAN RICE (4) Starch Manufacturers: Messrs. Reckitt & Sons, Ltd., and Messrs. J. & J. Colman, Ltd. (5) Feeding-cake Manufacturers : Messrs. The British Oil & Cake Mills, Ltd., Messrs. J. Bibby & Sons, Ltd., and Messrs. R. Silcock & Sons, Ltd. The Special Committee are greatly indebted to these and other firms and associations for the generous way in which they placed at the Committee's disposal full infor- mation regarding those aspects of the rice trade in which they are specially interested, and for the care they took in giving full and frank replies to the questions they were asked. I. THE QUALITY OF INDIAN RICE At an early stage of the enquiry it became necessary to ascertain the position of Indian rice as regards quality, in comparison with other commercial rices, especially those of Siam and Indo-China, which are India's chief competitors. The rice trade of the world falls naturally into two great branches : the Far Eastern branch, requiring a cheap rice for feeding the native population ; and the Western branch, requiring large quantities of a medium- quality rice and much smaller quantities of high-quality rice. The Far Eastern branch is catered for to a very large extent by Siam " field " and Indo-China rices, both poor, cheap qualities, and to a less extent by Rangoon rice. The Western branch is supplied mainly by Rangoon and Siam " garden " rices, both medium qualities, and for the special qualities by imports from Bengal (Patna rice), Java, Japan, United States, Italy and elsewhere. For this trade also highly milled and polished rices are pro- duced in European mills, mainly from rice imported originally from Burma and Siam. The general opinion expressed by witnesses was that Rangoon rice was an all- round useful quality, and that on the whole it was unwise to try to modify it. There is, however, always the possibility that one of India's competitors may seriously take in hand its rice industry, and by improving the yield per acre and the quality of the grain threaten the dominant INDIAN RICE 3 position which India at present occupies. It is under- stood that investigations in this connection are already being made in Burma and elsewhere in India, and the Committee therefore feel that they need only express their satisfaction that these important questions are being dealt with, and record their opinion that all the British firms interested in the rice trade would welcome the production in India of all types of rice required for the home and export trade of the United Kingdom, if that proves to be technically and commercially possible. II. STATISTICS OF THE TRADE IN RICE The preparation of rice for the market involves three main operations after the grain has been actually threshed to yield paddy. These are : (1) Removal of the husk, yielding " cargo rice." (2) Cleaning to remove the outer layers of the edible grain, producing white rice, with rice meal or bran as a by-product. (3) Polishing and glazing to produce the appearance required especially by European and American con- sumers, " polisher meal " being obtained as a by-product. The whole tendency of the trade in recent years has been to conduct the first two operations entirely, and the third in part in the East, and the statistics of trade for Siam and Indo-China (Appendix I, Tables IV and V) show that far more white rice (i.e. cleaned and perhaps polished rice) is now exported than " cargo rice " (i.e. partially cleaned rice), and that exports of rice in the husk (paddy) are small and practically confined to the Far East where the natives in some cases apparently still prefer to husk their own grain. In the case of the Indian statistics it is not possible to trace this tendency so clearly, because these statistics are compiled under two headings only, " rice in the husk " (paddy) and " rice not in the husk," which includes "cargo rice and white rice, whole and broken." The British Trade Returns give statistics of rice grain under three headings, viz. " Rice, whole and cleaned," " Rice, other than whole and cleaned," and "Rice, mixtures of whole and broken (cleaned)." 4 INDIAN RICE The first may include "whole rice cleaned" and "whole rice cleaned and polished " ; the second and third may include everything else except rice flour, rice starch and rice meal and dust, which are shown separately. The Committee have ascertained that it would be useful to the trade in India and the United Kingdom to have more detailed statistics of exports and imports of rice, and a number of new headings are suggested (see page 26). Detailed trade returns are published by most countries for the calendar year, whereas those of India are for the year April i to March 31. A useful abstract return of Indian trade for the calendar year is, however, published and the Committee think it desirable that this should be more generally known. III. THE WORLD'S TRADE IN RICE AND INDIA'S SHARE IN IT Table I annexed shows, as far as figures are available, the world's exported surplus of rice. The figures are for the year 1913, but comparison of these figures with those for earlier years shows that 1913 may be taken as fairly representing the trade in recent years, apart from such accidental circumstances as failure in the harvest, affecting certain countries in certain years, and, since the war, freight difficulties. It will be seen that the chief countries of the world which produce enough rice to export on a large scale are India (chiefly Burma), Siam, and Indo-China, which in 1913 together exported 94 per cent, of the world's exported surplus. Siam and Indo- China, therefore, are the only serious competitors with India in the export of rice. Japan, Italy, Spain, the United States and Java all export special kinds of rice in comparatively small quantities, and the evidence placed before the Committee confirms the conclusion arrived at from the statistics available that at present serious competition with Rangoon rice need not be expected from these quarters, though Japan and the United States have both increased their production and exports since the war. INDIAN RICE 5 The quantities and values of the exports of rice (includ- ing paddy, but excluding rice-meal and dust) from India, Siam and Indo-China in the last year before the war, and their group destinations, were as follows : Rice in the Husk (Paddy) Exports to : Exporting Total exports. British Allied Enemy i Other country. Empire* Coun- Coun- Coun- tries. tries. tries. Tons. Tons. Tons. Tons. Tons. India (191314) 30,486 138,053 29,671 804 10 Siam (1913-14) 28,657 159,726 28,609 48 Indo-China (1913) 5,839 21,021 1,002 2,879 1,954 Total of paddy 59,282 3,683 2,012 Rice Not in the Husk Tons. Tons. Tons. Tons. Tons. India (1913-14) 2,419,863 17,599,582 1,031,163 274,671 621,919 492,110 Siam (1913-14) 1,014,249 7,142,129 809,724 31,977 82,243 90,3 5 Indo-China (1913) . . 1,128,781 6,607,555 498,911 485,888 6 143,962 Total of rice Grand total (paddy and rice) 2,339,798 792,536 704,168 726,377 2,399,080 796,219 704,168 728,389 1 The countries included in this group are shown in the detailed Tables II, IV, and V, Appendix I. Some of them have joined the Allies since these tables were compiled. From the above it appears that out of the total exported surplus of rice of all kinds, but excluding rice meal and rice dust, from the three chief producing countries, India contributed 53 per cent. (2,450,349 tons), which is just about equivalent to the apparent total requirements of the British Empire from these three countries (2,399,080 tons). From the point of view of a self-supporting Empire, therefore, it would appear possible for India to become the sole source of supply of rice to the Empire. Reference to the detailed tables of exports of rice from India (Table II annexed) shows, however, that the three chief importing countries of the Empire for Indian rice are Ceylon, Straits Settlements, and the United Kingdom. Ceylon re-exports very little, but the Straits Settlements (see Table III) and the United Kingdom (see Table XIV) re-export 6 INDIAN RICE large quantities of rice to foreign countries. The actual consumption of rice within the Empire is therefore less than the apparent consumption shown in the tabular statement on the previous page, and is probably below the total Indian export of rice. It is clear, therefore, that India for the present, at all events, cannot restrict her market for rice to the Empire alone. For convenience of comparison with the trade of India, statistics of the rice trade of Siam and Indo-China are given in Tables IV and V annexed. It will be seen that Siam exports chiefly whole and broken white rice, and that her most important customers are Singapore, Hong Kong, and the United Kingdom. In the case of Indo-China also the exports are chiefly in the form of whole and broken white rice, and the chief destinations of export are Hong Kong, Singapore, France, the Philip- pines, and Japan. The Netherlands Indies was a large purchaser in 1913, probably because Indo-China in that year had an unusually large exportable surplus. IV. RICE TRADE OF INDIA WITH THE EMPIRE In Table VI annexed is given a statement of the imports of rice into all the countries of the Empire, so far as figures can be obtained. The imports from India are also shown as far as possible. It will be seen that India's position as a source of supply is already satisfactory, but that there is room for additional imports from India in the cases of the United Kingdom and the Straits Settle- ments, and possibly also Ceylon. India's position as a direct source of supply of rice in these three countries is indicated in the following summary : United Kingdom Ceylon Straits Settlements Total imports of rice per 3.UU.U111. Imports from India per annum* Percentage of Imports from India per annum. Average of years 1911-14. Tons. 244,062 343,173 758,260 Average of years 1911-14. Tons. 153,215 304,655 328,645 Average of years . 1911-14. 62 88i 43 1 In 1914 the imports into Ceylon from India were below the average, viz. 79 per cent. In 1915 they decreased to 78 per cent. INDIAN RICE 7 In these cases Siam is India's cjjief competitor, although Indo-China also supplies considerable quantities of rice to the Straits Settlements. Hong Kong is also a large importer of rice from Siam and Indo-China (see Tables IV and V), but statistics for that Colony are not available. The exports of Siam rice to these British Territories, and especially to the United Kingdom, are no doubt in part due to the operations of British firms in Siam. The explanation of the large share taken in the rice trade of the Straits Settlements and Hong Kong by Siam and Indo-China given to the Committee by the Rangoon rice-shipping firms is as follows : " The geographical position of Siam and Indo- China, and to some extent the better shipping facilities and relatively cheaper costs, are the main reasons for the predominant positions taken by Siam and Indo- China in the Far Eastern trade. In Siam the rice mills are all owned by Chinese or natives with Eastern connections. The bulk of the rice crop is known as ' garden ' rice, the remainder as ' field ' rice. The better qualities of ' garden ' rice were shipped to Europe by British and German firms, who bought it from the native millers. " Similar conditions obtain in Indo-China, but the grain being of an inferior type is normally purchase- able at a relatively low figure, and is quite suitable for the feeding of coolies and the poorer classes of natives in the Far East. The Eastern rice consumer is notoriously conservative. Accustomed to a certain quality of rice he will have that, if obtainable, and no other. " As regards shipping facilities, large fleets of Chinese and Japanese-owned steamers ply regularly between Siam and Saigon to Singapore and Hong Kong. India is dependent, to all intents and purposes, on one or two lines of steamers which are British-owned, and probably charge proportionally higher freights. Opportunities for shipment are fewer, but these would, no doubt, have been increased had there been an urgent demand for them." 2 8 INDIAN RICE The question of improving shipping facilities between Rangoon and Singapore in order to take advantage of the latter port as a distributing centre for rice to the Far East might well receive attention from the Government of India. V. RICE TRADE OF INDIA WITH THE UNITED KINGDOM AND THE CONTINENT Table VII shows the exports of rice from India to the chief European countries and to Egypt in each of the years 1900-1 to 1914-15 as given in the Indian Trade Returns. Up to and including 1902-3 these returns are incomplete, because the exports credited to Egypt probably included shipments " to await orders " at Port Said, but they show a large increase on the whole to Continental countries, whilst exports to the United Kingdom remained almost stationary. Figures supplied to the Committee by the rice-shipping firms in Rangoon show that the tendency of the trade has not been quite so disadvantageous to the United Kingdom as appears from the Indian Trade Returns, but even these figures show a remarkable increase in exports of Indian rice to the Continent, whilst exports to the United Kingdom slightly decreased. These figures are as follows : Exports of Rice from India to the United Kingdom and Continent. From Burma. From Bengal. Total from India. United Kingdom 1900 1913 Germany 1900 1913 Holland 1900 1913 Austria-Hungary 1900 1913 Total to United Kingdom Total to 3 Continental coun- tries Tons. Tons. Tons. 101,054 117,848 50,977 10,955 152,031 128,803 197,562 320,919 14,367 18,503 211,929 339,422 103,169 255,264 17,643 103,169 272,907 115,697 178,937 2,697 H5,697 181,634 1900 152,031 1913 128,803 430,795 793,963 INDIAN RICE 9 These figures are also not quite complete becauce they include only British imports of Indian rice which appear in the London and Liverpool bills of entry. For comparison with them it is not possible to quote official figures prior to 1902, as that was the first year in which the British Trade Returns gave separate figures for rice, rice flour and rice meal. The official figures for 1902 were abnormally low, and 1903 is the first year for which normal figures can be quoted. The imports of rice in that year amounted to 231,007 tons, of which 169,216 tons came from India. Between 1903 and 1913 the largest imports were received in 1910, viz. 301,156 tons, of which 170,274 tons came from India ; and the lowest in 1913, when 214,885 tons were received, of which 126,442 tons came from India. Consideration of all these figures leaves no doubt that the exports of Indian rice to the Continent, and especially to Holland and Germany, have increased far more rapidly than to the United Kingdom, and that the latter has come to depend more and more on rice cleaned and polished in Continental mills. The Committee have carefully investigated the reasons for this change in trade, and the information obtained may best be given in the form of an analysis of the con- ditions obtaining in each of the chief rice-importing countries. VI. IMPORTS, EXPORTS AND HOME CONSUMPTION OF RICE IN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES AND THE UNITED STATES Germany. Figures for the rice trade of Germany for the period 1910 to 1913 are shown in Table VIII. The trade was as follows for 1913 : Imports ..... 477,589 metric tons. Exports 184,340 Retained for consumption . . 293,249 The principal exports were to : Metric tons. Metric ions. Cuba .... 43,736 Russia .... 16,128 Colombia . . . 12,073 Dominican Republic . 11,496 Portugal . . . 10,578 United Kingdom . . 9,758 io INDIAN RICE It is noticeable that the amount of rice retained by Germany for home consumption was much larger than that retained by the United Kingdom (125,557 tons in 1913), and the exports from Germany were 184,340 metric tons as against 89,328 tons from the United Kingdom. So far as geographical position is concerned, Germany is advantageously situated for the export trade to Russia and Scandinavia, but the United Kingdom should, under equal conditions, be able to control the export trade from Europe to Germany's other chief customers in an article produced within the Empire. It is important to note that the imports of cleaned rice into Germany were increasing before the war, this change being probably a result of the growing German interest in the rice-milling trade in the East. ****** Most of the rice imported into Germany is shipped to Hamburg, and consequently the low charges at that port give the German rice miller a further advantage over his British competitor receiving his raw material via a dear port such as Liverpool or London (see p. 17, and Appendix II). ****** Holland. The figures for the rice trade of Holland for the period 1911 to 1915 are given in Table IX: the trade was as follows for 1913 : Imports ..... 415,972 metric tons. Exports 234,484 Retained for consumption . . 161,488 The principal exports were to : Germany ..... 62,205 metric tons. United Kingdom .... 37,447 ,, ,, Belgium 36,024 It will be seen that the Dutch home market for rice is larger than the British, and that the exports are much larger than those of the United Kingdom and somewhat larger than those of Germany. The export trade, however, differs materially from that of Germany and the United Kingdom in being mostly to contiguous countries. Owing to cheaper handling and quick discharge of cargoes at INDIAN RICE ii Dutch ports, shipowners usually conceded one shilling per ton on cargoes of rice to these ports. Lighterage on the Scheldt was so cheap that Dutch importers gave rice shippers the option of discharging at Antwerp for a con- cession of lod. per ton, i.e. lighterage from Antwerp to Amsterdam did not cost more than lod. per ton. Shippers therefore naturally preferred these ports. No duty is charged on imports of rice to Holland. Austria-Hungary. The figures for the rice trade of Austria-Hungary for the period 1910 to 1913 are shown in Table X : the trade was as follows for 1913 : Imports ..... 107,669 metric tons. Exports . . . . . 113 Retained for consumption . . 107,756 The exports are trifling, and all to contiguous coun- tries. The duty on white rice imported for consumption was is. 6d. ; on paddy, 2s. 6\d. per cwt. Paddy, cargo rice and cleaned rice were, however, allowed to be imported under control, for cleaning and for the manufacture of starch, at a special duty of ^\d. per cwt. (see Appendix III). France. The figures for the rice trade of France for each of the last five years are given in Table XI : the trade was as follows for 1913 : Imports ..... 273,205 metric tons. Exports 38.631 Retained for consumption . . 234,574 The principal exports were to : Senegal ..... 13,398 metric tons. Algeria 7,221 Switzerland 6,193 , The home trade is large, and the export trade is chiefly to the French Colonies of Algeria and Senegal. Indo-China practically controls the French market for rice, supplying about 79 per cent., as against about 9 per cent, from India. Exports of rice from French Indo-China to Europe go almost entirely to France, owing to the existence of an additional export duty on rice shipped from Saigon, which is rebated in the case of 12 INDIAN RICE shipments to France or French Colonies (see Appendix IV). The rates of this export duty are as follows : On paddy and cargo rice, including^ more than 33 per cent, of paddy . j 5S ' lld ' ^ metric ton ' On cargo rice, including less than^l , 33 per cent, of paddy . J 3S " 4 ' On white rice . . . . 2s. 6%d. ,, On dust and broken rice . . 2 '85^. (For details of other charges levied on rice exported from Saigon to all destinations, see Appendix IV.) The import duties per cwt. on rice in France are as follows : Rice in the husk, is. 2\d. ; broken rice, 25. 5 \d. ; whole rice, flour or grits, 35. 36?., in each case with a surtaxe d'entrepot of is. 5|d. per cwt. if in transit from European countries. Rice imported into France direct from Indo-China is admitted free of duty. Belgium. The figures for the rice trade of Belgium are given in Table XII : the trade was as follows for 1913 : Imports ..... 82,793 metric tons. Exports ..... 42,540 ,, ,, Retained for consumption . . 40,253 The principal exports were to : Netherlands .... 21,929 metric tons. Germany ... . 4,575 India is the chief direct source of supply, followed by Siam, and the trade is largely in transit, the Netherlands being the chief customer. No import duty was charged on rice in Belgium. United States. The figures for the rice trade of the United States for the periods 1912-13 to 1915-16 are given in Table XIII : the trade was as follows for 1913-14: Imports ..... 67,093 tons. Re-exports . . . . . 7,926 tons (exclud- ing 8,142 tons of home produce). Imported rice retained for consump- tion . . . . .59,167 tons. INDIAN RICE The re-exports of foreign rice were chiefly to other American countries in 1913-14 : Panama Nicaragua Mexico 2,801 tons. 1,016 1,984 ., The trade increased considerably in 1914-15. The United States produces about i per cent, of the world's output of rice and supplies the bulk of its own requirements. The home production in 1913 amounted to 319,200 tons of cleaned rice, and by 1916 had increased to 520,000 tons. This home-grown rice is of exceptionally high quality, and it is not likely that any considerable market for Indian rice could be found in the United States, unless the cultivation of the home-grown high-quality rice becomes unprofitable. The duties per cwt. on rice imported to the United States are as follows : Cleaned rice, 45. 6d. ; uncleaned rice, 2s. nd. ; paddy, is. gd. ; rice flour, rice meal and broken rice, is. 2d. United Kingdom. The figures for the rice trade of the United Kingdom for the period 1911 to 1915 are given in Table XIV : the trade was as follows in 1913 : Imports Re-exports 214,685 tons. 59,168 Retained for consumption and work- ing 155,717 Exports 30,160 Retained for consumption "5,557 The principal re-exports and exports in 1913 were Cuba British W. Africa British W. Indies Canada . Brazil United States Portugal . Re-exports. Exports. Total. Tons. Tons. Tons. 34,183 7,051 41,234 3,429 10,624 M,053 8,332 1,044 9,376 1,488 2,284 3,772 1,241 1,211 2,452 1,131 1,338 2,469 1,701 834 2,535 Table XIV shows that the imports of whole and cleaned rice from India have fluctuated a good deal in 14 INDIAN RICE the last thirteen years (1903-15), but on the whole have increased slightly. Imports from Siam have increased much more rapidly in proportion than the imports from India. This is stated to be due to the failure of Bengal supplies of rice, Siam rice being now prepared by millers in such a way that it resembles Patna rice, though it is inferior in quality ; but it is more likely to be due to the increasing British interest in the Siamese trade. The principal European sources of supply of fully milled rice to the United Kingdom in the three years before the war were Holland, about 34,000 tons annually, and Germany, about 1 1 ,000 tons annually ; it is noticeable that imports from Germany were declining a little before the war, having fallen to about 9,500 tons in 1912 and 1913. The imports of ground rice, rice flour and rice starch are all from European countries, with the exception of small imports of rice flour from Canada. There is no reason to suppose that any large propor- tion of rice milled on the Continent is re-exported from the United Kingdom, and it may be assumed that it is practically all consumed in this country. The figures show that the actual home market for whole and broken rice in the United Kingdom before the war averaged about 136,000 tons a year. In addition, there was an annual import of about 7,000 tons of rice flour, and about 12,000 tons of rice starch, making a total home market of about 155,000 tons for rice and rice products. Of this, about 49,000 tons of rice, and 19,000 tons of flour and starch, were imported from the Continent, chiefly from Holland and Germany, making in all about 68,000 tons of rice, rice starch and flour, which was the amount of the home trade of the United Kingdom done by Conti- nental countries. Since the war the home trade in rice has increased largely. The quantity actually retained in the United Kingdom has increased from an average of 136,000 tons in the years 1911-13 to 292,786 tons in 1915, and 268,554 in 1916. Part of the two last-named quantities, however, is believed to have been held for the Belgium Relief Commission. These totals do not include rice milled in the United Kingdom and subsequently exported, the INDIAN RICE 15 figures for which were 33,193 tons average for 1911-13, and 51,358 tons in 1915, but only 24,892 tons in 1916. In addition to recovering the portion of the home trade held by German and Dutch rice millers before the war, the United Kingdom ought to be able to secure a proportion of the German export trade in milled rice, if British rice-millers were able to compete on even terms with the Continental millers. VII. COMPARATIVE COST OF HANDLING, MILLING AND TRANSPORTING RICE IN THE UNITED KINGDOM AND ON THE CONTINENT The Committee were greatly impressed by the fact that out of about 136,000 tons of whole and broken rice used in the United Kingdom before the war, no less than about 49,000 tons were imported from the Continent, and if rice flour and rice starch are included, the Con- tinent's share in the home trade of the United Kingdom was about 68,000 tons out of 155,000 tons. The Com- mittee therefore gave much attention to the various stages by which Burma rice reached the British consumer through British, Dutch or German hands. There is every reason to suppose that the c.i.f. cost of rice from Burma to the United Kingdom and Dutch and German ports was about the same, and that Continental importers obtained no direct or indirect advantages over their competitors either in the country of export or in connection with shipping facilities or rates, apart from the concession of one shilling per ton on rice shipped to Dutch ports (see p. n). From this stage onwards it was clear from all the evidence that conditions were in several respects more favourable in Holland and Germany than in this country. (a) Situation of Mills. Liverpool is the chief centre of the rice-milling trade in the United Kingdom. The port has excellent shipping facilities both for the import of rice from the Far East and for the export and re-export of rice to some of the more important rice-consuming countries, such as West Africa and the West Indies, and, as would be expected from this circumstance, British 16 INDIAN RICE exports and re-exports of rice are chiefly to these areas. Liverpool is also well situated for the supply of rice starch and rice flour for use in the textile industries in Lancashire and Yorkshire. Its chief drawback is that port charges are very high, and this is enhanced, so far as the rice-milling trade is concerned, by the bad situation of the rice mills. The latter when built were for the most part situated near the points at which rice-carrying steamers loaded and unloaded, but with the development of the port and increase in the size of steamers conditions have changed, and the loading and unloading of rice now take place away from the mills, and the grain has to be carted to and from the mills and in transit from the import to the export steamer. The cost of cartage amounts to is. per ton on rice loaded for milling and consumption, and 25. per ton for rice in transit or to be milled and re-exported. In Germany, on the contrary, most of the mills are in or near Hamburg and Bremen, and are situated on the waterside. In many cases the rice can be taken straight from the steamer into the mill or vice versd y and in others it merely has to be lightered to the mill. Hamburg and Bremen have good shipping facilities to West Africa and the West Indies, and they are excep- tionally favourably situated for the export and re-export of rice to Russia. It is not surprising, therefore, that some of the best foreign customers for the German-milled rice were West Africa, West Indies, Central and South America and Russia. It is noticeable, however (compare Tables VIII and XIV), that the German export trade in rice is not only larger than that of the United Kingdom, but is much more widely distributed. The Dutch rice mills are situated in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Zaandam, and are believed to be all water- side mills, conveniently placed for the receipt and discharge of rice. As would be expected, the Dutch export trade in rice is largely to Germany and Belgium, for which the country has special advantages in its position and in its highly developed canal system. This special transit trade accounted for at least 40 per cent, of the exports in 1913 (see Table IX). INDIAN RICE (b) Port, Lighterage and Transport Charges. All the evidence taken showed that the cost of landing and ex- porting rice was higher in Liverpool than in Continental, and especially German, ports, and the figures for actual costs in Liverpool and Hamburg respectively were obtained from British firms operating independently in the two ports. These figures are given in detail in Appendix II, and may be summarised as follows : Rice Re-exported without Treatment. Liverpool. Charges for dues, porterage, cartage and handling, 35. $d. per ton. Amsterdam. Charges for discharging, sampling, etc., lighterage and loading, 35. 6d. per ton. Hamburg. Cost of transport from ship to ship iod. to is. 8d. per ton. Rotterdam. Cost of transhipment, 2s. 8%d. per ton. Rice Exported after Treatment in Mills. Hamburg. lod. to is. 8^. per ton each way where lighterage to and from mill and storage on lighters are incurred, making is. 8d. per ton minimum and 35. 4^. per ton maximum charge. Liverpool. Dues, porterage, cartage (25. od.) and handling, 55. 6d. per ton. Amsterdam. Charges for port dues, discharging cargo, receiving, etc., storage, lighterage, loading, 45. 6d. per ton. Rotterdam. Discharging, storage, lighterage and loading, 35. $d. per ton. It must be pointed out that these charges are not strictly comparable, owing to the different customs of each port and to differences in the items included ; but it appears that, as compared with Hamburg, Liverpool is handicapped to the extent of approximately 15. gd. to 25. yd. per ton for transit trade in rice, and from 25. 2d. to 45. Sd. per ton if the rice is cleaned in the Liverpool mills and then exported. The charges at the Dutch ports are higher than at Hamburg, but are still appreci- ably lower than those at Liverpool. The charges for transit trade at Amsterdam are as high as those at Liver- pool, but there is practically no sea-going transit trade in rice at Amsterdam and, as pointed out on page n, a i8 INDIAN RICE rebate of is. per ton was allowed at Dutch ports on rice cargoes for quick discharge. In a further attempt to arrive at strictly comparable figures for costs at Hamburg and Liverpool, the Com- mittee obtained an estimate of the cost of landing and milling rice from firms at Liverpool and an independent estimate from a firm who, before the war, were interested in mills at Hamburg. The difference between the two estimates was 35. 6d. per ton in favour of Hamburg, although the cost of milling was almost the same in the two estimates. (c) Equipment. It would appear that in some respects the machinery and equipment of English mills were, before the war, not quite equal to those of their com- petitors on the Continent, but there is no doubt that since the outbreak of war many improvements have been effected in these respects. Cost of Milling. It is admitted that the British mills are older and smaller than most of the German mills, and it was generally stated in evidence that labour in Germany was cheaper and more efficient than in the United Kingdom. It was to be expected therefore that the cost of milling rice would prove to be higher in British than in German mills. In view of this it was with some surprise that the Committee ascertained, by comparison of actual figures of costs, that the cost of milling rice before the war in mills in Hamburg and Liverpool operated independently by British mills was practically the same. (d) Through Transport Rates from Continental Ports to British Towns. It was frequently stated in evidence that the export of rice from Germany and Holland to the United Kingdom was greatly facilitated by low through rates to British towns from German and Dutch ports. The Committee therefore made careful enquiries on this point, and have ascertained that while it is true that shipping rates from Hamburg to towns on or near the East Coast were lower than either railway or shipping rates from Liverpool to the same towns, it is not true that the rates are lower to towns at any distance inland. The following typical examples of rates may be quoted : INDIAN RICE From Liverpool to From Hamburg to I,ots of 4 tons. I^ots of 2 tons. lyOtS Of I M - a i to. O O O TJ- O O O r- (VjONt^MMMO**- N CO CO ON M CO w 00 4 M" M" OO O T}- ON co N co *o vcT * co OO" ^ fO M N vd rf CO NCO < ro & ^ M MOO (f VO CO CO OCO 00 10 ON ro M tf) 00 M CO ro OfOO OO O *> fl : a <2I- o 11 * K "? II ^ s S "^ 5 63 K INDIAN RICE 47 TABLE VIII Trade oj Germany in Rice (a) Imports 1910. 1911. Unpolished Rice. Metric Metric From : tons. tons. India, etc. . . . 243,622 133,209 Siam .... 30,300 8,540 Netherlands Indies . . 1,911 4*44 French Indies . . . 22,018 45 Netherlands . . . 3,720 1,305 1912. Metric tons. 87,258 4,421 5,733 478 1913. Metric tons. 154,354 3,341 3,214 Japan . 2,278 I.97 1 28 Belgium . i 350 808 381 2,534 France . . 749 740 197 Egypt . . 150 829 Other Countries 457 2,243 1,125 Total . . 306 ,405 153.155 100,450 163,443 1910. 19". 1912. 1913- Polished Rice. Metric Metric Metric Metric From : tons. tons. tons. tons. India, etc. 66 ,755 184,936 252,724 215,464 Siam 28 ,283 26,701 20,864 53,066 Netherlands Indies . 9, 891 H.295 10,152 12,007 Netherlands 34.903 34,090 30,728 28,807 Belgium . . . 295 948 964 773 France . . 33i 28 7 35 Italy . 194 734 863 432 Autria-Hungary . 786 2,342 1,027 434 Roumania . . 82 573 582 Sweden . . 315 1,729 290- French India . . 47 1,138 Japan . . 545 461 89 2.491 Other Countries 241 1,166 587. Total . . 142 ,586 265,909 318,898 314,146 ITnpolished Rice: Total (6) Exports 1910. Metric tons. 800 1911. Metric tons. 228 1912. Metric tons. 25 4 8 INDIAN RICE 1910. 1911. 1912. 1913. Polished Rice. Metric Metric Metric Metric To: tons. tons. tons. tons. Cuba .... 42,092 43,802 35', 1 65 43.736 Great Britain . 11,269 12,466 8,625 9,758 Russia .... 10,189 13,588 13,267 16,128 Portugal 9,058 I3,o8l 8.467 10,57 s Brazil .... 9,367 6,476 5, no 3,503 Dominican Republic 8,780 9.138 12,278 11,496 Colombia 5,631 9,051 9,450 12,073 Chile .... 5,844 5,327 4,870 5,602 Panama .... 3,196 5,318 5,500 3,569 British West Africa. 3,960 5,949 6,340 5,720 Cameroons . 4,030 3,96i 5,542 5,171 Denmark 5,653 5,152 3,9ii 4,737 Austria-Hungary 2,091 6,309 3,395 4,98o Turkey .... 2,909 3,242 3,610 3,227 German South- West Africa 2,569 3,261 2,689 2,764 French West Africa 2,567 10,432 4,068 2,231 Liberia . . . . 2,837 i,947 1,843 1,259 Portuguese West Africa . 3,748 4,398 4,148 4,664 Argentina 2,846 3,376 839 4,687 Costa Rica 1,623 1,981 1,942 1,047 Ecuador .... 1,580 3,421 4,3o6 965 1,975 1,174 174 Peru .... 1,572 * / T^ i,549 / T 1,550 1,114 Haiti . 1,424 3,137 2,280 i, 080 Uruguay . 4,307 4,960 1,472 2,821 Venezuela 4,007 6,020 4,760 2,968 United States of America . 4,235 2,907 2,312 2,918 Other Countries 10,223 15,489 14,397 15.543 Total . 169,582 206,912 172,310 184,340 Year. 1910 . 1911 . 1912 . 1913 Average' of 4 years (c) Summary of German Trade in Rice Imports. Metric tons. 448,991 419,064 419,348 441,248 Exports. Difference (excess of Metric imports over exports). tons. Metric tons. 170,382 278,609 207,140 211,924 172,335 247,013 184,340 293,249 183,549 257,700 The above figures are " Spezialhandel " (Special Commerce. See intro- ductory note to Appendix I). The figures for " Gesamteigenhandel " (General Commerce') for 1912 are as follows: Total imports, 461,416 tons; total exports, 176,552 tons. The " Transit Trade " in rice (polished and unpolished] in 1912 was 56,417 tons. This is not included in General Commerce in the German Returns. INDIAN RICE 49 (d) " Improvement Tirade " (" Veredelungsverkehr "), 1912 Import of rice for refining (or improvement) in Germany in 1912 Rice unpolished. Metric tons. For husking 72.958 For polishing .... i77 I 3 Total import ..... 90,671 Rice polished. For production of starch . . . . 22,218 For polishing 56,401 For rice husking mills ..... 189,056 For production of rice meal . . . . 307 For conversion into rice grits ... n For conversion into flaked rice ... 13 Total import 268,007 Export after refining (or improvement) from Germany in 1912 Metric tons. Rice, unpolished . . . . . . 23 Rice, polished ...... 172,059 (e) Transit Trade, 1912 Rice, Polished and Unpolished Metric tons. In. Out. Total . . . 56,417 56,417 Belgium 1,756 Denmark ..... 116 United Kingdom .... 442 838 Italy . I 4 6 Netherlands .... 5,660 257 Norway ..... 134 395 Austria-Hungary .... 1,572 22,249 Portugal ..... 206 Roumania ..... II 10 Russia . . . . 23 8,926 Finland ..... 136 Sweden ..... 65 692 Switzerland ..... 30 2,058 Serbia 62 Turkey 18 4 British East Africa ... 15 British South Africa . 55 British West Africa ii Cameroons . . . 332 Belgian Congo . 10 Portuguese West Africa 33 British India, etc. 45,702 China 79 Netherlands East Indies, etc. 2,277 105 Persia 17 Siam ...... 60 Argentina no Brazil 81 32 Cuba 16,432 Dominican Republic 34 United States .... 80 1,512 INDIAN RICE From: Belgium . India Netherlands East Indies Other Countries Total TABLE IX Dutch Trade in Rice (a) Imports I9II. 1912. I9I3- I9I4* IQIV Mctrictons. Metricians. Metricians. Mttrictons. Metricians. 33,077 233.574 36,381 42,962 235,085 39,048 28,265 32,339 285,481 42,289 55,863 6,351 264,288 21,491 69,046 3,049 31,042 21,241 67,354 345,994 339,654 415,972 361.176 122,686 To: Belgium United : Hamburg Prussia Surinam Total (b) Exports 1911. 1912. Metric tons. Metric tons. 1913. 1914. 1915. Metricians. Metricians. Metricians. 33,867 39,937 36,024 37,447 11,644 50,561 6,619 92,189 27,826 71,727 24,188 393 16,702 97,974 3,427 5,871 2.783 65,277 270 kingdom . . 39,181 35,734 { 6,633 9,980 . 58,130 52,537 8,289 8,734 mntries * . 54,927 62,742 il 201,027 209,664 234,484 237.838 78,600 (c) Summary of Dutch Trade in Rice ar. Imports. Exports. Hi . . . . 345.994 201,027 H2 . . . . 339.654 209,654 H3 415,972 234,484 H4 361,176 237,838 H5 .... 122,686 78,600 Retained for Consumption. 144,967 129,990 181,488 123,338 44,086 NOTE. The above are " general " imports and " general " exports. (See introductory note to Appendix I.) In 1913 the " special " imports were 408,208 metric tons and the " special " exports 225,369 metric tons, leaving 182,839 metric tons as retained for consumption. The figures in Table IX are taken from the Netherlands Government Trade Statistics. The various descriptions of rice are not shown separately. TABLE X Trade of Atutria-Hnngary in Rice : (a) Imports (i) Paddy: Negligible (2) Rice, Whole and Broken, not Cleaned (for Polishing and Starch Manufacture) From: Italy Spain India Dutch Indies . Japan . Egypt . Netherlands . French Indo-China Other Countries 1912. Metric tons. Metric tons. Metric tons. Metric tons. 30 60 5 2,664 1,905 199 300 795 "7,344 107,407 78,198 80,426 419 1,156 I8 7 1,960 5,6o8 2,047 997 478 506 598 1,205 153 1,804 10 10 Total 127,097 111,874 80,944 85,086 INDIAN RICE (3) Imports of Whole and Broken Cleaned Rice From: Belgium . Germany Great Britain . Italy Netherlands India Netherlands East Indies Other Countries Total 1910. Metric 1911. Metric 7912. Metric 1913- Metric tons. tons. tons. tons. 9 184 { 1,170} 787 4,995 80 526 00 136 8,638 10,972 11,885 9,818 1.039 1,847 2,428 2,850 1,406 6,276 4,441 4,648 368 1,525 203 265 12 59 36 50 [1,728 22,419 19.870 22,771 (b) Exports (i) Paddy: Negligible (2) Cleaned, Whole and Broken Rice 1910. 1911. 1912. 1913* Metric Metric Metric Metric To: tons. tons. tons. tons. Germany 16 23 38 61 Greece . 20 Italy 3 2 3 Montenegro" . 3 4 20 Roumania 2 3 5 3 Russia (European) . 32 23 15 33 Turkey (European) . 10 6 42 8 Other Countries 2 3 Total . 8 5 65 122 I08 (c) Summary ! oj Trade of Austria-Hungary in Rice Imports.i Export3.i Retained for consumption. Metric tons. Metric tons. Metric tons. 1910 . 138,831 87 138,744 1911 134,296 65 134,231 1912 . 100,827 123 100,704 1913 - 107,869 "3 107,756 NOTE. The above figures are " Spezialhandel." " Transit " trade is given separately in the Trade Returns, and was as follows in recent years : 1910, 3,225 ; 1911, 2,700 ; 1912, 1,829 ; 1913, 2,344 rnetric tons. Figures taken from the Statistics of the Foreign Trade of Austria-Hungary. Including paddy. INDIAN RICE TABLE XI Trade of France in Rice : (a) Imports (i) Riz en Faille (Cargo Rice) 1911. 1912. 1913. 1914. Metric Metric Metric Metric From : tons. tons. tons. tons. Italy .... 7,657 10,026 7,663 6,306 Spain .... 1,740 3,460 2OO Egypt . 6,970 3,068 1,926 660 British India . 17,067 7,186 20,844 16,842 Netherlands East Indies . 7,743 3,623 6,750 3,506 Madagascar 2,183 1,073 711 201 Indo-China 36,689 33,118 10,798 12,450 Other Countries 826 64 II 239 Total . 79,134 59,898 52,163 40,407 (2) Riz Entier, Farines, et Semoules (Whole, Flour and Grits) 1911. 1912. 1913. 1914. Metric Metric Metric Metric From: tons. tons. tons. tons. United Kingdom 192 263 280 2,637 British India . 906 1 86 3,767 568 Egypt .... 497 210 Germany . 355 348 186 65 Netherlands 8,341 57 l8 5,185 2,909 Netherlands East Indies . 123 Belgium .... 738 258 339 112 Italy .... i,745 1,387 598 5,43 Madagascar 177 270 3,324 1,126 Indo-China 145,974 108,087 155,7" 229,489 Algeria .... 117 227 United States . 196 Spain .... 227 2, 1 66 Other Countries . 590 473 203 757 Total . 159,018 "7,428 170,545 245,442 (3) Brisures de Riz (Broken Rice) 1911. 1912. 1913- 1914. Metric Metric Matric Metric From : tons. tons. tons. tons. United Kingdom 433 201 233 40 British India . 5" 445 79 10 Netherlands 406 69 19 Switzerland - . 400 Madagascar 259 85 109 66 Indo-China 41,790 26,384 49,738 76,035 Italy .... 1,229 Algeria .... 254 244 Other Countries 729 1,018 15 3 Total . 44.528 29,362 50,497 76,418 INDIAN RICE 53 (b) Exports (i) Riz en Faille (Cargo Rice) To: Switzerland French Colonies Other Countries Total 1911. 1912. 1913- 1914. Metric Metric Metric Metric tons. tons. tons. tons. 3,313 834 1,662 1,289 I 7 2 249 121 18 616 28 5 4,101 i, in 1,787 1.309 (2) Riz Entier, Farines et Semoules (Whole, Flour and Grits) 1911. Metric 1912. Metric 1913- Metric 1914. Metric To: tons. tons. tons. tons. United Kingdom I,l63 728 1,067 No details given. British West Africa. 630 658 795 do. Germany 1,061 259 678 do. Switzerland 1,092 603 4,53i do. Turkey .... 109 554 285 do. West Africa . 257 296 do. Hayti .... 112 187 140 do. Morocco . 134 148 5io do. Tripoli .... 178 do. C29 7,I75 do. Tunis .... 377 J, *) -7 1,200 / * / J 363 do. French Congo 137 598 283 do. Senegal . . . 12,236 9,369 4,734 do. French Guiana 389 406 216 do. Martinique i,532 371 i, 060 do. Guadeloupe i,493 566 1,124 do. Belgium .... 305 113 do. Spain .... 319 do. Italy .... 103 816 do. Greece .... 177 do. Other Countries 4,685 4,164 2,944 do. Total . 30.184 26,365 27,189 31,176 (3) Brisures de Riz (Broken Rice) 1911. 1912. 1913. 1914. Metric Metric Metric Metric To : tons. tons. tons. tons. United Kingdom 245 150 50 424 British West Africa. 150 506 2OO Germany 1,211 57 Belgium .... 103 264 1,124 Switzerland . . . 104 Senegal .... 2,967 3,423 8,664 26,752 West Africa . 385 Other Countries 140 349 170 496 Total . 4,771 4,514 9,655 28,996 54 INDIAN RICE (c) Summary of Trade oj France in Rice Year. IQII 1912 1913 Imports. Exports. Retained for Metric Metric consumption. tons. tons. Metric tons. 282,681 39,056 243,625 206,688 31,990 174.698 273,205 38,631 *34.574 362,267 61,481 300,786 NOTE. All the above figures are " Commerce General." Statistics in Table No. XI are taken from the " Tableau Central du Com- merce de la France." TABLE XII Trade of Belgium in Rice : (a) Imports (i) Uncleaned Rice From : China . French West Africa . Egypt India British Indo-China (sic) Persia Spain Netherlands Siam Turkey . Other Countries Total 1911. Metric tons. 7. 1 49 20,219 915 1.795 5,972 617 1912. Metric tons. 1,082 31,439 8,351 15,972 706 Metric tons. 2,425 2,335 20.939 275 2,296 1,000 714 39,001 59,974 25,226 (2) Cleaned Rice 1911. 1912. 1913- Metric Metric Metric From : tons. tons. tons. Germany 2,250 2,501 3,383 United Kingdom 5,677 1,174 Austria-Hungary 2,911 237 Denmark . 1,963 France I 4 6 2 7 2 India 15,021 35,537 20,367 British Indo-China (sic) 10,140 Italy 323 1,379 M7 Spain 169 372 Japan 413 247 M5 Netherlands 35,094 10,609 13,536 Netherlands East Indies 566 423 456 Argentina 534 350 Roumania L358 645 257 Siam 2,415 15,387 Other Countries . - 620 606 I0 7 Total 77,324 52,849 57.567 INDIAN RICE 55 (6) Exports (i) Uncleaned Rice rr* 1911. Metric 1912. Metric 19*3' Metric To : tons. tons. tons. Netherlands 3,428 10,664 3,196 Other Countries 499 I 4 8 26 Total . 3,927 10,812 3,222 To : (2) Cleaned Rice Belgian Congo . 4,163 3,875 3,762 Germany . 7,462 7,053 4,575 Colombia Republic . 1,965 455 French West Africa . 1,115 578 Cuba 2,185 Spain 1,324 '664 L305 France 7,009 719 Luxemburg 622 303 301 United Kingdom I,OOI 1,957 1,003 Mexico 672 Panama . 318 Morocco . . 967 Netherlands 20,559 18,561 18,733 Portugal . 830 623 1,966 Russia . 555 248 Argentina 1,510 24 50 Roumania . 252 Turkey . . . 972 1,181 !,447 Other Countries 3,337 2,151 3,073 Total 64,172 41,355 39,318 NOTE. The above figures are " Commerce Special." Transit trade is shown separately, and in 1913 was as follows : Paddy or uncleaned rice . . 11,173 m. tons. Cleaned rice .... 29,567 m. tons. All the figures in Table XII are from the Belgian Official Trade Returns. TABLE XIII Trade of United States in Rice * : (a) Imports (i) Uncleaned Rice (including Paddy) From: Japan . . India United Kingdom British Guiana . Hong Kong Netherlands Mexico Other Countries Total 1 The United States produces about i per cent, oj the world's output oj rice, and supplies the bulk oj its own requirements. 1912-13. 1913-14. 1914-15. Tons. Tons. Tons. 21,214 23,22O 38,848 151 99 25 500 356 1,422 257 50 22 7 25 430 184 605 25 61 159 23,116 24,456 40,286 INDIAN RICE (2) Cleaned Rice 1912-13. 1913-14. 1914-15. From: Tons. Tons. Tons. Netherlands 1,125 21,611 3,538 United Kingdom 1,622 2,175 13.741 Canada 3 I8 4 870 Hong Kong 1,274 1,870 2,873 Germany . 97 2,106 202 Japan 9 69 809 China 9,625 13,579 27,462 Italy 553 635 152 Other Countries 297 408 405 Total 14,105 42,637 50,052 (&) Re-exports (i) Uncleaned Rice Total (to Mexico) 49 4 To: < 2 > Cleaned Rice Panama . 499 2,801 6,249 Mexico 955 1,984 3,069 Nicaragua 2,208 1,018 2,231 Netherlands . 27 455 Costa Rica 348 435 935 Cuba 16 i 1,183 Dominican Republic . 83 223 3,97 Colombia Republic . 136 57 2,177 Ecuador . 3 135 849 Venezuela. 138 77 2,139 Other Countries 1,263 1,119 3,H2 Total 5,649 7.877 26,369 To: (c) Exports Cuba 299 5,079 11,313 Honduras . 484 670 946 Panama . . 76 126 2,170 Dominican Republic . 24 22 2,994 Argentina 3,401 I 1,752 Chile 9 817 Colombia Republic . 20 8 1,154 Venezuela. 19 12 1,899 Mexico ... 196 577 778 Belgium . . 206 1,021 Germany . 990 173 Greece i I,3l6 Netherlands 3,8i9 5 2,260 United Kingdom 218 302 L583 Canada . 863 466 245 Belgian Congo . . 60 7 Other Countries 661 486 2,470 Total 11,071 8,142 33,682 NOTE. Broken rice is included with rice flour and meal in the United States Returns. Table XIII. Figures taken from the " Foreign Commerce and Naviga~ tion oj the United States." *P O O\ "* O vO 00 ^ N VO (M r^ 2 O M I j c w I M 10 r^. o\ o t^ co ' ^-M' o^^~ a oo r^ o f o> N M .-.. co I I I C^VO^COONVO ?^?VN| | M Tt-covooNoo 00 M 00 Tf- M If) O ^ <" ,' M I I ON I 10 -r O M O N | | I -O t vO Kl M a oo vo S| o s ON VI 9. *" ^^ 57 r <* - I w *< ^t- . ^oo 1 ' O vO t^, O 00 vo O CO I I iO v3^ M to . M CO VN J^ w 10 " CO M ON O VO vO tn M "T c< CO M CO 10 I US' 00 CO M T ON oo % & I i o CO in N fi as Is fo w CO CO ON I 10 o , vo t^ ON co 2^^ I co O ' I j | ! o o 55 o i Its i CO M cf ,-00 ONM ONCO O * -^ vO O O co ON CO CO CO ON o O vO H ^ co VO rt- N ON N J? a M O O M >O ON O Tf VO t^. M M t-> ON co ^ co o M J^ M ,0 M vo ^ I 10 M ' "Sb S H-l r5 P *^ Jllli } I i i - ( I ~* O * . 59 60 INDIAN RICE sj (&) Re-exports (i) Rice, Whole and Cleaned 1911. 1912. 1913- 1914. 1915 To: Tons. Tons. Tons. Tons. Tons. West Indies 9,669 6,812 7,295 7,738 M,773 West Africa 4,161 3,659 3,429 3,175 2,035 I ci8 i 048 Q- . ^,554 I 78s Other British Countries 969 * , V ^T- V -' 1,236 995 999 * / U J 2,327 France 13 59 32 1,282 1,612 French West Indies . 1,490 74 77 562 Portugal . 672 i,990 1,701 3,274 6,188 United States . 573 60 1 909 2,736 11,565 Cuba .... 36,935 33,085 34,183 47,055 62,134 Brazil 1,439 1,241 697 Q3Q Germany . 229 gM -**T J:7 4,538 374 Vp/ .7 / 455 Sweden 4 4 1,177 8 7 I Denmark . 10 9 12 1,793 3,411 Netherlands 48 98 53 1,922 7,602 Other Countries . 5,064 5,195 3,363 3,459 13,310 Total . 62 880 K.Q 847 M6i8 77,3^6 i2o ni 1 jy>*~"i I ,w *.<- A ** y* * * J (2) Rice, other than Whole and Cleaned 1911. 1912. 1913. 1914. 1915. To: Tons. Tons. Tons. Tons. Tons. Canada 662 1, 006 535 6,179 2,300 British West Indies . 4,024 i,435 1,036 2,860 117 Other British Countries 5i 233 214 154 73 Belgium 6,056 105 i,255 585 France 600 784 French West Indies . 510 44 17 102 Spain 50 2OO 1,643 United States . 149 222 8 7 I 1.247 Germany . 1,309 2,012 869 2 Netherlands 288 128 950 18,405 Other Countries . 1,299 550 105 133 1,684 Total . . 14,249 5,534 4,378 12,636 26,253 (3) Mixtures of Whole and Broken (Cleaned) Rice 449 685 172 175 in Grand Total, Re-exports 77,578 66,066 59,168 90,127 155,479 INDIAN RICE 61 (c) Exports of British-milled Rice To: 1911 Tons. 1912* Tons. 19*3' Tons. 1914. Tons. 1915- Tons. Gambia. .... 934 831 766 1,308 3" Gold Coast. 3,885 4,496 4,896 5,441 5,699 Nigeria .... 8 ^2"> 7,162 4.Q6l 7,098 4,938 Canada .... 2 26S tf>y v * 2 284. / * V ;7 V -' I.6QQ *T* -7J 12^ British West Indies . 578 ***J 145 |W^ 305 * w :7 ;7 927 * ** J 245 British Honduras 940 772 739 764 6I 4 Other British Countries 2,591 963 1,105 942 2,049 Russia .... 433 177 36i 146 92 France .... 5 944 117 French West Africa . 1,158 733 373 421 477 Portugal .... 1,160 936 834 2,053 7,440 Madeira *? 456 644 425 404 294 Portuguese West Africa 922 484 599 1,099 530 United States . 1,843 1,443 1,338 1,950 5,557 Cuba 3, 921 7,051 2,023 5,684 Brazil .... ? 1:94 J> y J 2,211 / > >J * 1,211 957 468 German West Africa . 603 717 326 313 i,556 Switzerland 1,204 Spain .... 5 22 1,355 16 Canary Islands . 7>3 498 421 331 368 Liberia . 558 654 370 552 1,201 Colombia .... 668 1,412 75 653 3,234 Panama .... 1,003 625 332 152 54 Peru 297 328 340 191 546 Other Countries . 1,057 750 1,017 1,491 5,957 Total . 35,893 33,526 30,160 33,379 5L358 (d) (i) Summary of Trade ign 1912 1913 1914 1915 Imports Re-exports Retained Exported Retained of rice of rice of for con- after for con- of all all kinds. sumption milling. sumption. kinds. or working. Tons. Tons. Tons. Tons. Tons. 243,472 77,576 165,894 35,^93 130,001 251,320 66,066 185,254 33,526 152,728 214,885 59,168 155,717 30,160 125,557 266,574 90,127 176,447 33,379 143,068 499,623 155,479 344,144 5L358 292,786 (d) (2) Chief Sources of Supply Percentages of Total Imports supplied by Countries named in Years 1911-15 1913. 1914- 1915. 1. PRODUCING COUNTRIES. India Siam ..... Indo-China .... 2. IMPORTING AND MILLING COUNTRIES. Germany ..... Netherlands 1911. 61 6 nil 5 14 1912. 71 4 nil 4 13 58 59 15 26 below i i 5 16 57 29 6 7 62 INDIAN RICE (d] (3) Percentages of British Home Consumption of Rice supplied by Germany 1911. Tons. IQI2. Tons. 1913- Tows. 1914. Tows. Tows. TOTAL BRITISH IMPORTS FOR CONSUMPTION. Rice .... 130,001 152,728 125,557 143,068 292,786 Rice flour . . . 6,364 8,058 7,261 4,306 28 Rice starch . . . 13,541 11,267 11,106 8,815 3,329 Total . 149,906 172,053 143,924 156,189 296,143 IMPORTS FROM GERMANY. Rice Rice flour Rice starch Total . 13,099 8,790 9,850 4,847 1,119 1,274 494 386 2,121 1,776 1,702 961 16,339 11,840 12,046 6,194 IMPORTS FROM NETHERLANDS. Rice Rice flour Rice starch Total 34,004 33,246 34,876 19,096 1 66 ir . . . 4,340 rch . . 3,298 5,7*5 3,078 6,270 3,252 3,852 3,3o8 2,342 . . . . 4^,642 42,039 44,398 26,256 2,508 GERMAN PERCENTAGE DUTCH PERCENTAGE Total . n 28 39 7 24 39 20 NOTE. In compiling this table it has been assumed that, as stated by representatives of the rice trade, practically none of the, polished rice and rice products received from Germany and Holland are re-exported from the United Kingdom, and that they may therefore fairly be regarded as imported for con- sumption. The percentages arrived at are, if anything, too low, because the total imports nclude a large proportion of unfinished produce, whilst the imports from Germany and the Netherlands are almost entirely finished products (polished rice, rice flour and rice starch} ready for consumption. All figures in Table XIV are taken *rom the Annual Statements of Trade of the United Kingdom. INDIAN RICE 63 APPENDIX II PORT CHARGES ON RICE AT HAMBURG, LIVERPOOL, LONDON, AMSTERDAM AND ROTTERDAM HAMBURG 1. Port dues .... Nil 2. Landing charges . . . Nil (most mills at waterside). 3. Lighterage to mill . . . lod. per ton where incurred. 4. Transhipment charge . . . lod. to is. 8^. per ton (depend- ing on demand for storage barges) per month. LIVERPOOL Per ton. s. d. 1. Port dues (inwards) . . . . i i 2. Landing charges : Porterage . . . i 4$ Handling ...06 3. Cartage to mill ..... i o Total Cost of Landing and Delivery to Mill 3 nj 4. Cartage to export steamer i o 5. Port dues, outward ..... o 6J Total Cost of Landing, Delivery to Mill and Re-export ... 5 6 Total Cost of Transhipping Rice for Re-export (Omitting Items i and 3 in above list) ..... LONDON Per ton. s. d. 1. Port dues ......04 2. Landing charges 1 ..... 3 9 3. Delivery overside from steamer (d) Weighing and sampling . . on (&) Lighterage in port i 6 Total Cost of Rice Landed and Ware- housed (Items i and 2) . . . 41 Total Cost of Rice Delivered to Export Steamer or Waterside Mill (Items i and 3) 2 92 1 Includes cost of weighing and four weeks' rent. ? With a minimum charge of 50$. 64 INDIAN RICE AMSTERDAM Per ton. s. d. 1. Port dues (inwards) 1 . . u . o 3 2. Discharging from steamer. . . . i 6 3. Cost of receiving, weighing, sampling and repairing bags .....09 4. Storage on lighter and transport to mill by water 09 Total Cost of Discharging to Lighter and Delivery to Mill . . . 33 5. Lighterage to export steamer ...09 6. Loading into steamer ....06 7. Port dues (outwards) 2 nil Total Cost of Landing, Delivery to Mill and Re-export .... 4 6 Total Cost of Transhipping Rice for Re-export by Sea-going Vessels 3 (Omitting Items i, 4 and 7 above) 1 Charged at 4^ cents per cubic metre, gross tonnage of the ship. 8 No outward port dues are charged if steamer leaves within three months of arrival. 3 There is practically no re-export of rice from Amsterdam by sea-going vessels, the direction of trade being practically all to Germany. ROTTERDAM Per ton. s. d. 1. Port dues ...... nil 2. Sampling, weighing and bringing overboard into lighter, storing in lighter and trans- port to mill by lighter 1 ...19 Total Cost of Discharging to Lighter and Delivery to Mill Lighterage to export steamer and loading into steamer ..... Total Cost of Discharging to Lighter, Delivery to Mill and Re-export . Total Cost of Transhipping Rice for Re-export 1 Cost of discharge is borne by steamer and is not included in this schedule : it amounted to $d. per ton before the war. INDIAN RICE APPENDIX III FOREIGN IMPORT DUTIES ON RICE IN FORCE IN 1914 English equivalent Countries. Description of Rice. of rates of entry. Per cwt. $. d. Russia . .In the husk ..... 3 nj Not in the husk .... 6 loj Finland . . .In the husk ..... i oj Husked 2 oj Rice groats . . . . . 4 io Sweden . . . Rice unhusked or with the outer husk removed ..... Free Rice groats and rice flour . . i ij Norway . . .In the husk in bulk in vessel . 2 2$ Ditto in packages . . . 2 10 Not in the husk . . . . 3 ii Denmark . . In the husk (nellou and paddy) . Free Rice groats, ground rice and rice starch i ij Germany . . Rice, in the husk or not . . 2 2 o Netherlands . . Rice, rice offal, etc. .... Free Belgium . . . Rice in the husk or not . . . Free France 3 . . . In the husk 2 i 2f l Broken rice . . . . 2 2 5J 1 Whole rice, flour and grits . 2 3 3 1 Portugal . . Rice . . . . . . 8 n Broken rice and residues of cleaned rice 7 per cent, for starch manufacture . . .ad valorem Spain . . . Rice in the husk, and rice waste . . 2 if Rice husked 4 3f Italy . . .In the husk 2 2 o Partly husked, i.e. having to undergo further manipulation before it can be used for alimentary purposes (includ- ing Burma rice) . . . 2 3 oj Not in the husk . . . 2 4 5f Austria-Hungary . Rice wholly or partly in the husk, imported to be cleaned, and rice and broken rice for the manufacture of starch, and coming by sea (by special permission and under control) . 2 o 4^ Rice, other : In the husk . . . . 2 2 6 Not in the husk ; also broken rice . 2 i 6J Rice waste ..... 2 Free 1 With a surtax of is. $%d. per cwt. if produced in extra-European countries but transhipped in European entrepdts. 2 Gross weight. 3 Rice imported into France direct from Indo-China is admitted free of duty. 66 INDIAN RICE Countries. Switzerland Greece . Turkey . Bulgaria 1 Roumania Serbia . United States Mexico . Argentina Japan China Persia English equivalent Description of Rice. of rates of entry. Per cwt. s. d. Unhusked or merely husked ; rice ofial for use as cattle food . 'Free Pearled, bruised, crushed, etc. . Rice flour in receptacles weighing : More than 5 kilos .... 5 kilos or less .... In the husk ..... Husked, glazed or not Rice Husked Unhusked ..... Rice in the husk .... Husked rice ..... Broken rice imported for industries . Consumption duty in addition on rice Husked . . Unhusked and broken rice Broken rice for making starch under supervision ..... Tresharina, in addition, on rice . Cleaned rice ..... Uncleaned rice, or rice free of the outer hull and still having the inner cuticle on ...... Paddy, or rice having the outer hull on Rice flour, rice meal and broken rice which will pass through a No. 12 sieve of a kind prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury .... Rice . Rice (including weight of sack) . Rice unhusked (including weight of sack) Rice and paddy .... Rice Rice 9l o| It 71 lOf ii per cent. ad valorem 2 2 7i 4-88 z i 2 2 2 7* 7i 7t 9l it 8 ii 9 2 3t 4l 8| Free NOTE. The above table is extracted from "Foreign Import Duties" (Cd. 7180) prepared by the Board of Trade, 1913. 1 Plus octroi duty of 20 per cent, of import duty payable. 2 Gross weight. INDIAN RICE 67 APPENDIX IV EXPORT DUTIES ON RICE IN INDIA, SIAM AND FRENCH INDO-CHINA INDIA THE rate of duty on rice of all kinds, but not rice dust, exported from Burma is 3 annas per maund of 82y lb., which is equivalent to 65. g\d. per ton (or 65. Sd. per metric ton). SIAM The duty levied on the export of rice is 3 ticals per ton. With exchange at the rate of is. 6d. per tical, this is equivalent to 45. 6d. per ton. FRENCH INDO-CHINA Rice exported from Indo-China is subject to payment of the following duties : (1) An export duty levied exclusively on rice exported to foreign countries, and from which rice shipped to France or French Colonies is consequently exempt. Per metric ton. s. d.\ Dust and broken, 0-03 f. per 100 kilos. . = o 2-85 Paddy and cargo rice, including more than 33 per cent, of paddy, 0-75 f. per 100 kilos . = 5 n Cargo rice, including less than 33 per cent, of paddy, 0-43 f. per 100 kilos . . .= 34 White rice, 0-32 f. per 100 kilos . . . = 2 6 (2) An export tax, representing the land tax, collected on all rice exported from Indo-China to any destination whatever : This tax is in piastres, and is fixed as follows (a piastre = 24*) : Per metric ton. s. d. Paddy and cargo rice, including more than 33 per cent, of paddy, per 100 kilos gross 0-12 p. . . . . .= 25 Paddy and cargo rice, including less than 33 per cent, of paddy, per 100 kilos gross 0-15 p = 30 White rice per 100 kilos gross 0-19 p. . . = 3 9$ Broken rice per 100 kilos gross 0-09 p. . . = I g\ X/USL per 100 kilos gross 0-05 p.. . , = I o 68 INDIAN RICE (3) Rice, paddy and rice dust exported through the port of Saigon for all destinations are, in addition, liable to a port tax, the rates of which are as follows : Rice per 100 kilos, 0*02 p. . Paddy and dust per 100 kilos, o-oi p. . Per metric ton. s. d. .= o 5 . = O 2 The total effect of these taxes may be summarised as follows : (I) Export duty.i (2) I65 5 acres, or one-third, in the West Coast Residency. For the following season, 1915-16, the area returned as planted with wet paddy was 22,299 acres, and with dry paddy 27,169 acres, a total of 49,468 acres, or slightly less than the total for 1914-15. PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE 85 Apart from drought and such pests as rats, the small average production is partly explainable by the primitive methods of cultivation. Even in good years production is far from being equal to consumption, taking the country as a whole. In the published trade returns the imports of rice are not shown separately, but the imports of " Rice Flour and Grain," which largely consist of rice, increased from about 8,000 tons in 1903 to about 15,000 tons in 1913. In the latter year the Sandakan Residency alone imported 4,625 tons of rice. The exports of paddy and rice really in the nature of re-exports are rarely more than about 200 tons per annum ; in the period 1903-13 the maximum figure was 585 tons in 1907. In his report for 1913 the Governor stated : " The native population grows about sufficient for its own consumption in an average year, but does not seem inclined to extend cultivation to any appreciable extent, in spite of the ex- cellent market available for any surplus rice. It is to the Chinese settlers that the country must look for supplies in the future. Any amount of suitable land is to be had for the asking, and it is to be hoped that with the active assistance of Government in the important matters of drainage and irrigation enough rice may be produced eventually to feed the whole of the Asiatic population, and thus retain in the country some $750,000 (87,500) per annum at present expended on importation of foreign rice." In the Agricultural Report for 1913 it was noted that foreign seed paddy introduced in 1912 appeared to be much appreciated both for its quality and its rapid growth. Sarawak. Rice is largely grown by the natives, and to a less extent by some of the Chinese settlers, but the country is not self-supporting in rice. There is little trade in paddy ; imports and exports amount in some years to a few hundred tons, with the balance now on one side and now on the other. But the importation of rice is on a comparatively large scale, and is a Government monopoly. In the five years 191216 the quantities imported were 13,100 tons, 1 1, 600 tons, 10,500 tons, 12,400 tons, 16,650 tons. Hong Kong. The total area under crop in the colony in 1916 was 47,629 acres, of which 33,942 acres were under 86 PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE paddy. Of the paddy area 2,100 acres produced one crop, 20,342 acres produced two crops, and 1 1,500 acres produced two crops of paddy and one catch crop. There are no returns of production. Precise returns of the trade of Hong Kong are also lacking. According to returns (not compulsory and not vouched for officially) which are furnished by shipmasters and published in the annual reports on the colony, the annual imports of rice in the years 1909-14 inclusive ranged from 550,000 tons to 750,000 tons. A United States Commerce Report published April 26, 1917 (No. 97, p. 338), stated that the actual turnover of rice on the Hong Kong market in 1916 was placed by commercial estimates at 820,000 tons, or perhaps 20,000 tons above the turnover in a good normal year. The imports are mostly supplied by French Indo- China and Siam. The imports from Indo-China consist principally of whole cleaned rice, and from Siam of broken white rice. China gets the bulk of her imports of rice and paddy, which amount in some years to over half a million tons, through Hong Kong. Australia. The production of rice in Australia is at present a negligible quantity, though- there are considerable areas suitable for growing rice, especially in the tropical and sub-tropical parts of the continent North- Western Australia, the Northern Territory, and Queensland. A quarter of a century ago rice was grown on more than 1,000 acres in Queensland, but it was never a popular crop, and its cultivation has become practically extinct in that State ; one acre was planted with it in 1915. Com- menting on the dwindling production, the Report on Agricultural and Pastoral Statistics of Queensland for the year 1914 stated that " this grain struggles for a home in Queensland but does not succeed. " Efforts to revive the industry have not, however, been abandoned. Though the rice crop has been quite insignificant for many years, details of it have regularly been given in the Queensland crop returns, and the Queensland Agricultural Journal has repeatedly sought to stimulate interest in the subject. In an article recalling the past cultivation of rice in the State and indicating the potential value of the industry, the Journal (1916, 5, 224) stated : "It seems strange that, PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE 87 whilst we have thousands of acres of land admirably suited for rice-growing, we have allowed the industry to drop, and import rice tb the value of 96,000 a year, all of which could be as easily grown as wheat or maize and to a greater profit, employing, as in other rural industries, only white labour." The districts in which rice used chiefly to be grown are the Cairns district, in North Queensland, and the Logan district, in South Queensland, near Brisbane. The portion of the Logan district known as Pimpama Island, lying between the Logan, Albert and Pimpama Rivers, is particularly well adapted to rice culti- vation, the best results having been obtained from the variety known as White Java. The yield in this area has frequently amounted to 40 bushels of paddy (about 1 2 cwts. of cleaned rice) per acre. In the ten years 1 906-1 5 the average yield from all rice plots in Queensland varied from ii to 38J bushels, the highest area under cultivation in any one year being 24 acres. In the Northern Territory considerable attention has been given to the experimental cultivation of rice, both on the Government Farms and in the Botanic Gardens at Darwin. On Batchelor Farm 50 acres were sown in December 1914 with Java rice of different varieties. Grown primarily for fodder, the crop averaged about 2 tons of hay to the acre. Part which was left for seed produced about 20 bushels of grain per acre. The yield both of hay and grain would have been much greater if the dry season had not set in much before its time. In his report for the year 1914-15 the Administrator says : " It has been demonstrated that rice may be grown as an ordinary crop suitable for chaff as fodder, and probably, with a better year's rainfall, for milling." While tropical Australia would seem to be the most promising field for rice-growing in the Commonwealth, the experimental cultivation of rice has been practised for some years in both Victoria and New South Wales. Such success as has attended these experiments is due mainly to the enterprise of Mr. I. Takasuka, a Japanese settler at Tyntynder, on the Murray River, who has developed by selection a variety bearing his own name. It is claimed that the seed germinates at a temperature of 56 degrees, and 7 88 PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE that the plant does not suffer from frosts. In 1914-15, with an inadequate water supply, Mr. Takasuka obtained an average of 10 cwts. of rice per acre from an area of 10 acres. In the Journal , Department of Agriculture, Victoria (1916, 14, 493) were reported the results of a trial cultivation of Takasuka seed by an Australian farmer near Koyuga (not far from the junction of the Murray and Goulburn Rivers). The yield was at the rate of 756 Ib. (6| cwts.) of hulled rice per acre, and led to the suggestion that crops should be grown for grain in seasons of plentiful water supply and for fodder in dry years. These crops would utilise low-lying land which at present is too wet for wheat. There are said to be thousands of acres of such land along the Murray River and elsewhere in Victoria. At the Yanco Experiment Farm, in the Murrumbidgee irrigation area of New South Wales, a plot of Takasuka rice, grown in 1915-16, was spoiled by hot, windy weather. At the Grafton Experimental Farm, in the north-east corner of the same State, where trials in earlier years with other varieties met with little or no success, a small plot under Takasuka rice gave a return of fodder at the rate of over 2 tons per acre and of grain at the rate of nearly 7 cwts. per acre. The Agricultural Gazette, New South Wales (1916, 27, 799) stated that the grain was large and of excellent quality, while the foliage was soft and succulent, apparently of high feeding value, and much relished by stock. Farmers with suitable land have been showing their interest in these various trials. Last year the crops of Takasuka rice, grown by private enterprise at Tyntynder and Koyuga, were sold for seed purposes at from is. to 2s. per Ib. As an ordinary commercial proposition, rice-grow- ing in both Victoria and New South Wales, as in other parts of Australia, has still to prove its value. At Koyuga it was calculated that if the crop (6| cwts. per acre) had been sold for food purposes, and had realised 2d. per Ib. (18 135. 4d. per ton), there would have been a profit, after allowing for all expenses, including rent of land, of 1 6s. per acre. With larger experience it was hoped to secure a larger crop. The Australian farmer has an PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE 89 advantage in the Australian tariff, which imposes import duties of 35. 4d. per cental (100 lb.), equivalent to 3 145. Sd. per ton, on uncleaned rice, and 6s. per cental (6 145. $d. per ton) on other forms of rice, unless the rice is imported for the manufacture of starch, when it is given free entry. In addition the Commonwealth Bounties Act of 1907 made provision for a bounty of i per ton on uncleaned rice produced in Australia during a period of five years ; but the Official Year Book of the Commonwealth states (1916 edition) that no such bounty has been paid. Before the war, in the year 1913, Australia's imports of rice, according to the Commonwealth trade returns, had grown to 24,882 tons of" uncleaned " rice, of which 14,856 tons paid duty ; 7,595 tons of rice " N.E.I/' (not elsewhere included), of which 4,944 tons paid duty ; and 13 tons of rice meal and flour. The uncleaned rice comes almost entirely from India, and according to the Indian trade returns it consists of " rice not in the husk/ 1 so that pre- sumably it denotes rice which has been husked (cargo rice) but not fully milled. As regards the Australian imports of cleaned rice, China shares with India the great bulk of the trade. There is a re-export trade from Australia, which includes only a trifling quantity of uncleaned rice (5 tons in I 9 I 3); but reaches considerable proportions in respect of cleaned rice (6,072 tons in 1913), and rice meal and flour manufactured in Australia (2,126 tons in 1913). These exports go to New Zealand and the Pacific islands. In the first year of the war, 1914-15, imports were lower and exports higher. There were imported into Australia 19,406 tons of uncleaned rice, of which 18,873 tons paid duty ; 7,224 tons of rice N.E.I., of which 4,041 tons paid duty ; and 8J tons of rice meal and flour ; while exports amounted to 50 tons of uncleaned rice, 9,786 tons of cleaned rice, and 2,325 tons of rice meal and flour. The imports of uncleaned rice averaged in value, before pay- meht of customs duty (3 145. Sd. per ton), nearly 9 per ton in 1913 and between 7 and 8 per tdn in 1914-15 ; imports of rice N.E.I, averaged in value, before payment >f duty (6 145. 5^. per ton), over 13 per ton in 1913, id nearly 12 per ton in 1914-15. New Guinea. The climate of Papua (British New 90 PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE Guinea) is stated to be very congenial to rice ; but little if any of this cereal is grown by either natives or Euro- peans. In the five years 1910 to 1914-15 the exports of rice from Australia to Papua averaged 689 tons, with a minimum of 516 tons in 1913 and a maximum of 826 tons in 1912, when the export value was 10,650. Experiments of an elaborate character have been made in rice cultivation at one of the mission stations in " German " New Guinea, and in 1912 it was reported that the prospects were very promising. Fiji. Indian settlers in Fiji have developed the cultiva- tion of rice until it has become the third most extensive crop in the country. Expanding and contracting from year to year, with a marked upward tendency over a series of years, the returns of land under rice increased from 10,183 acres in 1910 to 14,195 acres in 1915, when they formed 10 per cent, of the total returns of cultivated land (excluding native cultivation). The two crops in Fiji covering larger areas were sugar cane, 62,308 acres (44 per cent.), and cocdnuts, 45,102 acres (32 per cent.). The production of rice in 1915 was returned as 18,157 tons, or about 25 J cwts. per acre. The returns do not specify whether this is rough rice, husked rice, or cleaned rice ; and it is doubtful to what extent the estimate can be relied on. Exports are practically nil. The production is unequal to the consumption, and in spite of an import duty of 2 per ton, the average annual imports of rice in the five years 1911-15 were 1,981 tons, the extremes being 1,317 tons in 1914 and 2,573 tons m I 9 I 5- The Agricultural Department has engaged in the experimental cultivation of rice, but without much result, so far as can be gathered from its annual reports. In the report for the year 1914 it was mentioned that, as part of an effort to encourage the natives (Fijians) to extend the range of their crops, arrangements had been made to supply them with seed rice, and brief directions for planting rice had been translated into the Fijian language. Egypt. In normal years rice has a regular though minor place among Egyptian crops. According to the Annuaire Statistique de l'Egypte y in the ten years 1903-4 to 1912-13 inclusive the area under rice cultivation varied PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE 91 from 234,000 to 298,000 acres. From 90 to 95 per cent, of this acreage was in Lower Egypt, and the whole formed between 3 and 4 per cent, of the total cultivated area in Egypt. In 1913-14, owing to the abnormally low level of the Nile, the area under rice dropped to 37,000 acres, but in 1914-15 it increased again to 331,000 acres, forming just over 4 per cent, of the total cultivated area. Accord- ing to the crop report of the International Institute of Agriculture, Rome, the production of " rough rice " (paddy) in 1915 from an area of 331,000 acres was 585,000 tons, this being about 45 per cent, above the average for the quinquennium 1909-13. The equivalent production of cleaned rice in 1915 may be taken to have been about 366,000 tons, or 21-5 cwts. per acre. This is between two and three times the average yield in India. Egypt does a moderate export trade in rice of her own production (alm'ost entirely with Turkey before the war), but imports, as a rule, much larger quantities of cheaper rice, mostly from India, for home consumption. Last year the balance of trade was reversed. The following are the returns for the five years 1912-16 : Year. IQI2 1913 1914 . 1915 1916 Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. In his report for the year 1915 the Director of the Commercial Intelligence Branch of the Sudan Government Central Economic Board mentioned the extended cultivation of rice as one of the most promis- ing means of reducing the dependence of the Anglo- Egyptian Sudan on imports from abroad. At present rice is being grown in the Southern Provinces, notably the Bahr-el-Ghazal, only on a small scale, but the results are considered to justify efforts to extend its cultivation as soon as means are available. Samples received at the Imperial Institute from time to time have, at their best, been described by brokers as much superior to Rangoon rice ; the quality has not, however, been uniformly good. As yet the local demand is rather limited. Imports of Imports. Tons. Re-exports. Tons. Exports. Tons. 33.793 53,442 230 86 24,740 23,169 49,514 24,464 29 78 13,077 10,422 7,752 50 22,473 92 PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE rice, though considerable, are not a very big item in the total imports, and do not point to rice as a very important article of native diet. The populatidn is estimated at nearly 3,500,000, and in the last few years rice imports (chiefly from India and Egypt) have been: in 1910, 1,815 tons; in 1911, 2,199 tons; in 1912, 3,136 tons; in 1913, 2,505 tons ; in 1914, 3,073 tons ; in 1915, 1,200 tons. It will be seen that the imports in 1915 (1,200 tons) were less than half the average imports during the previous five years (2,546 tons). In 1916 they increased again slightly to 1,620 tons. A small re-export trade, chiefly with Eritrea and Arabia, has developed in the last few years 25 tons in 1914, 157 tons in 1915, in tons in 1916. Uganda Protectorate. Only the merest beginnings have been made with rice cultivation in the Uganda Protectorate. The Blue Book for 1915-16 gave the ascertainable area under rice as 254 acres, practically all in the Buganda and Eastern Provinces. Several excellent Upland varieties can be grown, and a much larger area might be cultivated, especially in the rainy districts bordering the Victoria Nyanza ; but hitherto efforts to bring the crop into favour with the natives have met with little success. The natives eat little rice themselves, and have trouble in husking the paddy, which in the rough state is practically unsaleable. The Department of Agriculture is showing much perseverance in trying to overcome these difficulties. The Director's report for 1915-16 stated that " further efforts have been made to extend rice cultivation, with some success, particularly in Bukedi and parts of the Northern Province. The local demand for rice is good, and there is every reason to hope that this will be satisfied in the coming years by local production." Imports during the five years 1911-12 to 1915-16 ranged between 352 tons (1915-16) and $62 tons (1913-14), the chief source of supply before the war being German East Africa. East Africa Protectorate. Rice is grown to some extent by the natives in the coast zone and in the country bordering the Victoria Nyanza. The Director of Agricul- ture, in his report for 1913-14, stated that the area under PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE 93 rice was increasing, and mentioned in particular that large swamps in the Mumias and Kisumu districts (near Lake Victoria) had been drained and brought under cultivation. There is even a trifling export of locally grown paddy, decreasing from 27 tons in 1911-12 to less than 2 tons in 1914-15, the intervening period embracing a series of dry years. In 1916 only 5 cwts. were exported. Production is nothing like equal to the requirements of the population (which includes a considerable Indian community), and imports of rice, chiefly from India, ranged from 6,295 tons in 1910-11 up to 8,178 tons in 1914-15. In 1915-16 imports dropped to 5,352 tons, valued at 58,421 ; but rice was still first among the imports of grain in respect of both quantity (56 per cent.) and value (52 per cent.). There is a 10 per cent, import duty on rice. The experimental cultivation of Upland varieties has been tried on the Government farms at Mazeras, near the coast, and at Kibos, near the Lake. At both places the experiments have been hampered by droughts ; but in a good season at Kibos a yield of 1,100 Ib. (9-8 cwts.) per acre was obtained from a 2 -acre plot. Zanzibar and Pemba. Rice is cultivated in both islands by the natives for their own use, but not in large enough quantities to supply local needs. In Zanzibar it is grown in the low, swampy flats : in Pemba it is mostly grown in the swampy valleys, but very fair crops are also grown on the hillsides. The conditions in Pemba especially are very favourable to rice cultivation, and in the days of slave labour, when rice is said to have been grown by the Arabs in nearly every valley, a considerable export trade existed. With the decline of the plantation industry the water courses in many of the larger valleys have become choked with weeds, and the ricefields have degenerated into swampy wastes. The natives prefer more easily cultivated crops, such as mahogo (cassava). A good deal of rice is still grown, however, in Pemba, and as prepared locally it is stated to be far superior to any that can be bought in the open market, though owing to the laborious way in which it is harvested it could not compete commercially with cheap Indian rice. (See Capt. J. E. E. Craster's Pemba.) 94 PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE There are considerable imports of rice into Zanzibar, coming almost entirely from India. A very large propor- tion of these imports are retained for local consumption. Normally most of the re-exports go to the mainland ; German East Africa took the bulk of them in 1913. In the official returns the trade in rice is recorded in " pack- ages." From the value assigned to them the net imports may be put at between 10,000 and 20,000 tons. Mauritius. A local variety of " wet " rice was formerly grown in Mauritius by irrigation, but its cultivation was given up partly because land was wanted for sugar, and partly because the Indian population preferred Indian rice. Indian varieties have been introduced, and are grown by peasant proprietors at Grand Post, but the area under cul- tivation is not large enough to be separately recorded in the published returns of agricultural industry in the island. Trials with different kinds of seed are being made by the Agricultural Department. Rice is the chief article of food of the majority of the population (376,000 in 1914, of whom 261,000 were Indians), and the annual imports amount to from 50,000 to 60,000 tons, mostly obtained from India. Nyasaland. Introduced among the natives by the Arabs and the Portuguese, the cultivation of rice in Nyasaland was encouraged under British rule partly in order that local supplies might be available for the native troops, for whom about 500 tons per annum were required, and partly in order that the natives might be provided with a means of paying their hut tax in kind. A promise was given that, as far as possible, a market would be found for any surplus production. At present the develop- ment of the industry is just about adequate to the local needs. Rice does not figure in the import returns ; in some years a few tons are exported. The crop varies a good deal according to the season. In the six years 1911-16, the smallest crop was 717 tons in 1914, and the largest 1,317 tons (preliminary estimate) in 1916. There are large tracts in the lake region suitable for rice, and cultivation could probably be extended if freight and other charges permitted of its export at a price which would both offer inducement to the natives to grow it, and enable it to compete with other supplies in open market. PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE 95 . Rice is grown by the natives in both Soutnern and Northern Rhodesia. In Southern Rhodesia its cultivation was so far successful that in 1905 the Rhodesia Agricultural Journal (1904-5, 2, 84) raised the question of adopting rice as a staple crop. But the results of experimental work have not been encouraging, and instead of rice becoming a staple crop, the Director of Agriculture, in his report for the year 1909, noted a wide- spread tendency among the natives to abandon their old crops millets, Kaffir corn, and rice in favour of mealies, beans, and ground nuts. Rice is not much favoured by the natives in the western districts of Southern Rhodesia, and where it is still grown in other parts of the country it generally supplies purely local and individual needs. Rice is eaten by many of the natives in the mines, especially by the Nyasaland natives, and for their requirements as well as for those of the white population it has to be imported, chiefly from India. For some years before the war the imports ranged from about 1,500 tons to nearly 2,000 tons, valued at from 15,000 to 25,000; in 1915 and in 1916 the quantity dropped to between 700 and 800 tons, and the value to 10,000. In Northern Rhodesia the natives cultivate both red and white varieties of rice, the latter having been intro- duced by the Arabs. The authors of The Great Plateau of Rhodesia, Messrs. Gouldsbury and Sheane, both of the Rhodesian service, express the hope that " by gradually fostering the cultivation of rice and of cassava, the natives [of North-Eastern Rhodesia] will in time become alive to the easiness with which these foods are grown, and slowly substitute them for their more uncertain crops of millet." In the last few years (1913-16) the annual imports of rice into Northern Rhodesia have ranged from about 30 to 80 tons. Union of South Africa. The conditions of rainfall and water supply are not generally favourable to rice culti- vation in the South African Union, and there is not much grown, though trial crops in Natal between Tongaat River and Stanger are said to have given good results. There is an ample market within the Union, the net imports of rice for several years past having been between 30,000 96 PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE and 40,000 tons, with a value of between 300,000 and 400,000. Imports are subject to a duty of 15. per 100 lb., or about 225. $d. per ton. Gambia. Rice is grown by the natives in the low- lying, swampy country near the River Gambia. The conditions are favourable to its cultivation, and an irriga- tion expert who visited the colony some years ago reported that the natives understood this branch of agricultural industry as well as the natives of the East. The crops are so liable to destruction by floods, however, that the quantity grown is limited, and falls far short of the colony's requirements. In 1915, in spite of transport difficulties, the imports of rice amounted to 2,163 tons valued at 27,115. Of this quantity all but 13 tons (which came from Sierra Leone) consisted of Asiatic rice, mostly im- ported from Europe. Only 19 tons were re-exported, and one ton of locally grown rice was sent out of the country. These figures are typical of the trifling character of all branches of the trade except the imports of Asiatic rice. The average quantity of such imports in the five years 1910-14 was 6,273 tons, and the average value about 67,000, the greater part being supplied before the war by Germany. There is an import duty of xos. per ton. Much larger quantities might be grown within the colony under a proper system of irrigation and protection from floods, but hitherto the cost has been considered by Government to be prohibitive. Sierra Leone. This dependency is the premier rice- growing country in British West Africa. There are no crop statistics, but to judge from the import and export returns the production of rice is seldom much short of local requirements. Trifling quantities of African rice are imported from other parts of the West Coast, and considerable quantities from Europe. In 1910 the latter amounted to nearly 7,000 tons, and in 1911 to over 3,000 tons ; but in no other year from 1900 to 1915 did they total 1,000 tons, and generally they were less than half that amount. Against these imports have to be set considerable exports of rice grown in Sierra Leone, which find a market in other West African countries. Com- parison between the imports and exports is complicated PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE 97 by the fact that while the trade in " European " rice is measured by weight, the trade in African rice is measured by volume, and is divided between rice in the husk and clean rice. Reckoning that two bushels of paddy yield one bushel of clean rice, and that a bushel of rice weighs about 65 J lb., the total exports of home-grown rice from Sierra Leone in the five years 1911-15 work out at 340 tons, 474 tons, 323 tons, 329 tons, 435 tons. The imports of " European " rice in 1915, after allowing for re-exports (14 tons), were 462 tons, or only 27 tons more than the exports of home-grown rice ; and the exports were actually the more valuable. No doubt the special conditions created by the war, notably in respect of high prices, were partly responsible for this result in 1915 ; but the Governor of Sierra Leone notes that the exports increased in that year, compared with 1914, " in spite of restrictions which it was found necessary to impose on the exportation of rice." There is no import duty on rice. A former District Commissioner, Mr. T. J. Alldridge, stated some years ago that " Sierra Leone is absolutely a rice country, and can produce any quantity of it." Rice, fish, and cassava are the staple foods of large numbers of the native population, and the production of rice has received much encouragement from Government. Ex- tended cultivation has been reported in recent years from various districts, notably in the neighbourhood of railway construction. Experiments have been carried out by the Agricultural Department with a view to the introduction both of new varieties and of improved methods of culti- vation. The value of deep hoeing and green manuring in increasing the yield of local varieties has been shown, and satisfactory trials have been made with Indian and British Guiana rices. The Indian rices are not viewed with favour by the natives, because they are smaller in grain than the Sierra Leone varieties. The brownish colour of the native rice is against its sale on the European market, but the local varieties are well liked along the West Coast, where Sierra Leone rice at present finds its market. There seems to be no doubt that white rices can be grown in Sierra Leone. Apart from the experi- 98 PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE ments of the Agricultural Department, Mr. Alldridge, so far back as 1905, stated that for some time past a fine variety of white American rice, introduced by American missionaries, had been grown in Sierra Leone with very good results. Gold Coast. Rice in the Gold Coast is classed among those minor products whose cultivation " at present is scarcely sufficient to meet local demands, and there is little likelihood of an export industry being started, although there are large areas of available land which might be profitably put under cultivation " (Report of the Agricul- tural Department for 1913). A certain amount of experi- mental work has been carried out at Agricultural Stations in the Northern Territory, especially at Tamale, where rice has been successfully grown in a three years' rotation, following two crops of cotton. So far, however, from the production of rice in the Gold Coast as a whole becoming more nearly equal to the consumption, imports tend to increase. During the 1 2-year period for which statistics are available, 1904-191 5, the imports of rice advanced from 4,464 tons to 7,696 tons, the minimum for the period being 3>595 tons (value 42,013) in 1907, and the maximum 7,982 tons (value 111,233) in 1913. There are no exports of locally grown rice, and only trifling re-exports. On nearly all rice there is an import duty of i per ton, though some of the imports of rice from neighbouring countries are charged at the rate of 4 per cent, ad valorem. Nigeria. Rice is grown to a small extent in the Southern Provinces of Nigeria and to a much larger extent in the Northern Provinces, where it occupies a greater area than is under wheat. The locally-grown varieties, which are large in the grain and of a slightly reddish tint when cleaned, are highly esteemed in the Northern Pro- vinces, and command a higher price than the imported white rice. There is little trade movement in rice, either outward or inward, so far as the Northern Provinces are concerned, so that the supplies grown there would seem to be about equal to the consumption ; but in the Southern Provinces there are large imports, chiefly from the United Kingdom. In 1915, when there was a scarcity of shipping due to the war, these imports amounted to 5,441 tons, PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE 99 valued at 80,617. In the previous year they were 10,641 tons (109,520), and in the three pre-war years (1911-13) they averaged 10,896 tons in weight and 119,014 in value. There is scope for greatly extended cultivation of rice in Nigeria. If such development should take place, it might be necessary to clean the grain more thoroughly than is usual in native practice, to enable it to compete in Southern Nigeria with the imported rice, which is now securely established in the market there. Average yield and price are perhaps still more important factors. Im- proved transport facilities will help to reduce the cost of marketing the native product, while as to yield the Northern Nigeria Blue Book for 1913 stated : " Imported maize and rice have yielded returns considerably in excess of native varieties, which they are likely gradually to replace." British Guiana. Among the agricultural industries of British Guiana the cultivation of rice ranks next in import- ance to sugar planting. Rice was first introduced from Carolina by the Dutch some two hundred years ago, and it used to be a favourite crop among the runaway slaves ; but efforts to develop its cultivation as a settled industry met with little success till towards the close of last century. Since then such rapid progress has been made that in 1915 the area under rice was returned as 50,737 acres the highest on record up to that year. The rice acreage formed 29 per cent, of the total area under cultivation, the area under sugar-cane being 75,744 acres (43 per cent.), and under miscellaneous crops 49,888 acres (28 per cent.). If allowance be made for holdings from which two crops were gathered, the area reaped was 55,574 acres. The crop in 1915 was estimated by the Department of Agriculture as 65,700 tons of paddy or 39,420 tons of cleaned rice (the Department reckons the production of rice as 60 per cent, of the paddy by weight). With 50,737 acres under rice, this is equivalent to an average yield of 15-5 cwts. of cleaned rice per acre, which is nearly double the average yield in India, and higher than the average for the United States, though much below that of some other countries, such as Egypt and Japan. In 1914 a ioo PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE smaller area (47,037 acres) under rice cultivation in British Guiana was estimated to have produced a slightly larger crop (39,760 tons of cleaned rice), or an average yield of 16-9 cwts. of rice per acre. Such an average must be regarded as a very favourable feature of the rice industry in British Guiana. The Agricultural Department has shown much enterprise in conducting experiments to discover the most suitable varieties of seed and the best methods of cultivation. Over two hundred kinds have been imported from other countries for trial, and the long- grained varieties find most favour. Among other assist- ance given to cultivators, the Department distributed in 1915 alone 22 tons of selected seed paddy, or sufficient to plant nearly 1,000 acres. The rapid expansion of the area under cultivation has been largely due to the industry and skill of East Indian coolies who have settled in the country after completing their terms of contract labour on the sugar estates. Of the 50,737 acres under rice in 1915, 13,600 acres, or rather more than one-fourth, were situated within the empoldered areas of sugar plantations. Very much larger areas of the flat, heavy coastal lands are suitable for rice cultivation ; and if the industry continues to expand as it has been doing, British Guiana may become an appreciable factor in the rice trade. Already the position occupied by rice in the colony's own trade has been reversed. Imports, which amounted to 11,300 tons in 1899, dwindled to 2 tons in 1915, while exports, which began with 5 tons in 1902-3, increased to 9,058 tons in 1915, nearly all going to the British West Indies. In addition there are small exports of paddy (172 tons in 1915) and rice meal (266 tons in 1915). The rice produced, both for local consumption and for export, is " brown " rice, which is obtained by soaking and steaming the paddy before it is milled. White polished rice is not favoured, and the numerous rice mills which have sprung up in the colony are specially adapted to the manufacture of brown rice. A cattle food known as " colco " has been made from rice tailings and molasses. Trinidad. Rice-growing in Trinidad is chiefly done by settlers of the Indian coolie class. The report of the Agri- cultural Department for 1915 gives the area under rice PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE 101 cultivation in 1914-15 as 12,328 acres (out of a total culti- vated area of about 450,000 acres), against 10,410 acres in 1909-10, an increase of 2,000 acres in five years. On the other hand a report drawn up in January 1917 by a Special Committee of the Board of Agriculture estimated the area under paddy cultivation at about 5,000 acres, and the paddy crop at roughly 40,000 bags of 160 Ib. each, yielding approximately 60 per cent, of cleaned rice by weight. On this basis the production of cleaned rice would be rather more than 1,700 tons, and the average yield about 7 cwts. per acre. The report published in the Bulletin of the Department of Agriculture, Trinidad and Tobago (1917, 16, 15) stated that swamp rice was principally grown. Up- land rice is also cultivated widely, but on a very limited scale. Hitherto the trials made with imported Indian varieties have not given good results ; the yield has been poor and the grain not so good as that of local varieties. But some varieties imported from British Guiana have given good results, both in yield and in the quality of the milled product. There are three rice mills at Port of Spain, St. Augustine, and Chaguanas. These are capable of dealing with more than double the present crop, which is not nearly equal to the consumption. Imports (princi- pally from British Guiana, India and the United Kingdom) amounted to 1 1,884 tons in 1911, 10,536 tons in 1912, 8,409 tons in 1913, and 11,522 tons in 1914, the value of these imports ranging from 116,284 to 154,472. An import duty of 2s. 2d. per 100 Ib. (about 485. 6d. per ton) is levied. A few hundred tons are re-exported, and in 1913 there were exported (to Germany) 9 tons of rice grown in Trini- dad. There is a sufficiency of suitable land in the island to grow rice for all local requirements, especially in the swamp lands of Oropuche and Caroni, adjoining the west coast. Most of the lands at present returned as under rice cultivation are in the neighbourhood of these swamps or lagoons. The rice is generally sown in May or June, soon after the beginning of the rainy season, and is harvested about five months later. To encourage increased cultivation the Committee, whose report has been adopted by the Board of Agriculture, recommended prize compe- titions, the importation of seed rice from British Guiana 102 PRODUCTION AND | USES OF RICE for sale at tne sanle price as local seed rice, the continua- tion of experimental work, the opening up to cultivation of suitable Crown lands, and the investigation of proposals for reclaiming certain areas of swamp land by an irrigation scheme. If such a scheme is found to be feasible, it is suggested that the Government might guarantee interest on the capital cost. St. Lucia. Rice is grown in small patches by the East Indian labourers employed on the large sugar estates. This statement appears in a pamphlet on the resources of St. Lucia by the Agricultural Superintendent. Imports of rice (practically all for home consumption) in the five years 1910-14 averaged 262 tons. There is an import duty of 25. per 100 Ib. (about 445. lod. per ton). Jamaica. Rice is grown in small patches in the Western parishes of the island by numbers of coolies on the sugar estates. They grow it for their own food requirements in swamp lands considered worthless by the proprietors. From the coolies the industry has spread to the Creole population, and, though cultivation is still on a small scale, the interest taken in it is much greater than the official returns indicate. In the five years 1909-10 to 1913-14 the area returned as being under rice ranged from 80 to 100 acres ; in 1914-15 it was 13 acres, and in 1915-16 it was 12 acres out of a total of 278,262 acres of tilled lands. Rice, however, from the circumstances of its cultivation, is one of those minor products for which it is difficult to gather adequate statistics ; as the Collector-General points out in his report for 1915-16, " perhaps the most that can be said in regard to these minor items is that the agricul- tural product specified can be and is the object of cultiva- tion." Writing in the Journal of the Jamaica Agricultural Society (1917, 21, 16), Mr. R. C. Somerville, Agricultural Instructor for Southern Westmoreland and Hanover, esti- mates roughly that there are 500 acres under rice in Westmoreland parish alone. Not only a superior quality of brown or " coolie " rice, but fine white varieties are grown. Rice-milling plants have been erected on two estates. Good results are said to have been obtained by feeding mules on a mixture of rice bran and corn in equal weights. While it remains a coolie and creole industry, PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE 103 rice cultivation must be in small patches, because the culti- vators have not the capital to drain the swamp lands on a large scale. But it is claimed that if these lands, forming the Great Morass of Westmoreland, with an area of from 10,000 to 20,000 acres, could be properly reclaimed, they could grow sufficient rice (among other crops) to meet all the needs of the colony and leave a surplus for export. At present there is a large import trade in rice, varying in quantity during the six years 1910-15 from 5,086 tons (1914) to 7,687 tons (1912), with an average of 6,367 tons, the annual value of the imports during the same period ranging between 59,000 and 106,000. An import duty is levied of 35. per 100 Ib. (over 675. per ton). British Honduras. This colony has not the labour supply required for growing rice on a large scale, though % the natural conditions are believed to be very favourable. A little upland rice is grown (the only return given in the Blue Book for 1914 is 50 acres in Toledo District). Crops are said to be of good quality, but very liable to damage from birds. No attempt has been made to grow rice under irrigation. There is a considerable import trade, valued in the five years 1910-14 at from 9,000 to 11,500 per annum, the average being about 10,000. The quantity of rice imported is not given in the trade returns. Foreign Countries Italy. The largest rice-producing country in Europe is Italy. It easily retains that position, though the acreage of its rice fields has declined by over one-third in the last fifty years, owing to the competition of Asiatic supplies, trouble with disease, and the tendency to grow rice as a rotation instead of a permanent crop. In the quinquen- nium 1870-74 the area under rice cultivation is said to have been 573,000 acres ; in 1916 it was 353,000 acres. The total area of irrigated land on which rice is grown is estimated at over 2,000,000 acres. The yield per acre has increased at a greater rate than the annual area under crop has declined, averaging 9 cwts. of cleaned rice (14* 5 cwt. of paddy) per acre in the years 1880-84, and 16-7 cwts. of cleaned rice in the years 1909-14. As a result, the 8 104 PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE total production has increased. In 1894 an area of 408,000 acres, with an average yield of 9-5 cwts. of cleaned rice per acre, produced a crop of 194,000 tons ; in 1916 an area of 353,000 acres, averaging 18-1 cwts. per acre, produced a crop of 320,000 tons. The chief rice-growing centre is the Vercellese in Novare Province ; thereafter come Lombardy, Venetia, etc. In some irrigated areas cultivation is extending, rice being recognised to be both a weed-cleaning and a profitable crop. The transplanting method of cultivation, intro- duced by the Experimental Rice-growing Station at Rieti, has proved useful in reclaiming marshes. Italy not only meets her own needs in rice, but does a considerable export trade. Imports amounted to some 10,000 tons of husked and cleaned rice in 1910, but this was exceptional ; in no other year of the quinquennium 191014 were they more than a few hundred tons, and in 1912 they were only 38 tons. On the other hand the exports of rice of one kind and another (mostly cleaned rice) are normally between 50,000 and 100,000 tons per annum. In the quinquennium 1910-14 the exports of paddy averaged 9,000 tons (minimum 7,700 tons in 1910 ; maximum 11,500 tons in 1914); of husked rice (riso semi-greggio) , 11,650 tons (minimum 2,500 tons in 1910, maximum i 8,000 tons in 1912) ; and of milled rice (riso lavorato), 51,270 tons (minimum 36,675 tons in 1910 ; maximum 62,855 tons in 1914). Of the exports of cleaned rice in 1914 nearly 25 per cent, went to Argentina, over 20 per cent, to Austria-Hungary, 12 per cent, to Germany, 10 per cent, to Switzerland, and 9 per cent, to France. Spain. Among European rice-producing countries, Spain ranks next to Italy. Rice cultivation was introduced into Spain by the Moors, who probably introduced also the transplanting system. The industry is carried on by means of irrigation, and is confined to the east coast provinces, nearly three-fourths of the total area under cultivation being in Valencia. The official delegate for India to the International Rice Congress held at Valencia city in May, 1914, in an article published in the Agricultural Journal of India (1914, 9, 326), expressed the opinion that the cultiva- tion of rice has probably been brought to a higher pitch of PRODUCTION AND USES' OF RICE 105 perfection in Valencia province than in any other part of the world. Owing to the increased thoroughness of the culti- vation, the Andalusian breed of horses has been found to be too light for the heavy work required in the rice fields, and in consequence nearly two-thirds of the horses in the province are now of French (Breton) or mixed origin. The rice lands are mostly permanent, and their cultivation is more nearly according to Indian methods than is the case in Italy, where, as also in Greece, rotational methods mainly obtain. The average yield per annum in Spain is between three and four times as high as in India, a result due to heavier manuring, better cultivation, and the use of improved varieties. It is also more than 50 per cent, higher than in Italy, chiefly owing to the prevalence of transplanting in Spain. In the five years 1911-15 the area under rice cultivation in Spain averaged about 96,000 acres, and production averaged about 125,000 tons of cleaned rice, or 26 cwt. per acre. In 1916 the area under cultivation was about 101,000 acres and the pro- duction 148,500 tons of cleaned rice, or 29 cwt. per acre. Thus in 1916 the rice acreage in Spain was less than 30 per cent, of the acreage in Italy ; but the rice production in Spain was more than 45 per cent, of the production in Italy. The chief characteristics of the Spanish methods of cultivation are (i) the universally accepted importance of a thorough cold weather cultivation of the fields, made possible by the use of specially adapted implements ; (2) the necessity of employing considerable quantities of suitable nitrogenous and phosphatic manures ; and (3) the value of introducing exotic varieties (notably Japanese) with a view to checking deterioration of races cultivated too long in the same locality. There is an Experimental Rice Station at Sueca, near Valencia. During the ten years 1905-14 Spain imported between 1,000 tons and 2,000 tons of paddy annually, and usually a much smaller quantity of cleaned rice, though in 1912 (following the failure of the Spanish rice crop in 1911) the imports of cleaned rice rose to 5,670 tons. The exports of rice from Spain in the same decade ranged between 2,000 io6 PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE tons (1911) and 20,000 tons (1913). In 1915 the exports jumped up to 50,000 tons, of which Argentina took 22,000 tons (44 per cent.), Uruguay 8,500 tons (17 per cent.), and Italy 7,500 tons (15 per cent.). Bulgaria. The largest area under rice cultivation in Bulgaria in recent years was in 1909-10, when 9,650 acres produced 4,350 tons of clean rice, an average of 9 cwts. per acre. In 1912-13, the latest year for which returns are available, the area under cultivation was 7,220 acres and the production 2,300 tons, or nearly 6J cwts. per acre. Greece. Before the war the returns of land under rice cultivation in Thessaly were increasing rapidly. According to British consular reports, 400 acres planted in 1908 pro- duced 35 tons of rice (whether paddy or cleaned rice is not stated) in 1909 an average of only if cwts. per acre. The area planted in 1910 was 817 acres and the production (1911) 177 tons an average of between 4 and 5 cwts. per acre. In 1913 the area placed under cultivation jumped up to 3,320 acres and the 1914 crop was 664 tons 4 cwts. per acre. It has been estimated that in the new provinces of Greece (gained in the Balkan wars before 1914) there are from 2,000 to 3,000 acres normally under rice, and there is also cultivation on a small scale in the districts of Elis, Bceotia and Marathon. In the decade 1905-14 Greece imported between 5,000 and 6,000 tons of rice annually. Turkey in Europe. In the Annuaire International de Statistique Agricole covering the decade 1905-14, the only year for which returns are given of rice cultivation in European Turkey is 1910-11, when the area was recorded as 7,327 acres and the production as 1,003 tons f rough rice say 627 tons of cleaned rice, an average of only if cwts. per acre. Much of the territory to which these returns related was lost by Turkey in the Balkan Wars of 1912-13. European Russia. In 1912-13 it was estimated that 2,929 acres under rice cultivation in the northern districts of Caucasia yielded 693 tons of cleaned rice (nearly 5 cwts. per acre). In 1913-14 the corresponding area was only PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE 107 1,313 acres and the yield 255 tons of cleaned rice (nearly 4 cwts. per acre). In the decade 1905-14 the annual imports of rice into the Russian Empire as a whole (European and Asiatic), Finland excepted, were about 100,000 tons, consisting mostly of cleaned rice, while the annual exports were only from 2,000 to 5,000 tons. Portugal. In Portugal a certain amount of Govern- ment encouragement has recently been given to rice growing, but the facilities offered are not considered sufficient to induce cultivation on a large scale. At present rice is grown only in a few patches on the coast. France. Efforts have been made to popularise rice cultivation in the Rhone delta, and before the war a few hundred acres were under cultivation there. China. Mention has already been made, in the brief survey of the world's production of rice, of the difficulty of computing China's contribution to the total. Whether it is actually greater or less than that of India, there is no doubt that it is very large indeed. The country over which rice is grown extends from Manchuria in the north to Yunnan in the south, and the itineraries of travellers in the great rice-producing provinces of Central China abound in references to paddy fields as one of the most prominent features of the countryside. On the other hand, the im- portance even of rice among the field crops of China must not be exaggerated. It is grown in Manchuria, not under irrigation as in the Yangtse basin, but on dry land like other cereals. Mr. (afterwards Sir) Alexander Hosie noted in 1 904 in his book Manchuria that rice cost twice as much to buy as tall millet, the staple food of the people, and that it was not extensively grown in that part of China. In his later work, On the Trail of the Opium Poppy (1914), he states : " As in Manchuria and North China, rice is a luxury to the peasantry of the north-west." Mr. E. H. Wilson, in A Naturalist in Western China, does full justice to rice as the most important foodstuff of the Chinese people, but points out that as it requires an aquatic habitat its area of cultivation is restricted, and " probably a third of the people never taste this grain save on festival occasions." io8 PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE In an attempt to indicate roughly the northern limit of the area in which rice is grown in China as the staple food- crop, the 32nd parallel has been chosen. This cuts the coast at the mouth of the Yangtse, passes through Nanking, and continues westward to the north of the great middle reaches of the Yarigtse. Except in the coastal province of Kiangsu, the amount of rice grown to the north of this latitude is comparatively small. Even to the south of it rice is not universally the staple food of the people. Writing of the north-east corner of Yunnan, Sir Alexander Hosie mentions that the people of the Chao-tung Plain are mostly maize eaters, and those who require rice have to obtain their supplies from a district six or seven days' journey to the south-west. Similar reservations, however, might be made with regard to the cultivation and consumption of rice in India ; and when all due limitations have been imposed on China's claims as a rice-growing country, it remains generally true that " rice is to the Chinese what wheat is to us, only more so " (Wilson). The typical methods of culti- vation are by irrigation and transplanting ; but, as already noted, rice is grown without irrigation in Manchuria, and in Yunnan also upland varieties are grown, though the crops are described as being very inferior to those obtained from aquatic rice. Over most of the rice lands of China one crop per annum, occupying the ground from May till early September, is the rule, but some districts in the south yield two crops in the year. Three main groups of varie- ties are distinguishable ordinary, red and glutinous. Only the first two are grown for food purposes. Glutinous rice is sometimes eaten for a change, but its ordinary uses are industrial. It yields a weak spirit, as well as a kind of sugar, and is also used in the manufacture of cakes and sweetmeats. Rice straw is largely used for making bed mattresses and sandals, and to a less extent for making ropes. Great as is the production of rice in China, it is inade- quate to the needs of the vast population. There is a large internal trade, both overland and coasting, but the export of rice abroad is prohibited, and can only take place in small quantities under special arrangements. According PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE 109 to the Maritime Customs returns, exports of rice and paddy in the years 1912-15 ranged from 1,300 to 5,000 tons. On the other hand imports in 1910-15 ranged from 161,000 tons (1912) to 549,000 tons (1910). The imports in 1912 were usually small, the next lowest figure during the period named being 316,000 tons (1911). Most of these imports are received vid Hong Kong,and no precise figures as to the countries of origin are available ; but most of the imports of rice into Hong Kong are derived from French Indo-China (chiefly whole cleaned rice) and Siam (chiefly broken white rice). Hong Kong's total imports of rice, as noted in the sectibn dealing with that colony, have varied in recent years, according to unofficial returns, from about 550,000 to 750,000 tons. It is possible that the paddy fields of China have been or may be extended by the utilisation for that purpose of lands formerly under poppy cultivation for opium. Sir Alexander Hosie found evidences of such change during his travels in the Yangtse basin in 1911. Japan. Among rice-producing countries, as distinct from rice-exporting countries, Japan ranks next to India and China. Known in very early times as " Mizuhono Kuni," " Land of Luxurious Rice Crops," it justifies the description to-day to a greater extent than ever before. In the last forty years, in particular, the increase of production has been very marked. This is partly due to extension of the area under rice cultivation, but more to growth of the average yield. In 1878 the cultivated area was 6,100,000 acres ; now it is about 7,500,000 acres, an increase of between 20 and 25 per cent. In 1878 the crop was returned as 25,282,540 koku, or 3,546,000 tons of cleaned rice 1 ; in 1916 it was 58,301,680 koku, or 8,177,000 tons, 1 One koku = 4-96 bushels. The Financial and Economic Annual of Japan records the production simply as " rice." The United States Depart- ment of Agriculture, which estimates the weight of cleaned rice produced in the principal rice-growing countries, used to base its estimate for Japan on the assumption that the Japanese returns related to paddy. In the Depart- ment's Yearbook for 1916, however, the estimate has been revised to accord with the view that the official figures relate to cleaned rice. The equivalents adopted for the conversion of the returns from volume to weight are not given in the Yearbook, but they are evidently, from the results obtained, in close agreement with the equivalents adopted by the International Institute of Agriculture at Rome, namely, i koku of rice = i*4 2 5 quintals i.e. 4-96 bushels no PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE an increase of over 130 per cent. In 1878 the yield per acre averaged between 1 1 and 12 cwts. ; in 1916 the average was between 21 and 22 cwts. per acre. While the increase has been spread over the whole period, it is noteworthy that 1916 was a year of exceptionally heavy crop, as also were the years 1915 (7,843,000 tons) and 1914 (7>995, oo tons). For some years before 1914 the crop averaged about 7,000,000 tons of cleaned rice per annum. The average for the ten years 1907-16 the decade ending with the three years of big crops (about 8,000,000 tons) was 7,342,000 tons. Improvements in the methods of crop determination may partly account for the sudden increase in the returns for the last three years ; but the increase is largely due to recent improvements in the selection of seed and methods of cultivation, as well as to the prevention of damage from natural causes. Even if the last three years be left out of account, it will be seen that the production (7,048,000 tons from 7,422,777 acres in 1913) had nearly doubled since 1878, and that the aver- age yield in 1913 was 19 cwts. per acre, or between two and three times the average yield in British India. With about one-tenth of India's rice acreage, Japan has about one-fourth of India's crop. Such comparisons may be misleading, unless the highly intensive character of Japanese farming is taken into account. According to Outlines of Agriculture in Japan, published by the Agri- cultural Buroau at Tokio in 1910, 70 per cent, of the farmers cultivate less than i cho (2-45 acres), and only 3 per cent, cultivate more than 3 cho (7*35 acres). Rice is easily first among the crops of Japan. It is grown on about half the cultivated area, and provides over half the value of all farm products, including livestock and poultry. About 40 per cent, of the paddy fields carry two crops in the year, the second being usually barley, wheat, = 314-16 lb. This works out at almost exactly 63^ lb. to the bushel, and agrees fairly well with the reckoning of Messrs. Lockie, Pemberton & Co., quoted in the Indian Trade Journal, that yi koku = i ton i.e. nearly 62| lb. to the bushel. In the interests of international uniformity, the former basis of calculation (i koku = 314-16 lb., or 7-13 koku= i ton) has been adopted in the present article. This does not apply to the section on trade, since in the Japanese trade returns the imports and exports of rice and paddy are already calculated in terms of weight. PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE in rape, or some crop for manuring the soil. In 1914, about 88 per cent, of the paddy fields were devoted to the cultivation of ordinary rice by irrigation, while upland varieties were grown on 4 per cent, of the total rice area, and glutinous rice on the remaining 8 per cent. While upland cultivation accounts for such a small percentage of the whole, it is to be noted that whereas the area under glutinous varieties showed little change in the decade 1905-14, and, if anything, tended to decline, the area under upland rice increased 65 per cent, in the decade. Relatively the areas and production of both upland and glutinous rice are small, but actually they reach a con- siderable total. In 1914 the area under upland rice was 303,000 acres and the production 158,000 tons. This is equivalent to an average yield of between 10 and n cwts. per acre, which is only about half the yield from the irrigated fields. The area growing glutinous rice in 1914 was 619,000 acres, and the production 624,000 tons, or over 20 cwts. per acre. Glutinous rice is chiefly used for making pastry and cakes, and as a special foodstuff on fete days. Sake is brewed from non-glutinous varieties. The chief centres of the rice-milling industry are Tokio and Kobe, but milling for local purposes is done in almost every town and village. Great as the growth of production has been, it failed, prior to the new advance made by the crops of 1914-16, to keep pace with consumption. Prices rose rapidly, and as rice is the staple food of the Japanese, many difficult economic problems were created. The question of the rise in prices was complicated by many factors, including the speculative buying and selling of rice, but these factors were mostly rooted in supply and demand, the supreme importance of which has been clearly demonstrated in the last three years of suddenly increased crops. Before this development, a study of fluctuations in prices and wages in Japan published by the International Institute of Agri- culture in Rome led to the conclusion that " in only thirteen years [1900-13] the price of the most important commodity on the Japanese market, of the first necessity for the population, has increased by more than 90 per cent., or on an average by 7 per cent, a year." The acme of this long H2 PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE climax was reached in 1912, when prices for rice were the highest ever recorded in Japan. A sharp decline set in before the crop of 1914 was harvested, and, after its magnitude was realised, the effect of the fall in prices on the farming industry and on business generally was such that in February 1915 the Minister of Finance was authorised by Imperial ordinance to purchase rice in order to keep up prices to a certain level. This change in the internal position has naturally reacted on the foreign trade in rice. In recent years, prior to 1914, the crops fell so far short of home requirements that Japan had come to rank among the great importing countries. A little was exported, chiefly for the use of the Japanese residents in Hawaii, etc., who insist on having rice from Japan, but the balance of the foreign trade was largely on the side of imports. In the twelve years 1901-12 the imports of "rice and paddy " averaged 396,000 tons, the minimum quantity being 136,000 tons (1910) and the maximum 886,000 tons (1904). In 1913 the imports stood at 541,000 tons and in 1914 they still amounted to 299,000 tons. These figures do not reveal the full extent of the imports ; they relate only to trade with countries outside the Japanese Empire, in this case principally British India, French Indo-China, and Siam, the first two of these three countries having supplied between 80 and 90 per cent, of the total imports, and Siam most of the remainder. But, in addition, Japan used to get consider- able quantities of rice from Korea and Formosa. Accord- ing to the reports on the trade of Japan in the annual series of Diplomatic and Consular Reports, in the year 1912, when the imports from foreign countries amounted to 333,000 tons, the imports from Formosa were 91,000 tons, and from Korea 36,000, bringing the total imports of rice and paddy up to 460,000 tons. In 1913, when the imports from foreign countries were 541,000 tons, Formosa supplied 158,000 tons and Korea 81,000 tons, making the total 780,000 tons. In 1914, Japan imported 83,000 tons from Formosa and 146,000 tons from Korea, and with 299,000 tons coming from other countries the total reached 528,000 tons. This was the last year of big imports. In 1915 the quantity of rice and paddy coming PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE 113 from foreign countries dropped abruptly to 68,000 tons, and in 1916 there was a further decline to 46,000 tons, the loss of trade being principally borne by India and Indo- China, the imports from Siam being fairly well maintained. Returns of the imports from Korea and Formosa during the last two years are not available, but as regards foreign countries the decline in the imports, coupled as it was with an increase of exports, was sufficient to convert a large import balance into a small export balance. Against the average imports of 396,000 tons from foreign countries in 1901-12, the average exports of rice and paddy were only 58,000 tons, the maximum for the twelve years being 113,000 tons (1902) and the minimum 29,000 tons (1912). In 1913 the exports were still only 29,000 tons, and in 1914 they were 37,000 tons ; but in 1915 they jumped up to 93,000 tons and in 1916 to 97,000 tons, the increased trade being mostly with the United Kingdom, the United States, Hawaii, Canada, and Asiatic Russia. Formerly all but a small fraction of these exports consisted of uncleaned rice. In 1915 the proportion of cleaned rice rose to 25 per cent., and in 1916 it was 44 per cent. In the first five months of the present year (1917) the exports of rice and paddy (60,000 tons) showed a further increase compared with those for the corresponding period of 1916 (44,000 tons) ; but imports have also begun to increase again (30,000 tons in the first five months of 1917 against 12,000 tons in the same period of 1916), so that even on the trade with foreign countries, excluding Korea and Formosa, the balance of exports remains small, and may easily become an import balance again if the population continues to increase, and there is no further marked advance in the size of the annual rice crop. In this last connection it must be remembered that Japan is already a very highly cultivated country, having regard to its physi- cal characteristics ; but patient industry, combined with agricultural science, has accomplished so much in the way of extending cultivation and increasing the annual yield that it would be unwise to attempt to limit the further advances which may be achieved in these respects. Korea. Rather more than a third of the land under cultivation in Korea is devoted to rice. The recorded H4 PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE area of the paddy fields has rapidly expanded in recent years. In the five years before the war the acreage increased by one-third from 1,914,000 acres in 1909 to 2,560,000 acres in 1913. During the same period the production increased from 1,046,000 tons of rice to 1,4 14,000 tons (see footnote to section on Japan for rate of conversion from koku to tons). This gives an average yield of between ii and 12 cwts. per acre. The Japanese administration is devoting much attention to the extension and improve- ment of cultivation, and if the yield should be brought up to the average in Japan, Korea might take an important place among exporting countries. Already it provides a surplus for export. In the five years (1909-13) the exports averaged 93,000 tons, the minimum being 74,000 tons in 1912 and the maximum 116,000 tons in 1913. Against these exports must be set a smaller quantity of imports (37,000 tons in 1913). About two-thirds of the imports were from Siam, while the great bulk of the exports went to Japan, the balance being taken by China and Asiatic Russia. As in Japan, the last three years have been years of largely increased crops in Korea. Calculated from British trade reports, giving returns in bushels, the production was about 1,705,000 tons in 1914 ; 1,595,000 tons in 1915 ; 1,758,000 tons in 1916. Acreage figures are not available to show how far the increase is due to extended cultiva- tion and how far to improved yield. In 1914 the imports of Japan alone from Korea amounted to 146,000 tons. Formosa. Rice is grown throughout the island, and usually two crops are raised in the year. In a Japanese official publication issued in 1914 the area of the paddy fields was estimated at about 820,000 acres, this being nearly half the total cultivated area. In 1910 the area was estimated at 760,000 acres. As these figures denote, the rice acreage has been extending. Output has also been increased by the progress of irrigation and other improve- ments in the method of cultivation, though the liability of the island to be swept by typhoons still occasions consider- able fluctuations m the crop. The average of the official returns of annual production in the decade 1904-13 is 619,000 tons, the extremes being 557,000 tons in 1906 and PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE 115 719,000 tons in 1913. In 1914, when several storms damaged the crops, the production was estimated at 647,000 tons. On the basis of the above estimates of the area under cultivation, these crop returns denote a high average yield (from 1 5 cwts. to 1 7 cwts. per acre). Accord- ing to the Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture, however, the area cropped was about 50 per cent, more, namely, 1,222,000 acres in 1913 and 1,235,000 acres in 1914. As two crops a year are often reaped, the difference may possibly be due to the areas under each crop being counted separately in the larger estimates. With production on this scale, Formosa has a consider- able surplus of rice for export. Until a year or two ago, at any rate, practically all the exports went to Japan. They mostly consisted of unhusked rice. The exports to Japan were recorded in the British consular reports on Formosa as 92,000 tons in 1911, 91,000 tons in 1912, and 1 5 7,000 tons in 1913 ; the report on Japan for 1914 gave the imports from Formosa in that year as 83,000 tons. Rice was imported into Formosa in 1913 to the amount of about 30,000 tons (mostly cleaned rice), of which about one- fourth or one-fifth was from Japan. French Indo-China. In Indo-China, as in other coun- tries of the Far East, rice is the staple food of the natives, and the cultivation of rice dominates all other branches of agricultural industry. This is more or less true of all the States comprising France's Indo-Chinese Empire, but both relatively and actually Cochin China is easily first in respect of the extent of its ricefields. Commercially its crop governs the rice export trade of the whole country, and in this connection it may be described as the Burma of Indo- China. It is only in modern times that the cultivation of rice in Cochin China has attained its present importance. The State has an area of about 20,000 sq. m. (12,800,000 acres) and a population of about 3,000,000. In 1879 there were less than 1,000,000 acres under paddy ; by 1887 the area had increased to 2,000,000 acres, and by 1902 to 3,000,000 acres. In 1907, a year of record exports, the figures for which have not yet been surpassed, the area under paddy n6 PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE was returned as nearly 3,750,000 acres. For the time being this represented the high-water mark of the rice-growing industry in Cochin China. In 1914-15 the area under paddy was down to 3,361,000 acres. It is considered, however, that, with the increase of population and the extension of land improvement works, a very much larger area will be capable of growing rice three times as large, it has been estimated, as the area hitherto brought under cultivation. Meanwhile the paddy fields form about nine- tenths of the total cultivated area (3,766,000 acres in 1914-15) and over one-fourth of the whole country. Only one crop is reaped annually, the harvest extending from December to March, with January and February as the chief harvest months. In 1914-15 the production was estimated at rather more than 2,000,000 tons of paddy, or 1,250,000 tons of cleaned rice. This is a good average crop. Comparatively, such a yield from an area of roughly 3J million acres corresponds very closely with the acreage and yield in India in the same year (76,000,000 acres ; 28,000,000 tons). In Tonkin, which has an area of 46,000 sq. m. (29,500,000 acres) and a population (191 1) of over 6,000,000, two crops of paddy are reaped in the year, and their cultivation is the chief occupation of the inhabitants of the deltaic region. It is stated (RussiER and BRENIER : L'Indochine franfaise. Paris, 1911) that the paddy fields of the delta cover from 2,000,000 to 2,250,000 acres, and that another 250,000,000 acres could be brought under crop by irrigation. In 1907, according to the estimates of the provincial administrators, the first crop was reaped (May June) from 1,151,000 acres and the second (October November) from 1,719,000 acres ; thus the total area reaped, reckoning each crop separately, was 2,870,000 acres. On the assumption that there had been no appre- ciable change in the cultivated area, and that the yield per acre averaged about the same as in Cochin China in 1914-15, the normal production in Tonkin in terms of cleaned rice might be put at nearly 1,100,000 tons. The actual output fluctuates greatly from year to year accord- ing to the incidence of floods and droughts and other vagaries of the season. Exports of all kinds of rice in the PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE 117 decade 1905-14 averaged about 160,000 tons, the remainder being required for local consumption. In Annam, which lies between Cochin China and Tonkin, and which has an area of about 52,000 sq. m., with a popu- lation of over 5,000,000, the conditions of rice production are very variable. In the south, as in Cochin Chiria, one crop per annum is reaped (January February), while in the north, on the Tonkin side, two crops are obtained (May June and October November). In Central Annam the soil yields sometimes one and sometimes two crops (April May and August September). By comparison with Tonkin on a population basis, the requirements of Annam for local consumption might be estimated to be equivalent to about 750,000 tons of cleaned rice. As Annam grows barely enough rice for its own needs, this estimate would imply a production of not more than 750,000 tons. In the Bulletin Economique de Vlndockine (1910, 13, 274) Cambodia was credited with having 1,670,000 acres under paddy, producing about 617,000 tons of paddy (385,000 tons of cleaned rice). The figures denote a lower average yield than in the neighbouring country of Cochin China, which from double the acreage gets a crop more tfian three times as large. Though covering an area of 45,000 sq. m., Cambodia has a population of only 1,634,000, and is able to export nearly half its relatively meagre crop. The largest and most sparsely populated part of French Indo-China is the Laos territory (98,000 sq. m. ; 640,000 inhabitants). Some years ago M. de Reinach, in his Notes sur le Laos (Paris, 1906), calculated that the total require- ments of the population (then estimated at 500,000) for human consumption, for the feeding of livestock, for use in the manufacture of confectionery and intoxicants, and for seed, amounted to about 225,000 tons of paddy, or 140,000 tons of cleaned rice. The standard of living which this presupposes is not, however, by any means general, and, moreover, maize partly takes the place of rice in many parts of the country. Altogether, the total production in Indo-China in a good average year may probably be put at about 3,500,000 tons n8 PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE of cleaned rice. It must be understood that this is only a tentative estimate based on very imperfect data. In the present year (1917) the total may have been between 3,500,000 and 4,000,000 tons, the crop in Cochin China and Cambodia being reported to be the best on record (about 1,850,000 tons). The exports of rice from Indo-China, like the crops, are liable to big fluctuations. Since the beginning of the present century they have fallen as low as 612,000 tons in 1905 and risen as high as 1,406,000 tons in 1907. The general tendency of the returns, over a long period, has been strongly upward until the last few years. In the quinquennium 1886-90 the exports averaged 495,000 tons ; in 1901-5 the average was 845,000 tons, and in 1906-10 it was 1,135,000 tons; in 1911-15 it remained practically the same 1,133,000 tons. These figures, which relate to the exports of rice of all kinds (paddy, cargo rice, cleaned rice, broken rice and rice meal) place French Indo-China in the front rank of rice-exporting countries, contesting with Siam for the next place to India. The different grades of rice are subject to various export duties which are in part preferential in favour of France and the French Colonies. As already indicated, French Indo-China owes its im- portance as a rice-ex'porting country chiefly to Cochin China. Naturally enough, in view of the facts previously given about the expansion of the rice-growing industry in that State, the export trade is largely the creation of the last half century that is, the period during which France has exercised control there. In the early 'sixties consider- ably less than 100,000 tons of rice of all kinds were exported annually from Cochin China ; in 1885, the first year for which returns were available for French Indo-China as a whole, Cochin China supplied about 455,000 tons out of a total of 493,000 tons ; in 1915 it supplied 1,068,000 tons out of a total of 1,351,000 tons, the balance being provided almost entirely by Tonkin. It must be noted, however, that most of the exports from Cambodia pass through Saigon and are credited to Cochin China ; it has been estimated that these average, at the present stage of de- velopment, about 150,000 tons. In one form or another PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE 119 rice provides about 75 per cent, of the exports from Saigon, both in weight and in value. The total exports from Indo-China in 1915 were slightly less than in 1914 (1,397,000 tons), but were greater than in any earlier year except 1907. The greater part of the exports go to other countries in the Far East, and these countries were able to absorb most of the European trade which was dropped in 1915. The requirements of the Far Eastern countries themselves depend on the character of their own crops, and vary considerably from year to year ; but a brief analysis of the export returns for 1913 may give some idea of the distribution of trade in a normal year. The total exports of rice of all kinds in 1913 amounted to 1,266,000 tons. Of this total France took 270,000 tons (171 ,000 tons of cleaned rice, the rest nearly all broken rice and cargo rice), or more than one-fifth. Ex- ports to French colonies to the amount of 36,000 tons (nearly all cleaned rice) brought the movement of trade within the French Empire up to 306,000 tons, or nearly one-fourth of the total. Trade with European countries outside France was practically confined to the United Kingdom and Germany, which took in the one case about 44,000 tons, mostly of rice meal (farines), and in the other case about 49,000 tons, also mostly of rice meal. On the other hand the exports to Hong Kong amounted to 427,000 tons (mostly cleaned rice), or a full third of the total, while Singapore, the Dutch East Indies, the Philippines, and Japan took 414,000 tons (in each case consisting mostly or wholly of cleaned rice), or nearly another third of the total. As showing the variability of the different items of the trade it may be noted that in 1915, though Singapore, the Dutch East Indies, the Philippines, and Japan again took a third of the total exports (which were greater than in 1913), the exports to Japan in the later year were practically nil, whereas in 1913 they accounted for 106,000 tons. As will have been gathered from this brief analysis, the great bulk of the exports consist of cleaned rice. In each of the years 1913, 1914, and 1915 the proportion was about three-fourths (about a million tons). Broken rice and rice meal compose most of the remaining exports. In Cochin China rice milling is the leading industry next to rice 9 120 PRODUCTION J AND USES OF RICE growing. Milling for export is practically confined to Cholon (now almost a suburb of Saigon). Here, according to a recent U.S.A. Commerce Report (No. 78 : April 4, 1917), ten large mills turn out annually over a million tons of rice of all grades valued at about 6,000,000, of which value perhaps one-fourth is contributed by the milling process. The rice required for local consumption is prepared in smaller mills. Siam. The rice grown in Siam provides not only the chief food supply of the people, but four-fifths of the total exports from the country in respect of value. Both local consumption and exports have increased greatly in the last few decades. In the British Consular report for 1 890 it was estimated that an ordinarily good rice crop in Siam yielded rather more than 1,200,000 tons, of which about 700,000 tons were consumed in the country itself, leaving about 500,000 tons for export. Since then these figures have been more than doubled. Possibly insufficient allowance was formerly made for local requirements, but production has undoubtedly increased, as is evident from the growth of the export returns. These are subject to violent fluctua- tions, for owing to the small development of modern irrigation works though plans for such works have been drawn up the crops are very dependent on the seasonal weather conditions. In spite of intermediate setbacks, however, the Siamese export trade in rice has gone on from record to record until in thirty years it has quad- rupled in weight. In 1884 the exports of rice of all grades reached a then maximum of 274,000 tons. The next advance was to 402,000 tons in 1887 ; in 1888 the amount was 450,000 tons, and in 1890 it was 480,000 tons. In 1892 the exports fell as low as 198,000 tons, but in the following year they rose as high as 776,000 tons. There was no improvement on this for nine years, though the lowest return in the interval was 415,000 tons. In 1902 a fresh record was established 798,000 tons, and every alternate year after that saw a further advance, until in 1908 the exports stood at 986,000 tons. In 1910-11 they reached 1,047,000 tons, but in 1911-12 there was a drop to 627,000 tons, and 1912-13 saw a further decline to 588,000 tons. All records, however, were surpassed again PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE 121 in 1913-14, when the exports totalled 1,174,000 tons, and up to the end of 1916 there had been little falling away from this high level. The decennial averages over a period of fifty years show at a glance the rapid growth of the trade : Exports of all Grades of Rice from Siam Tons. Average 1860-69 . . . 100,000 1870-79 1880-89 1890-99 1900-09 155,000 260,000 460,000 760,000 The quinquennium 1909-10 to 1913-14, though includ- ing the two years of reduced returns already mentioned, resulted in a further advance of the average rice exports to 878,000 tons. As to the production which makes possible such exports, M. Petithuguenin, First Interpreter to the French Legation at Bangkok, in a study of the economic situation in Siam published in the Bulletin Economique de VIndockine (1914, 17, 129), expressed the opinion that the home consumption of rice could not be less than about 1,200,000 tons without descending below starvation point, and estimated that it was actually over 1,700,000 tons. With exports in recent years averaging, say, 800,000 tons (exclusive of rice meal), this would give a production of about 2,500,000 tons. That is also the amount given by the American Vice-Consul at Bangkok as the usual output. According to the Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture for 1916, the production in 1913 was equivalent to 2,627,000 tons of cleaned rice, in 1914 to 2,550,000 tons, and in 1915 to 2,463,000 tons. On the other hand, American consular reports from Bang- kok give the paddy crop in 1913-14 as 4,767,000 tons, and in 1914-15 as 4,626,000 tons. If the yield of clean rice from paddy be taken as five-eighths by weight (62 \ per cent.), these two crops would be equivalent respec- tively to 2,980,000 tons of rice and 2,890,000 tons of rice. On a review of these various estimates it may be said that in an ordinary good year the Siamese rice crop is between 2,500,000 and 3,000,000 tons, and that about one* 122 PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE third of the crop is exported. The area under cultivation in recent years has been estimated at over 5,000,000 acres (5,181 ,000 acres in 1 9 1 5- 1 6) . On the basis of these figures , the average yield per acre would be normally about 10 cwts. As already stated, the export figures quoted above embrace all kinds of rice. The following is an analysis of the total for the latest pre-war year : Exports of Rice and Rice Meal from Siam in 1913-14 Grades of Rice. Tons. Per cent. White Rice . . 5 I 4.33o 43'8 414.354 35-3 76,061 6-5 9,505 0-8 Broken White Rice Cargo Rice Broken Cargo Rice Paddy . White Rice Meal Cargo Rice Meal 28,657 2-4 103,416 8-8 27,657 2-4 Total . . . 1,173,980 i oo-o It will be seen that white rice and broken white rice formed 79 per cent, of the total exports, cargo rice and paddy only 10 per cent., and rice meal 1 1 per cent. As may be gathered from these figures, the milling of rice for export is an important industry in Siam. The mills for this purpose are established in and around Bangkok, through which city the whole of the trade in rice passes. In 1916 it was reported that there were 53 rice mills inBangkok and 5 in neighbouring towns. With two or three ex- ceptions these were owned and worked by Chinese firms. According to the American Vice-Consul, paddy husk is furnished in sufficient quantities to provide fuel for all the local industries of Bangkok. It is difficult to determine precisely the distribution of the exports, as the great bulk of them are shipped in the first instance to the entrepots of Singapore and Hong Kong. In 1913-14 the exports (chiefly white rice) to Singapore were 426,989 tons (36 per cent, of the total), and the exports (chiefly broken white rice) to Hong Kong 461,236 tons (39 per cent.). Thus Singapore and Hong Kong together took 75 per cent, of the total. Among the exports consigned direct to Europe, Germany and Austria-Hungary took 95,441 tons (rather more than 8 per cent, of the total ; PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE 123 Germany alone, 81,336 tons, or 7 per cent.), the Nether- lands 76,058 tons (6-5 per cent.), the United Kingdom 49,656 tons (4-2 per cent.), and Belgium 28,103 tons (2-4 per cent.) altogether 21 per cent, out of the 25 per cent, not dispatched to Singapore and Hong Kong. Since the outbreak of war these two entrepots have played a still larger part in the distribution of the Siamese rice exports. Out of total exports of 1,138,168 tons in the year 1916, Singapore took 622,641 tons (55 per cent.) and Hong Kong 409,784 tons (36 per cent.), or between them 91 per cent, of the total ; while the exports to Europe direct amounted to only 67,055 tons (6 per cent.). Netherlands East Indies. Though producing more rice than either French Indo-China or Siam, the Netherlands East Indies support so large a population, particularly in Java, that they are numbered among the rice-importing countries. In Java and the adjoining island of Madura, which are almost exactly the same size as England and contain about as many people, nearly 45 per cent, of the area under cultivation in 1915 carried rice crops (6,940,000 acres out of 15,529,000 acres according to the Statesman's Year Book for 1917). Particulars of production in 1915 are not available, but the Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture gives the crop from 6,310,000 acres in 1913 as equivalent to 3,550,000 tons of cleaned rice, and from 6,346,000 acres in 1914 as 3,494,000 ton an average yield of about 1 1 cwts. per acre. The remaining islands of the Netherlands East Indies, with an area over thirteen times that of Java and Madura, are credited with about one-third the population. If their production of rice was proportionate, by population, to that of Java and Madura, their crops would amount to over 1,000,000 tons, and the rice production of the whole of the Netherlands East Indies might be estimated at over 4,500,000 tons. It may be doubted, however, if the " Outposts," as they are called, do grow rice on the same scale, even in relation to population, as Java and Madura. They are not nearly so highly developed agriculturally, and proportionately they are much heavier importers of rice. Possibly the total rice production of the Netherlands East Indies amounts to between 4,000,000 and 4,500,000 tons. 124 PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE Though the Java rice crop is insufficient to meet local requirements, a certain amount of rice is exported. In the five years immediately preceding the war these exports averaged about 53,000 tons, and showed little variation from year to year. About half the rice exported goes to Borneo and China. Rice imports, on the other hand, averaged during the same period about 316,000 tons, and varied considerably from year to year, the minimum being 211,000 tons in 1909 and the maximum 484,000 tons in 1910. The supplies of rice from abroad are drawn almost entirely from Burma, French Indo-China, and Siam principally the first two countries, though the distribution of trade is very variable. The following table is from the British Consular Report for 1913 : Imports of Rice into Java and Madura Source of Supply. 1911. 1912. 1913. Tows.l Tons.i Tons.l Rangoon . . . 278,300 197,700 65,900 Saigon . . . 62,000 16,000 144,000 Siam . . . 49,000 21,200 44,000 Other countries . 1,000 2,000 300 Total . . 390,300 236,900 254,200 1 Approximate. No exports of rice from the other Netherlands East Indian possessions are shown in the British Statistical Abstract for foreign countries, but these possessions (Sumatra, Netherlands, Borneo, etc.) imported rice in the quinquennium 1908-12 to the average amount of 191,000 tons (minimum 142,000 tons in 1908 ; maximum 221,000 tons in 1911). Thus the annual requirements of the Netherlands East Indies as a whole in the way of rice from outside sources amount to about 500,000 tons. Philippine Islands. Of the area returned as under cultivation (nine principal crops) in the Philippines in 1913-14, rice was grown on nearly half (48 per cent.). It is not a proportionately valuable crop, and the amount of rice produced from year to year is influenced by the demand for labour in other directions, as well as by the weather conditions. The liability of the crop to serious damage from typhoons, droughts and floods is a serious check on PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE 125 development. Comparatively little has been done at present to control the effect of the climatic conditions by irriga- tion. In an official pamphlet, Rice Culture in the Philip- pines (Manila, 1912, Bulletin 22), it was stated that only about 125,000 acres were under irrigation, though the area easily irrigable was at least 1,200,000 acres. An active policy of extension is being pursued by the Irrigation Division of the Bureau of Public Works, and in the pamphlet quoted it was anticipated that within a very few years many thousands of acres which had hitherto remained idle would be producing good crops of rice. In other ways much enterprise is being shown by Government with the objects of extending cultivation and improving the average yield. The Agricultural Department has been engaged for several years in selecting the best kinds of rice out of the large number grown (according to Bulletin No. 22, some- thing like 1,300 names have been recorded and 910 more or less distinct varieties have been collected and tested). With scientific research are combined popular educational methods, such as the issue of posters giving advice to farmers and the dispatch of a rice demonstration train through the principal rice-growing districts. As in Japan, cultivation is mostly on small holdings. Writing in the Philippine Agricultural Review (1916, 9, 61), the Director of Agriculture stated that 50 per cent, of the farmers work less than 2\ acres, that nearly 90 per cent, work less than 12 \ acres, and that only a fraction of i per cent, work over 250 acres. Four-fifths of the rice grown is transplanted, and non-glutinous white rice constitutes about 75 per cent. of the total production. It is claimed by the Director of Agriculture that a comparison of the crops in two years enjoying fairly normal weather conditions, 1906 and 1913, shows an increase of production during the interval of 40 per cent., due to the increase in the average yield. The educational propaganda which is carried on by the Agri- cultural Department should certainly bear fruit in this direction ; but even now, as is admitted, the yield is extremely low. In the quinquennium 1911-15, the area under rice cultivation increased steadily from 2,579,000 acres in 1911 to 3,076,000 acres in 1914, but declined in 191 5 to 2,794,000 acres. During the same period the crops. 126 PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE expressed in terms of cleaned rice, ranged from 320,000 tons (1912) to 675,000 tons (1913). Both in 1912 and in I 9 I S (491,000 tons) there were partial crop failures ; the average for the other three years was 623,000 tons. It will be seen that at its best the crop averages only between 4 and 5 cwts. per acre, which is not much more than half the average yield in British India. As a result of this low yield, the Philippine Islands are heavy importers of rice. Exports are negligible (2 tons in I 9 I 3i 35 tons in 1914, 17 tons in 1915). Imports, from 1899, when the islands were ceded to the United States, up to and including 1915, averaged not far short of 200,000 tons, reaching their maximum in 1903 (over 300,000 tons) and their minimum in 1913 (85,600 tons). In 1914 they were 95,400 tons, and in 1915 they were 215,000 tons. French Indo-China supplies about 90 per cent, of these imports (204,500 tons, or 95 per cent, in 1915) and Siam most of the remainder (7,300 tons in 1915). Asiatic Russia. Though Asiatic Russia is not among the great rice-producing countries, there is a considerable quantity of rice grown in Russian Turkestan. According to M. Woeikof's Le Turkestan Russe (Paris, 1914) the area under rice-cultivation in that country has largely increased since the Russian conquest. Formerly the cultivation of rice was confined to natural rice lands, and the rice fields were not allowed water from the irrigation canals till other crops had been served. After the Russian conquest these restrictions ceased to be observed, with the result that in Samarkand and Katta Kurgan the area under rice increased from 27,000 acres in 1869 to about 50,000 acres in 1875, while in 1900 there were 106,000 acres growing rice in Samarkand alone. The following particulars of acreage and crop in three provinces in 1909 are given by M. Woeikof from the returns of the Russian Central Statistical Committee : Rice Cultivation in Russian Turkestan Acres. Tons. Syr-Daria 176,000 88,000 Ferghana 181,000 86,000 Samarkand . . . . 136,000 64,000 493,000 238,000 PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE 127 In the report on the British consular district of Batum for the year 1914, the Vice-Consul at Baku, referring to the agricultural products of " Transcaspia," gives the rice crop as approximately ten million poods (about 160,000 tons). It is obvious from this and other returns given by the Vice-Consul that the reference is not merely to the sparsely populated Transcaspian Province, and presumably the estimate embraces Russian Turkestan. The corresponding consular report for 1913 contains the following particulars of the two principal rice-growing districts in Transcaucasia : Rice Cultivation in Transcaucasia 1912. 1913- District. Acres. Tons. Acres. Tons. Geokchai . 6,000 6,000 Linkoran . 40,770 36,000 41,120 31,000 42,000 37,000 It is possible that the estimates of production quoted by M. Woeikof for Turkestan (equivalent to an average yield of nearly 10 cwts. per acre), and by the British Vice- Consul at Baku for the Linkoran district of Transcaucasia (equivalent to an average yield of nearly 18 cwts. per acre in 1912 and 15 cwts. per acre in 1913) are in terms of rough rice, or paddy. The Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture gives the production of cleaned rice in Transcaucasia and Turkestan in 1912 as 124,000 tons from 491,000 acres (5 cwts. per acre) ; in 1913 as 229,000 tons from 668,000 acres (7 cwts. per acre) ; and in 1914 as 170,000 tons from 636,000 acres (5 cwts. per acre). Bokhara and Khiva are not included in these estimates. Their addition might bring the total rice production of Russian Western Asia, on the basis of the estimate of the United States Agricultural Department, to about 200,000 tons in an ordinary year, rising in a good year to over 250,000 tons. Production is not equal to consumption, and rice is imported in considerable quantities, chiefly from the Caspian provinces of Persia. The extent of the Persian trade will be seen from the following section. 128 PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE Persia. Rice enters largely into the diet of the Persian people. It is grown in most of the provinces, in places where there is natural swamp land or a sufficiency of water to inundate the fields. Such places are not very numerous or extensive in the high, dry plateau region of the interior. Among them may be mentioned the neighbourhoods of Shiraz and Isfahan. But the great bulk of the rice pro- duced in Persia is grown in the low-lying, humid country adjoining the southern coast of the Caspian Sea, comprising the provinces of Gilan, Mazandaran, and Astarabad. Rice is there a staple crop and constitutes the staple food of the people. Practically the whole of the rice exports of Persia come from that quarter, and considerable quantities are also sent to other parts of Persia. A small quantity of rice is imported, chiefly into the south of Persia from India, but the exports which are dispatched from the Caspian ports into Russian territory, and which find their principal market in Baku, are on a much larger scale. In 1 9 1 4- 1 5 the exports were three times as valuable as the imports, and usually, in the past, the proportion has been much higher. The following table gives the returns for five years : 1910-11. 1911-12. 1912-13, 1913-14. 1914-15. Imports . . 62,000 66,000 96,000 159,000 117,000 Exports . . 531,000 632,000 769,000 766,000 356,000 In the six years 1906-7 to 191 1-12 imports ranged from 1,392,000 batmans (1906-7) to 2,718,000 batmans (1909-10) i.e. if the batman be taken as the Tabriz batman of 6\ lb., from about 4,000 tons to 8,000 tons. In the same six years exports ranged from 16,809,000 batmans (1907-8) to 24,054,000 batmans (1911-12) or from about 49,000 tons to 70,000 tons. Usually about 75 per cent, of the exports consist of husked rice. About 80 per cent, of the total are furnished by the province of Gilan, and most of the remainder by Mazandaran, which also sends large quan- tities to the Teheran markets. Generally speaking, it is the inferior and medium qualities of rice which are exported to Russia. A considerable part of the exports, especially the lowest grades, are used in the manufacture of starch for dressing light cotton goods. PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE 129 Production and trade have both undergone considerable development in the last half century. A consular report on Gilan for 1892-3 spoke of the exports of rice as having made great strides since the 'seventies, and ten years later (1903) it was noted that " a prodigious quantity of timber has been felled during the past thirty years to make room for rice fields and plantations of dwarf mulberry trees. " In an elaborate monograph, La Culture du Riz en Guilan (Perse) et dans les autres provinces du sud de la Caspienne, by MM. Rabino (formerly British Vice-Consul) and Lafont, reprinted from Annales de VEcole nationale d* Agriculture de Montpellier (Montpellier ; 1911), a list of the annual exports of rice from the Caspian provinces showed a fairly steady progression from 38,000 tons in 19012 to 59,000 in 1908-9, and in 1911-12, as already noted, exports had further increased to 70,000 tons. Previously a consular report had returned the exports in 1895 as 43, tons, and the Hon. George Curzon (now Earl Curzon of Ked- leston), in his work on Persia published in 1892, quoted an estimate which put the exports of rice from Gilan and Mazandaran to Russia even in those days at 58,000 tons per annum. M. Rabino, however, regards the latter estimate as an exaggeration. With modern irrigation works and better cultivation the present output might be much increased. Data are lacking for any estimate of the production of rice in Persia as a whole. M. Rabino, in the monograph previously quoted, estimated the annual consumption in Gilan at 128,000 tons, and as the exports from Gilan in 1908-9 were 41,000 tons to Russia and 6,000 tons to the interior of Persia, he arrived at a total production of rice in that province in that particular year of 175,000 tons. Mesopotamia. Before the war, paddy formed about one-sixth of the grain harvest. A record crop in 1911 was estimated at 48,000 tons of paddy (30,000 tons of cleaned rice). Production varied greatly ; with a proper irri- gation system it might be steadied and much increased. Basra exported considerable but irregular quantities of paddy (estimated at 65,000 tons in 1912, from accumulated stocks ; usually under 25,000 tons ; only 3,000 tons in 130 PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE 1913, when the crop failed), and much smaller quantities of rice (usually two or three thousand tons ; only 16 tons in 1913). These exports went chiefly to the United Kingdom and Germany for distilling and sizing purposes, the quality being inferior. Basra also did a small import trade in rice from India (normally from 1,000 to 2,000 tons ; in 1913, 8,000 tons). Asiatic Turkey as a whole offered a large market for rice, taking about 80,000 tons a year from India. Madagascar. For centuries rice has been the staple food crop in this French colony, especially in the central and eastern provinces. " Carolina " rice is said to have been first imported into America from Madagascar at the end of the i7th century. The best rice fields are in the neighbourhood of the capital, Antananarivo, to the west of which the great marshy plain of Betsimatatra is devoted to the production of rice. Cultivation, however, is widespread, and is capable of much greater extension. Many varieties are grown ; they may be divided broadly into two classes, white and red rice. Many years before the French occupation in 1895, the crops were not only meeting local needs, but providing a surplus of some thousands of tons for export. There set in, however, a period of decline in cultivation, except in Imerina (the country round the capital) and among the Betsileo (in the south central provinces), where irrigation systems of a very ingenious character have been developed by the natives. The unsettled conditions which attended the French conquest intensified the decline, and crops were also badly damaged in successive years by ravages of locusts. Thus for a time crops fell below consumption, and in 1901 the imports of rice amounted to as much as 25,000 tons. With the return of more settled conditions, recovery was rapid. In 1908 rice was exported to the amount of 4,600 tons, and though there was some ebb and flow later, exports were continuous and amounted in 1915 to 19,000 tons. In the latest pre-war year, 1913, they amounted to 10,500 tons, of which 1,460 tons were paddy. About 30 per cent, were consigned to France, 40 per cent, to French Colonies, and over 20 per cent, to British colonies. As communications are improved and new rice mills erected, PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE 131 further developments of production and trade are antici- pated. The Comoro Islands, which used to import Indian rice from Zanzibar, now draw their supplies almost entirely from Madagascar, and the hope has been officially expressed (Bulletin de V Office Coloniale, 1916, 9, 471) that in a few years Reunion and Mauritius will also be able to supply their needs from Madagascar. In South Africa there is said to be an increasing demand for Madagascar rice. According to the Bulletin Economique de Madagascar (1909, 9 (i), 68), the area under rice cultivation in 1908 was estimated at 875,000 acres. Allowing for an average yield of 16 cwts. of paddy (10 cwts. of cleaned rice) per acre, the total production was estimated at about 700,000 tons of paddy (440,000 tons of cleaned rice). Portuguese East Africa. Rice is one of the native food crops, though in the Zambezi valley, at any rate, Mr. Consul Maugham notes in his book Zambezia (Murray, 1910) that it " is only found in large areas near the coast." It is grown by the " prazo " companies companies to whom the native tax is farmed out and in the Govern- ment reserves of Quelimane, but is essentially a native crop (R. N. Lyne's Mozambique ; Fisher Unwin, 1913). Samples have been imported and distributed for experimental pur- poses from Dar-es-Salaam, Burma, Bengal and Ceylon. In 1913 nearly 7,000 tons were imported, chiefly through Beira and Lourenco Marques. German East Africa. Before the war the cultivation of rice by the natives was being widely extended, and it was anticipated that the Central Railway (Dar-es-Salaam to Lake Tanganyika) would open up fresh tracts of rice- producing country. Aquatic rice is chiefly grown, and the supplies are mostly consumed in the country ; exports, which go principally to Uganda, amounted to 590 tons in 1911 and 900 tons in 1912. The Muansa district (round the southern shores of the Victoria Nyanza) is the main rice-producing and exporting area. There were also 1,165 acres under rice cultivation by Europeans in 1912, and the results were said to be satisfactory. Production is not, however, equal to consumption, and in 1913 there were imported 15,735 tons of rice, against 13,213 tons in 1912 and 17,330 tons in 191 1. The imports were almost 132 PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE entirely from India. The native rice is said to be at least of as good quality as the imported. Belgian Congo. According to Sir Harry Johnston (George Grenfell and the Congo ; Hutchinson, 1908), though there is a kind of wild rice, Zizania, of poor quality, apparently indigenous to the rivers of the northern Congo basin, rice was practically unknown in the central basin until the German explorer, Dr. Pogge, introduced it in 1875 or 1876. About the same time the Zanzibar Arabs introduced rice into the Eastern Congo. To-day it is widely grown, not only in the Central Congo basin, but along the Upper Congo River and parts of the Lomami. Between Kasongo and Stanley Falls, especially, where the Upper Congo flows through park-like or even treeless country, large quantities of rice are grown. It is only quite recently, however, that production has overtaken con- sumption. In 1913 only a little over 3 tons of rice were exported, whereas imports amounted to 4,430 tons. In 1915 imports had dropped to 643 tons and exports amounted to 1,122 tons. In 1916 the Stanleyville region alone produced over 5,000 tons, and it has been estimated that by 1918 the total rice crop will, after meeting local requirements, leave an exportable surplus of over 15,000 tons. French Equatorial Africa. Rice cultivation is of comparatively recent introduction and has been little developed. The coast region of Mayombe is believed to be particularly well adapted to this branch of agricultural industry. In 1913 the colony of the Gabun imported about 1,000 tons, and the Middle Congo and Ubangi colony about 500 tons. French West Africa. The position in regard to rice in the French West African colonies Senegal, Upper Senegal and Niger, Guinea, Ivory Coast, and Dahomey is much the same as in the British West African colonies : rice is widely cultivated, and in some districts attains considerable importance, but production is not equal to consumption, and there is a moderate import trade. Cultivation is practised especially alorig the banks of the Niger, in the Casamance district of Senegal (south of the Gambia colony), and in French Guinea, where it is grown not only in the PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE 133 coastal districts, but in the Futa Jallon highlands. A Governmental experimental station has been established in Guinea, and private enterprise has erected a milling plant on the middle Niger. Imports in 1913 amounted to about 20,000 tons, Senegal importing about three-fourths of the total and the Ivory Coast nearly one-fifth. France is the chief source of supply. Exports are a negligible quantity. Liberia. Rice is an old-established crop in this country. It is largely grown by the natives throughout the hinter- land, but not in sufficient quantities to meet the demand. According to Sir Harry Johnston (Liberia ; Hutchinson, 1906), the annual imports amount to about 700 tons. United States. In 1916 the area under rice cultivation in the United States was 866,300 acres, and the crop was officially estimated at 520,600 tons. This was about 45 per cent, in advance of the 1915 crop, itself the highest then on record. The increase is accounted for partly by the increased area under cultivation, but mainly by the greater average yield, which was as much as one-third more than in 1915. Following are the returns for five years : Year. 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 Acreage. 722,800 827,100 693,500 802,600 866,300 Cleaned Rice. Average Yield. Tons. 310,700 319,200 293,300 359,ooo 520,600 Cwts. per acrt. 8-6 7-7 8-5 8-9 I2-O It will be seen that until last year the average yield was not greatly in excess of that obtained in India. Formerly the chief rice-growing States were the Carolinas and Georgia, but in the last forty years these have sunk into insignificance in respect of both cultivation and production, and the three great rice States now are Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas. In these Gulf States are extensive areas specially suited to the crop alike by the nature of the soil and by facilities for irrigation. Louisiana alone had a larger acreage under rice in 1916 than all the other States in the Union put together. The distribution of cultivation and production in 1916 is shown in the following table : 134 PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE State. Acres. Percentage Percentage of area. of crop. Louisiana . 443,300 51-2 50-1 Texas . 235,000 27-1 26-0 Arkansas . 125,000 14-4 15.5 California . Other States 55,300 6-4 8-0 7,700 0-9 0-4 Total . . . 866,300 loo-o Though doing a variable export trade in home-grown rice, the United States has hitherto required to import rice and rice products on a much larger scale. The balance of trade on the import side was, however, much reduced in 1915-16, as will be seen from the following returns for the quinquennium ending with that year : U.S.A. Trade in Rice and Rice Products Imports Re-exports Net imports . Domestic exports 1911-12. Tons. . 84,800 4,600 1912-13. Tons. 99,200 5,700 1913-14. Tons. 129,600 7,900 1914-15. Tons. 123,700 26,400 1915-16. Tons. Il8,OOO 32.050 . 8o,200 . 17,600 93,500 17,400 I2I,7OO IO.OOO 97.300 34.600 85,950 54,450 Balance of imports over exports . 62,600 76,100 111,700 62,700 31,500 The imports, though fluctuating considerably, have shown a decided tendency to increase over a long series of years. Forty years back, in the quinquennium 1872-6, they averaged 34,400 tons, against an average of 111,000 tons in the quinquennium for which returns are given in the preceding table. In the United States trade statistics the imports of rice are classified under three heads " cleaned," " uncleaned, including paddy," and " rice flour, rice meal and broken rice." There has been a striking change in the last five years in the proportions in which these different classes of rice figure in the returns. While the imports of cleaned rice have rapidly increased, and there has been a considerable though less marked increase in the imports of uncleaned rice, the imports of rice meal, etc., have declined. In 1911-12 broken rice and meal formed 61 per cent. (52,000 tons) of the total imports, uncleaned rice 26 per cent. (21,600 tons), and cleaned rice only 13 per cent. (11,200 tons). In 1915-16 PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE 135 the order was reversed : cleaned rice (54,030 tons) formed 46 per cent, of a larger total ; uncleaned rice (39,140 tons), 33 per cent. ; and broken rice and meal (24,830 tons) only 21 per cent. The chief countries of supply are China, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands for cleaned rice ; Japan for uncleaned rice ; and the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and China for broken rice, flour and meal. While the imports of cleaned rice have been increasing, re-exports of the same product have also been increasing. The rice exported from the United States under the head of foreign merchandise consists almost entirely of cleaned rice (over 98 per cent, in 191516, and an even larger pro- portion in previous years). Thus the sudden large increase in the re-exports in 1914-15 and 1915-16 has affected in particular the net imports of cleaned rice. These, however, still remained at the end of the quinquennium 1911-12 to 1915-16 considerably higher than at the beginning. The following are the figures for the imports and re-exports of cleaned rice only : Cleaned Rice Imports Re-exports . Net imports 1911-12. Toff?. 1912-13. Tons. 1913-14. Tons. 1914-15. Tons. 1915-16. Tons. II.2OO 4,600 14,600 5,600 42,600 7,900 50,050 26,400 54,000 31,400 6,600 9,000 34,700 23,650 22,600 The re-exports are distributed mostly through Central and South America and the West Indies. Exports of home-grown rice and its products from the United States fall into two categories in the trade returns " rice " and " bran, meal and polish." The latter class of exports is now quite insignificant ; nearly 99 per cent. (53,880 tons) of the combined exports in 1915-16 consisted of " rice." Here, as in the case of the rice imports, there has been a complete change in the character of the trade in recent years. In 1911-12 bran and polish formed 32 per cent. (5,640 tons) of the combined exports, and in 1905-6 as much as 90 per cent, (i 5,260 tons). The normal amount of the total exports was between 10,000 and 20,000 tons till the sudden advances of 1914-15 and 1915-16. In one 10 136 PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE earlier year, however, the exports were little short of the total in 1915-16, having amounted in 1904-5 to over 50,000 tons. Before the war practically all the exports of bran and polish went to Germany. Of the exports of rice, Europe (chiefly the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Germany) used to take from one-half to two-thirds ; but both in 1913-14 and in 1914-15 the greater part of these exports went to the Central American and West Indian Republics, especially Cuba. Central and South America. Rice is already grown in considerable quantities in the countries of Central and South America, and its cultivation is capable of great extension. At present production is not equal to con- sumption. None of the republics but Brazil has yet developed, on balance, an export trade in rice, and it has been estimated (Bull. Pan-American Union , February 1917) that the total imports, including those into Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Haiti, had an annual value according to the latest returns of between 3,000,000 and 4,000,000. The imports into Cuba (143,000 tons in 1915) accounted for half the total value. After Cuba the chief importing countries are Argentina (42,000 tons of rice, 17,000 tons of paddy, in 1913) and Chile (21,000 tons in 1915), these two countries together taking nearly one-fifth of the total imports by value. Data are lacking for a complete estimate of production. From such crop returns as are available it may be said that production in general is not on a large scale, that of Brazil being probably in excess of the production of all the other republics in Central and South America. In Mexico the crop in 1914 was estimated at about 1 5,000 tons of cleaned rice. The chief areas of rice cultiva- tion are in the Pacific Coast States of Colima, Guerrero, and Michoacan, the Gulf State of Tabasco, and the inland State of Puebla all in Southern Mexico. Production falls little short of consumption, the imports in 1911-12 being only about 1,300 tons. In Guatemala the rice crop of 1916 was estimated at about 7,500 tons. In the previous year it had been re- turned as 10,700 tons. Salvador had a crop of about 5,500 tons in 1914, and Honduras nearly 1,500 tons in PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE 137 1915. Costa Rica, which with 7,000 acres under rice cultivation in 1914 might have perhaps normally a crop of about 2,000 tons, imported 2,300 tons in 1914 (over half from Germany). Nicaragua imported 2,300 tons in 1915 (all from the United States) and Panama 4,500 tons in the first half of 1914, chiefly from the United States and Germany. Dutch Guiana produced over 2,000 tons of cleaned rice in 1913 and 3,000 tons in 1914. An anticipatory estimate of the 1917 crop in Ecuador placed it at 15,000 tons. In Peru, which is perhaps the country of largest pro- duction in South America next to Brazil, the crop in 1913, according to the Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture, was 48,600 tons of cleaned rice from 138,000 acres (7 cwts. per acre). From other estimates this would seem to be rather above the average. Rice cultivation is the staple industry in Lambayeque and La Libertad (two coast departments with an abundant water supply), where about 60,000 acres are cultivated. The land is not manured, and after being cropped is allowed to lie fallow. The rice is of excellent quality, and some of it is exported, but not to the extent of the imports. Rice growing in Brazil is mentioned in some of the earliest records of European settlement. It declined for a time in the second half of last century, when coffee was introduced, and in 1902 production had fallen so far below consumption that the imports amounted to about 100,000 tons. Energetic measures (including the establishment of heavy import duties) were taken to restore the balance. The Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce has encouraged the introduction of new varieties and modern methods. Cultivation generally is still rather primitive, but has extended rapidly. Japanese immigrants have taken up the industry, among other branches of agriculture. An estimate covering the south-eastern States of Minas Geraes, Sao Paulo, Rio Grande de Sul, Rio de Janeiro, and Santa Catharina gave a production equivalent to about 210,000 tons of cleaned rice. Sao Paulo is the only State for which regular crop estimates are available. From returns given in United States Commerce Reports 138 PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE (No. 273, September 18, 1917) the yield of cleaned rice in that State in the last six years works out as follows : in 1912, 64,000 tons; in 1913, 51,000 tons; in 1914, 54,000 tons ; in 1915, 37,000 tons ; in 1916, 72,000 tons ; in 1917, 72,000 tons. In Brazil as a whole not only has production overtaken consumption, but this year (1917) the United States Consul-General reports a considerable export trade (20,000 tons in the first six months ; whether paddy or rice is not stated), chiefly with France and Argentina. In Argentina also the Government, with the aid of a Japanese expert, has been seeking to develop rice-growing along progressive lines. The results, however, hitherto have been inconsiderable. Production is said to have more than doubled between 1911 and 1916 ; but the area under cultivation was returned at the census of 1908 as 20,000 acres, and there can have been no great extension in the interval, since according to a United States Commerce Report (January 9, 1917) production in 1916 was under 7,000 tons, drought being responsible for the loss of about one-third of the crop. There remains in Argentina a desire to make that country independent of outside sources of rice supply. Fifty per cent. (21,000 tons) of the rice imports in 1913 were from Italy, the imports from British possessions amounting to only 4,700 tons ; but British possessions supplied over 40 per cent. (7,250 tons) of the total imports of paddy. Of the imports into Chile in 1915 India supplied over one-third (7,670 tons). As regards future developments, some of the most promising fields for the extension of rice-growing on a large scale in South America are to be found " in the vast reaches of level lands in Brazil ; in the Pacific Coast sections of Peru and Ecuador ; in the northern lowlands of Colombia, Venezuela, and the Guianas ; and in the extensive and fertile plains of northern Argentina " (Bull. Pan-American Union , February 1917). TABLE OF THE WORLD'S RICE CROPS f l/Lswrl/ In the following table are gathered together the con- clusions reached in the preceding investigation of rice PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE 139 production in the different rice-growing countries. The chief omission is China. For most of the other leading countries official estimates are available, and in such cases the year to which the estimate relates is given in brackets after the name of the country. In other cases the estimates are of normal production, and the reader is referred to the various sections for the data on which they are based. The totals, being composed of valuations of a heterogeneous character, are useful only as affording a general idea of the magnitude to which the world's production of rice (outside of China) has attained. n , Production Countr y- (cleaned rice). India* : Tons. British India (1916-17) 34,079,000 Native States . . 1,000,000 Ceylon f (1915) . . 172,000 Malaya f : Straits Settlements . 35,000 Federated Malay States (1913) . . . 46,000 Kelantan . . . 35,ooo Perlis . . . 7,000 British North Borneo f (1914-15) . 9,800 Hong Kong f. . . 15,000 Fiji f . . . 9,000 Egypt! (1914-15) 366,000 Uganda f . . 100 Nyasaland (1916) . . 1,300 British Guiana* (1915) . " 41,000 Trinidad f 1,700 BRITISH COUNTRIES (approximately) 35,818,000 Italy * (1916) . . 320,000 Spain * (1916) . 149,000 Bulgaria \ (1912) . . 3,000 Greece f 1,200 European Russia f (1913) 250 r^+^.r Production Country. (cleaned rice) Tons. Transcaucasia and Russian Turkestan f (1914) . 170,000 Bokhara and Khiva f . 40,000 Persia * . . 250,000 Mesopotamia * . . 30,000 Siam * . . . . 2,500,000 Netherlands East Indies f : Java and Madura (1914) 3,494,000 Sumatra, etc. . . 750,000 French Indo-China * . 3,500,000 Japan (1916) . . 8,177,000 Korea* (1916) . . 1,758,000 Formosa* (1914) . . 647,000 Philippines f (1915) . 491,000 Madagascar * . . 450,000 United States f (1916) . 520,000 Mexico | (1914) . . 15,000 Guatemala f (1916) . 7, 500 Netherlands Guianaf (1914) 3,000 Ecuador f (1917) . . 15,000 Peru f (1915-16) . . 40,000 Brazil * ... 250,000 Argentina f (1916). . 7,000 FOREIGN COUNTRIES (approximately) . 23,589,000 WORLD'S TOTAL (for countries listed) . 59,407,000 The preceding table distinguishes between : (i) coun- tries (marked*) in which, normally, production exceeds consumption. These are the mainstay of the rice export ide. India, Korea, Formosa, Persia, and Mesopotamia, sides contributing, in very different degrees, to this 140 PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE trade, import considerable quantities of rice for home consumption. (2) countries (marked t) in which, nor- mally, consumption exceeds production. Java, the United States, and Egypt, while large importers of rice for home consumption, do a considerable export trade in home- grown rice. Owing to recent crop developments in Japan it is doubtful, pending receipt of fuller trade returns, to which category that country now belongs. PREPARATION OF RICE FOR THE MARKET The rough rice (paddy) as it leaves the thresher con- sists of the fruit or grain, comparable with the wheat grain, surrounded by a closely enveloping scaly bract, known botanically as the palea or, more generally, as the husk, hull or shude. The grain itself, like other grass fruits, is composed of an outer skin, which consists of the fruit wall (pericarp) and seed coat (testa) fused together, enclosing, except at one end where the germ or embryo is situated, a layer of cells rich in proteins and known as the aleurone layer, within which, and forming the bulk of the grain, is the starchy portion of the endosperm. The latter is white in the ordinary rice of commerce, and in order to obtain a product of good appearance and of better cooking quality, the germ and outer brownish layers, together with the husk, are removed by milling. In the native method of milling the paddy is pounded by means of a pestle and mortar, worked either by hand or by machinery. The husks are thus broken, and a portion both of the outer layers of the grain and of the germ is removed. The husks and dust are then separated from the grain by winnowing., Before being cooked the grains are submitted to a further pounding in order to remove the remainder of the outer layers and germ and so obtain a cleaned product. The percentage yields of the various products in one case of hand-pounding noted in Burma were as follows : cleaned whole rice 57-4, broken rice io-i, meal and dust 13-3, husk 19-2 (Burma Department of Agriculture, Bulletin No. 10, 1913). In modern rice mills the paddy is treated by elaborate PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE 141 power-driven machinery, the process consisting of either four or five stages, viz. : 1. Sifting and winnowing, 2. Hulling, 3. Skinning, 4. Polishing, and sometimes 5. Coating or facing. (1) Sifting and winnowing. The paddy is freed from dirt and other foreign matter. (2) Hulling. The clean paddy is passed through milling-stones or a series of hullers, screens and winnowing machines in order to remove the husks. In this process a certain amount of dust, known as " mill dust," is produced, consisting largely of husk-fragments, together with some rice skin and a little starch. (3) Skinning. The husked rice is milled in cones to produce " skinned " or " white " rice (known in Burma as " loonzein "). During this process the skin is removed with much of the aleurone layer, and also the germ, and these together constitute " rice bran or meal." The term " rice meal " is also used to designate a product consisting of the 11 rice bran " mixed with the " rice polish " (polished meal) produced in the next stage of milling. (4) Polishing. The " skinned " rice is passed through a polishing machine, consisting of a cylinder made of wood and wire-gauze in which revolve rollers covered with sheep-skin or pig-skin. These rollers remove the remainder of the aleurone layer and any adhering floury matter from the grain and give it a smooth surface. The matter re- moved by polishing is known as " rice polish." In the three stages of hulling, skinning and polishing a certain amount of broken rice is produced, and this is usually graded and sold separately. (5) Coating or facing. Further to improve the appear- ance of the rice for commercial purposes, powdered talc (or 142 PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE alternatively steatite), colouring matter and oil are used for the respective purposes of imparting a more lustrous surface, a desired colour effect, and a translucent appear- ance. Other materials have been tried in place of talc, e.g. powdered mica, kaolin and gypsum. The talc is usually mixed with glucose, glycerine and starch paste, and sometimes also with mineral oil. In some mills talc and ground rice are previously added to the grain while it is passing through the mills. In any case the glazing mixture supplies the polished rice with most of its mineral surface, the addition varying from 0-15 to 0-44 per cent, in English mills, and from 0-16 to 2-00 per cent, in foreign mills. The colouring material, in the form of a powder usually a blue pigment (ultramarine, Prussian or aniline blue) in order to counteract the milky whiteness of the rice is generally mixed with the rice after milling and before polishing. The amount of pure pigment varies, but in many cases about 0-013 lb. f ultramarine is added to i ton of rice. The oiling material generally a mineral oil is added to produce a translucent effect only when no glaze has been used, and is then added after the milling. The amount of oil used is about 0-3 gallon to the ton. In England no limit as to the quantity of talc employed for coating rice has been laid down by law, and it is left to the consumer to take action under the Sale of Food and Drugs Act. In a report made to the Local Government Board, Dr. Hamill points out that 0-5 per cent, of added mineral matter would appear amply to meet the requirements of traders who regard this practice as necessary. In the United States the use of talc is permitted, provided that each package is plainly labelled with the name of the preservative and that proper directions for its removal be given. The Department of Agriculture, who administer the United States Food and Drugs Act, have decided that rice coated with glucose and starch must be labelled to that effect, and in no case may a coating of any kind be applied if it has the effect of con- cealing damage or inferiority. The various stages of milling and the products at each stage are shown in the following diagram : PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE 143 Paddy from threshers. I SIFTING AND WINNOWING. Foreign matter and dirt. Cban paddy. HULLING. 1 Broken rice. 1 Paddy. Huskec I 1 rice. \ \ Husk. Dust. Cargo rice. SKINNING. Ill I Broken rice. Husked rice. Skinned or white rice. Rice meal or bran. I POLISHING. Broken rice. Polished rice. I Rice polish. COATING. 1" . Coated rice. 1 GRADING. Graded polished rice. I Graded coated rice. Large quantities of " cargo rice," consisting of incom- pletely husked rice in which a certain amount of paddy remains, are shipped from the producing countries, mainly to Europe, where the milling is completed. The proportion of paddy in " cargo rice " varies from 5 to 20 per cent. The following figures show approximately the outturn of the various products in the case of Burmese mills, according to experimental investigation by the Burma Department of Agriculture : Polished rice Broken rice Dust Per cent. 44-0 24-0 3 . 2 Meal and polish Husk Per cent. 8-8 20-0 In the United States the average yields in trials made with rices of the Honduras and Japan types were as follows : Honduras type. Japan type. Per cent. Per cent. Cleaned rice (whole and broken) . . 62-3 65-4 Meal ....... 13-6 12-3 Polish ....... 3-7 3-7 Husk and milling loss . . . . 20-4 18-6 144 PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE Composition of Rice and the By-products of Milling The percentage composition of unhusked rice and of the products obtained at the different stages in the United States is shown in the following table (Bulletin No. 330, 1916, United States Department of Agriculture) : Percentage Organic Composition. Description of Rice Carbohy- Crude and By-products. Moisture. Fat. Proteins. drates (by fibre. Ash. difference). Honduras type. Unhusked rice (i) . 11-27 I- 5 8 7-48 65-6 8-67 5-40 Husked rice (i) . 12-32 1-79 8-57 75-15 o-99 1-18 Skinned rice (i) . 12-50 0-28 7-88 78-57 0-30 0-47 Polished rice (i) . 11-89 0-25 8-06 1 79-14 0-30 0-36 Meal (2) 9-61 10-65 i3Hi 44-04 11-71 10-58 Polish (2) . . 8-28 10-84 12-81 58-43 3-28 6-36 Husks (2) . 6-62 0-50 2-56 36-I3 35-99 18-20 Japan type. Unhusked rice (3) . II'50 1-74 6-50 67-19 7'93 5-M Husked rice (3) . 12-38 1-52 7-24 76-88 0-85 I-I3 Skinned rice (3) I3-38 0-31 6-59 79-03 0-29 0-40 Polished rice (3) . 12-82 O-22 6-6I 1 79-74 0-29 0-32 Meal . 9'39 15-13 12-81 41-8 I3'54 n-33 Polish (2) . 8-70 8-79 11-40 63-74 2-01 5-3i Husks . 6-12 0-86 2-69 34-15 36-08 2O-IO (i) Average of 4 samples. (2) Average of 2 samples. (3) Average of 3 samples. 1 These analyses are unusual in showing no diminution in proteins after polishing, in spite of the fact that the ''polish " taken off is richer in protein than the skinned rice from which it is removed in preparing polished rice. Analyses of a single complete series of products are not available in the case of Burma rice. In the following table the organic analyses of the skinned rice, polished rice, and the by-products are taken from " The Chemical Composi- tion of Paddy Mill Products," by F. J. Warth and D. B. Darabsett (Bulletin No. 10, 1913, Dept. Agric., Burma) ; they represent the averages for samples derived from three varieties of paddy. The analysis of unhusked rice is from " Indian Food Grains and Fodders : their Chemical Com- position, II., 11 by J. W. Leather (Agric. Ledger, 1903, No. 7, p. 150). The analysis of husked rice is the average of five samples of Burma rice given in " The Composition of PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE 145 Indian Rice," by David Hooper (Agric. Ledger t 1908-9, No. 5, p. 535). In all cases the figures for the mineral con- stituents are taken from the first-named publication. Percentage Organic Composition. Mineral Constituents : Percentage of Total. . S g I S .a sf 5 w 1 S A 1 * V 1 a 3 I ft ip I! 1 Unhusked rice 1 12.55 6-35 2-14 65-19 7-84 5-93 0-92 3-84 0-039 0-10 o-54 _ Husked rice 2 H-68 7-71 1-19 77.79 0-70 o-93 Skinned rice 13-02 6-91 2-24 75-71 0-68 1-44 I-II 0-13 0-O26 0-19 0-69 0-30 Polished rice 12-90 6-47 0-46 79-43 0-25 0-49 I-OI 0-02 0-017 0-05 0-24 0-08 Meal 8'io 11-50 I3-50 53-50 4-50 8-90 1-88 I-4O 0-061 0-99 3-86 1-46 Polish . 11-40 IO-2O 7-80 63-20 1-20 6-2O 1-64 0-97 0-040 0-18 2-82 Dust 9-60 6-20 3-80 41-00 22-10 17-3 I-I3 11-50 0-068 o-45 1-09 Husks . ' ' ' -- 1 ' - ~~~ ~~ 0-027 17-18 0-04 1 Average of 4 samples. Average of 5 samples. RICE AS A FOODSTUFF Rice is the most important of all cereals used as human food. It forms the staple diet of most Eastern races and is also largely eaten in Europe and America. Its nutritive value depends on the form in which it is eaten, polished rice being, as a rule, poorer in all constituents, except carbohydrates, than unskinned and unpolished rice (cf. foregoing tables of analyses). There is, however, no strict relation between the chemical composition and the value of the rice from the consumer's point of view. The method of cooking also has an influence on the nutritive value of the rice. According to Hooper, in the case of Indian rice, boiling removes more than half the fat contents, over 8 per cent, of the proteins, less than 8 per cent, of the carbo- hydrates and 17-6 of the ash. To obtain the greatest possible value as a food rice should be steamed, not boiled ; or it should be cooked by the gradual addition of water, in quantity merely sufficient to soften the rice. The percentages of the organic constituents of rice, compared with those of other common foodstuffs, are shown in the following table : 146 PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE Water. Proteins. "rt fft Carbo- hydrates. I & | 15 Per Per Per Per Per Per cent. cent*. cent. cent. cent. cent. Rice, Burma, husked n-68 7- 7 I I-I9 77.79 0-70 0-93 102 polished . 12-90 6-47 0-46 79-43 0-25 0-49 97 Bihar and Orissa, husked n-95 7-48 2-36 75-86 0-76 1-59 101 ,, Bihar and Orissa, polished 10-89 7-25 0-88 79-99 O-2O 0-79 100 Patna, coated 1 11-97 8-06 0-18 78-59 0-46 0-74 99 ,, Siam, uncoated 1 . 11-81 7-06 O-2I 80-14 0-40 0-38 98 ,, Java, uncoated 1 n-86 7'75 0-17 79-42 0*40 0-40 99 ,, Bassein, coated 1 12-33 7-19 0-25 78-93 0- 4 I 0-89 98 ,, Japan, partly milled 1 11-52 6-75 I-92 77'49 I-IO I'22 99 coated 12-21 6-14 o-43 79-50 0-41 I-3I 96 ,, poHshed Chinese, uncoated 1 . 12-82 12-06 6-61 6-59 0-22 0-20 79-74 80-20 0-29 0*40 0-32 o-55 97 97 Honduras, polished 11-89 8-06 0-25 79-14 0-30 0-36 100 Wheat .... 13-0 12-5 1-7 68-5 2-5 1-8 104 flour, straight or v v standard 10-54 11-99 1-61 75- 36 o-5 109 Maize, dent 10-56 10-25 5-02 70-40 2-24 i-53 108 meal 14-98 9-17 3'77 68-76 1-90 1-42 101 Oat meal IO-O 15-0 8-0 60-0 3-o 4-0 117 Sago flour 11-70 0-13 0-13 87-56 0-13 o-35 88 Tapioca flour 12-70 0-88 0-23 80-47 4-87 0-85 83 Potatoes 74.98 2-08 0-15 21-01 0-69 1*09 26 Lentils . 14-0 25'5 i'9 52-2 3-4 3-0 121 1 Typical of rice imported into the United States. It is not possible to compare accurately these different materials, as it is necessary to know the digestibility of the constituents in each case when used as human food, and this is not known in most cases. Speaking generally, rice is no more completely digested than other cereals, its proteins, indeed, being said to be slightly less digestible than those of wheat. Rice proteins, however, it is asserted, more closely resemble those of animal tissues than do those of wheat and maize. In countries where polished rice constitutes a large part of the diet, the natives frequently suffer from the disease known as beri-beri. That the disease is caused by living mainly on polished rice seems to have been conclusively proved, as sufferers have been cured by the addition of rice polish to the diet or by the replacement of polished by unpolished rice. Funk and others maintain that the skin which is removed by polishing contains a substance or substances, known as vitamines, which are PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE 147 essential to normal growth, whilst others believe that the disease is caused by a deficiency in phosphates. The latter view is supported by experiments with poultry, etc., in which cases have been cured by the addition of phos- phates to the diet. Although husked rice is therefore preferable to polished rice from this point of view, besides containing a greater proportion of nutritive constituents, it has the disadvantage of being more difficult to cook and, when cooked, of being less pleasant in appearance. The question is of course only of importance where rice is practically the sole diet. As rice is essentially a carbohydrate food, it is necessary to supplement it with foods rich in proteins, such as meat or legumes, in order to obtain a well-balanced diet. Even in China, where it is popularly supposed rice is almost the sole food amongst certain classes, and where, as a matter of fact, the annual per capita consumption of rice is said to amount to 300 lb., a large amount of protein is consumed in the form of preparations of soy beans, edible seaweed, etc. INDUSTRIAL USES OF RICE In addition to its primary use as food, rice is employed in brewing, distilling, vinegar manufacture and starch- making. For the former purpose, either whole rice or broken rice is employed. In the United States the term " brewers' rice " is given to broken rice which is small enough to go through a No. 12 sieve. In the case of both whole and broken rice, the grain is usually converted into the form of grits, flakes or starch before use, but is sometimes merely crushed. The flakes are made by extracting the crude starch with tepid water so as to form a thick paste which is dried by being passed between hollow, steam-heated rollers. This form of rice is said to be capable of being saccharified at a comparatively low temperature and gives a high yield, 100 parts being equivalent to 120 to 130 parts of malt. Rice is not, as a rule, used alone in brewing, but only in admixture with malt, replacing from 20 to 50 per cent, of the latter. It tends to produce a light beer and, if a large proportion is used, the beer is said not to keep well, and the yeast de- teriorates and has to be renewed or rejuvenated with malt. 148 PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE As a source of alcoholic beverages, rice is used largely in Japan for the production of the drink known as sake. The special feature of the process of brewing sake is the use of a single ferment for the two operations of sac- charification and fermentation. There are about 20,000 sake breweries in Japan producing 150,000,000 gallons annually. Sake is something between a wine and a beer, is of a pale sherry colour, and has a rather acid taste. There are many varieties brewed. The liquor is stored in vats made from the wood of Cryptomeria japonica, which gives it a characteristic flavour. There is a tax of 15. a gallon on sake, which yields a revenue of about 7,000,000 a year. In the manufacture of starch the rice is treated with a weak solution of caustic soda to soften and swell the grain. It is then washed in pure water, drained, crushed and afterwards sifted. The flour thus obtained is again treated with alkali solution and the starch is separated in a pure form by means of fine sieves, washing and settling in water. The moist starch is moulded in high-pressure filtering moulds and then dried gradually at a moderate temperature. An acid process is often employed instead of the above. About 85 to 90 per cent, of the starch present in the grain is extracted by modern methods. Rice starch is chiefly employed for laundry work, and finely-ground rice is largely used for sizing and finishing textiles. RICE MEAL AND POLISH As a general rule the rice bran or meal produced by the milling of the husked rice is mixed with the rice polish formed during the polishing process, the mixture being sold for feeding purposes as rice meal. Experiments with fattening pigs at the Arkansas Experiment Station have indicated that rice polish is of more value for feeding purposes than rice bran. A certain amount of the rice dust produced in the hulling process is also sometimes mixed with the meal. Rice meal is essentially a starchy food and is therefore much in demand for feeding pigs and for use as a diluent to nitrogenous foods, such as oil PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE 149 cakes, in the manufacture of compound feeding cakes. Rice polish was formerly exported from the United States to Germany, where it is said to have been used in the manufacture of buttons and similar articles. The average composition of rice meal, compared with that of other feeding stuffs in common use, is as follows : Rice meal. 1 Barley meal. a Dried brewers' grains. 3 I,inseed cake.' English. Palm- kernel cake.* English. Maize meal. 3 Maize germ meal. 3 Per cent. Per cent. Per cent. Per cent. Per cent. Per cent. Per cent. Moisture . 9.72 I3-29 IO-I 11-16 9'4 12-45 10-45 Crude proteins 12-21 13-19 19-50 29-50 I 7 -8 10-01 23-14 Fat . I3-24 3'14 6-93 9'50 8-2 4-20 11-77 Carbohydrates, by difference 48-56 61-87 42-31 35-54 50-6 70-13 48-25 Crude fibre 7'3I 5-63 17-60 9-10 IO-I 1-96 5-37 Ash . 8-96 2-88 3-65 5-20 3-9 1-25 i -02 Nutrient ratio 1:6-5 1:5-2 i :3-o i : 1-94 i:3-9 1:8-0 i :3'2 Food units 112 103 108 133 116 105 136 1 Average of 20 analyses quoted by various authorities. 2 Journal S.E. Agricultural College, Wye, 1912, p. 257. 3 Smetham, Journ. Roy. Lanes. Agric. Soc., 1914. 4 Analysed at the Imperial Institute. It will be seen that rice meal is rich in fat and carbo- hydrates and fairly rich in protein and compares favour- ably in composition with barley meal, dried brewers' grains and maize meal. The high proportion of fat is due to the fact that the meal contains practically the whole of the germ of the rice grain which is rich in that constituent. The fat however has a tendency to turn rancid quickly, and for this reason it is not advisable to store the meal for any length of time. Rangoon rice meal is superior to the average quoted in the above table, its percentage composition, according to Smetham, being as follows : Moisture . . . .9-10 Crude proteins . . . 13 '3* Fat 15.46 Carbohydrates, by difference 47-00 Rice ineal is a comparatively cheap food, as is indicated in the following table, which shows the price of various feeding stuffs at the beginning of 1917 and the cost per food unit : Crude fibre Ash . . 6-23 8-90 Food units 119 150 PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE Price at beginning Food Cost per of 1917, per ton. units. food unit. s. d. s. d. Rangoon rice meal . 1650 119 28$ J 7 15 o 103 3 5i 14 15 o 108 2 8J 16 7 6 136 2 5f 19 10 o 133 2 iij Palm-kernel cake, English 15150 116 2 8f Barley meal Dried brewers' grains Maize germ meal Linseed cake, English In considering the cost of a feeding stuff, the value of the manure that results from its consumption must be taken into account. This is commonly calculated by taking the value of each unit per cent, of nitrogen in the residues resulting from the consumption of i ton of the feeding stuff to be 1 5$., that of the phosphoric acid to be 35. per unit, and that of the potash to be 45. per unit, and assuming that half the nitrogen, and three-quarters of the phosphoric acid and potash present go into the manure when the latter is made into dung (cf. Voelcker and Hall, Journ. Roy. Agric. Soc., 1913, 74, 104). Accord- ing to Warth and Darabsett (Bulletin No. 10, 1913, Dept. Agric. Burma) Rangoon meal contains 1-88 per cent, of nitrogen, 3-86 per cent, of phosphoric acid and 1-46 per cent, of potash. On this basis the compensation value of the manure per ton of feeding stuff would be 275. 2d., as compared with 155. Sd. in the case of feeding barley, 295. for brewers' grains, 445. 4d. for linseed cake and 22s. i id. for palm-kernel cake. The price of rice meal, like that of all other feeding stuffs, has risen considerably since the outbreak of war, as is indicated in the following table which shows the highest, lowest and average prices in London or Liverpool, during the years 1913, 1914, 1915 and 1916 : 1913. 1914. 1915. 1916. s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. (6 2 6} Highest . -576 to 8761600 U 5 oj 1-650 Lowest . .450 3 17 6 6 10 o to 17 o o Average . ,.4 14 3 4 17 6 623 984 Feeding of Rice Meal to Live-stock Pigs. Rice meal is much used for feeding to pigs in Holland and the present extent of the rice milling industry PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE 151 in that country is due largely to the fact that the by- products sell readily to the local farmers for feeding pur- poses. Careful feeding experiments with pigs have been carried out in this country, in Canada, the United States and elsewhere, and almost without exception rice meal has proved to be a valuable food when mixed with some other meal richer in nitrogenous substances, or with a highly nitrogenous liquid food such as separated milk or whey to form a properly balanced ration. At the South Carolina Experiment Station for example, rice meal was found to be more economical than maize meal when fed in conjunction with skimmed milk. Similar results were obtained at the Hatch Experiment Station, Massachusetts, where it was concluded that the choice between the two meals depends on relative market price. It is not advis- able, however, to replace the whole of the grain ration with rice meal, as there is a tendency for pigs which are fed mainly on this food to develop weak hind legs. Ex- periments conducted at the Experimental Farm, Agassiz, British Columbia, seem to indicate that this injurious effect is due primarily to lack of phosphorus in the rice meal, and that this can be counteracted by the addition of ground phosphate to the grain ration. Rice meal may be used, together with an equal pro- portion of maize germ meal, as a substitute for barley meal for pigs. Other substitutes for barley meal which have been recommended are (i) 2 parts rice meal, 2 parts maize meal, i part coconut or palm-kernel cake and i part bean meal, and (2) 2 parts rice meal, 2 parts maize meal and i part ground-nut cake. The following rations for pigs of various ages are given in Special Leaflet, No. 16, Bd. of Agric. and Fisheries : I,ive weight of pigs. 40 lb. 80 lb. 140 lb. 180 lb. Rice meal *lb. Jib. ijlb. 2lb. Middlings i Sharps . | lb. lilb. 2lb. Bran . > J > i . Gluten meal . Jib. * * i II 152 PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE Sows which are suckling young may be given 4 Ib. rice meal, 4 Ib. sharps and 2 Ib. bran. Milch Cows. Rice meal is at present not used to any great extent for milch cows, except when mixed with other foods in compound cakes, although it might well be included in the concentrated food supplied to these animals to replace more expensive foods. A mixture of rice meal, coconut cake and ground-nut cake in equal proportions, for .example, is a satisfactory substitute for the mixed linseed and cotton-seed cakes fed to cows in stalls. In conjunction with a liberal supply of green fodder, cows yielding 2-| to 3 gallons of milk per day may be given 4 or 5 Ib. per head per day of a mixture consisting of i part rice meal, 2 parts maize gluten feed and i part linseed cake, the amount being increased in the case of cows giving higher yields of milk. Fattening Cattle. Rice meal may also be employed as a diluent to cake and other concentrated foods for feed- ing bullocks. Feeding trials with steers at the Texas Experiment Station showed that 10 Ib. of rice meal was equal to 6 Ib. of cotton-seed meal when forming two-fifths of the concentrated food in the ration. For calves a suitable mixture consists of equal parts of rice meal, linseed cake, ground-nut cake and maize. Sheep. Rice meal is not often fed to sheep, but here again it can be profitably employed as a constituent of the concentrated food. Lambs which are fed on tares or clover aftermath may be given J Ib. to i Ib. per head per day, according to their age and weight, of a mixture con- sisting of equal parts of rice meal, linseed cake, dried brewers' grains and crushed maize. Trade in Rice Meal The chief countries producing rice meal are India, Indo- China, Siam, United States and Egypt. In addition to the large quantities consumed in these countries there is a considerable export. In the case of India, rice meal is included in the official trade returns under the heading " bran and pollards. " The total quantity exported under this head in 1914-15 was 194,588 tons, of which 183,697 tons were shipped from Burma, and as the Burma exports PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE 153 are known to consist entirely of rice meal, the figures for that country only will be considered. The United Kingdom has always been the principal customer for Burma rice meal, taking about 120,000 tons each year, the Straits Settlements and Germany coming next in importance, taking about 30,000 to 40,000 tons each in normal years. The exports from Indo-China have been taken in about equal proportions by Hong Kong, Germany and the United Kingdom, whilst Siam rice meal is sent almost entirely to the Straits Settlements and Hong Kong. The United States at one time exported about 6,000 tons of rice bran and polish each year, practically the whole of which went to Germany, but in 1913-14 only 1,871 tons were shipped, and in 191415 only half this quantity ; in the latter year most of the material was sent to Norway. Rice meal is not shown separately in the Egyptian trade returns, being in- cluded under the heading " son " (bran), of which about 2,800 tons were exported in 1915, mostly to the United Kingdom. The exports of the by-products of the rice milling industry from the chief producing countries in the last year for which statistics are available are shown in the following table, together with the countries of destination : Siam. United Indo-China, 1915-16. States, Destination. Burma,l 1914-15. 1913- Rice meal " White rice" " Cargo rice " 1914-15. Rice bran Egypt 1915 and dust. meal. meal. and polish. Metric Metric Tons. tons. Tons. Tons. Tons. tons. United Kingdom . 116,798 43,111 1,947 Straits Settlements 35,384 36i 71,484 527 Hong Kong . 2,432 57,557 18,925 16,777 Other countries of the British Empire 246 5 2 France 59 i 60 French Colonies . 678 Italy . 6 54 Germany 20,O9I 50,416 Denmark 8,654 4,217 Greece. 139 Norway 800 China . 80 I 232 Other foreign countries . 12 101 50 Total . . 183,697 152,183 94,626 17,536 907 2,852 1 Recorded in official trade Returns as " bran and pollards." a Recorded in official trade Returns as " son " (= bran). 154 PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE About half the rice meal imported into the Straits Settlements is re-exported, mainly to the Federated Malay States, the Dutch East Indies and the Unfederated Malay States. The actual exports in 1915 were as follows : Destination. Quantity. Tons. Federated Malay States Unfederated Malay States . 28,197 5,066 Other countries 3.595 Total exports . . . . 46,842 A large proportion of the meal imported into Hong Kong is also re-exported, but detailed figures of the trade are not published. RICE HUSKS OR HULLS Many attempts have been made to find a use for the enormous quantity of rice husks which accumulate during the milling process. In Burma a large proportion of the husks is simply thrown into the rivers, a practice which tends to silt up the rivers. Some of the husks are used as fuel in the rice-mills, and attempts have been made to convert them into briquettes in conjunction with petroleum by-products ; the calorific value of the husks is sufficiently high to admit of their use for the latter purpose, but difficulty has been experienced in preparing a sufficiently coherent briquette, owing to their resilient nature. They are also employed as a packing material, and it has been suggested that they might be utilised in the manufacture of linoleum. Trials which were carried out by a firm of manufacturers, in conjunction with the Imperial Institute, did not, however, give promising results for the latter purpose. Rice husks have been used as a " filler " in compound feeding stuffs for live-stock. They are of comparatively little nutritive value, as is clear from the following state- ment of their composition, and, owing to their hard, siliceous nature, are actually dangerous to stock. The husks are occasionally ground and used as an adulterant of PRODUCTION AND USES OF RICE 155 barley meal, sharps and middlings, but their use for this purpose, unless their presence is definitely stated, renders the seller of such feeding stuffs liable to a penalty under the British Fertilisers and Feeding Stuff Act. The composition of rice husks is as follows ; the figures given represent the average of seven analyses quoted by various observers. Per cent. 9'O2 3-2? 1-18 33-71 35-68 Moisture .... Crude proteins . Fat Carbohydrates (by difference) Crude fibre Ash 17-14 The following notes are supplementary to the above report. India. In dealing with the production of rice in Burma, it was stated above (p. 78) that in the deltaic region, where the main rice crop is grown, " owing to the rapid hardening of the soil after the rains are over, the cultivation can only be by means of irrigation." This statement was based on the following passage in a paper contributed to the Third International Congress of Tropical Agriculture 1914, by Mr. A. McKerral, Deputy Director of Agriculture in the Southern Circle, Burma (Trans, of the Congress, vol. ii., p. 95) : " The surface soil is in all cases characterised by the extreme rapidity with which it loses water as soon as the rains are over, so that attempts at cultivation without irrigation can only end in failure/' It has been represented that this statement, in the condensed form in which it appears in the Bulletin article, may be misleading, and Mr. McKerral has been consulted as to what exactly is implied. He states in reply, " that while no irrigation is required for the rice crop, which is grown during the rains, the rice soils lose water so rapidly as soon as the rains are over, and become so hard, that if cultivation is attempted at that time of year irrigation is necessary. As a matter of fact very little cultivation of second crops is attempted, but near Rangoon and some of the bigger towns, vegetables are grown by means of well irrigation." Ill THE UTILISATION OF BURMESE RICE AND ITS BY-PRODUCTS Summary of Special Information prepared at the Imperial Institute for the Committee A GENERAL account has been given (see page 147 above) of the various uses to which rice and its by-products are applied apart from its direct use as food, and this may now be supplemented with the results of an investigation carried out at the Imperial Institute as to the suitability of various kinds of Burmese rice for industrial and other purposes. The possibility of utilising rice straw and rice husks for paper-making has also been investigated recently, and the results of these investigations are given in the following pages. RICE FROM BURMA A series of 12 samples of husked rice, and 12 corre- sponding samples of paddy, produced in the course of selection experiments at the Agricultural Station, Hmawbi, Lower Burma, were forwarded in March 1917. The samples were clean and free from dirt and extraneous matter. The samples were divided at the Imperial Institute, after consultation with commercial experts, into four groups, viz. (i) Hard long grain, (2) Hard transparent 156 UTILISATION OF RICE AND ITS BY-PRODUCTS 157 grain, (3) Soft transparent grain, and (4) 89!* opaque grain. This classification of the samples and the characters of the different kinds are summarised in the following table : Rice. Paddy. Size. Sample. No. of Percent- Hardness. Colour. Shape. whole grains in age of broken Per- centage of husk. 10 C.C. grains. volume. Hard Long Grain : Emata (343) . Hard Trans- Long and 365 40-0 2I-I parent fairly broad Letywezin (SS M Same as 477 6-8 23-1 25) Emata, jut not so Bankouk (8) . large Long and 390 25-2 21'2 fairly broad Taungdeikpan tf tt Long and 481 35-8 24-5 (70) slender Bausamati (105) lf t Short and 592 53-i 23-2 thin. Poor small grain Hard Transparent Grain : Byatcale (10) . Hard, but Trans- Short and 388 48-6 21-4 not so parent broad hard as to semi- ISt trans- Ngasein (8) group parent ,, 413 9-6 2I-I Soft Transparent Grain : Beelugyun- Soft Semi- Long and 295 50-6 I9'6 Ngasein trans- broad Byatthidat (14) parent Short and 346 16-2 20-7 broad Bawyut (32) . 383 n-6 21-2 Soft Opaque. Grain . Byatcale (20) . ,, Opaque Long and 314 32-5 20-8 broad Sabanat (311) . Short and 364 I3'6 21-3 broad The samples of rice were analysed with the following percentage results : 158 UTILISATION OF RICE AND ITS BY-PRODUCTS Sample. Emata (343) . Letywezin (SS 25) Bankouk (8) . Taungdeikpan (70) Bausamati (105) Byatcale (10) Ngasein (8) . Beelugyun-Ngasein Byatthidat (14) Bawyut (32) . Byatcale (20) Sabanet (311) Total Starch (by Moisture. proteins. Fat. difference) . Fibre. Ash. 14-3 9-1 0-7 75-3 O-I o-5 14-2 8-9 0-9 75-2 O-2 0-6 13-7 9-3 0-6 75-3 o-5 0-6 13-6 8-9 0-8 75'7 0-3 0-7 I3'7 10-0 0-8 74-6 O-I 0-8 14-1 7'4 !! 76-5 O-2 0-7 14-1 6-9 0-9 77-3 0-2 0-6 12-6 8-0 0-7 77-9 0-2 0-6 12-9 8-0 0-6 77-5 0-2 0-8 13-8 7'9 0-7 76-6 0-2 0-8 13-5 7'4 0-7 77-5 O-2 0-7 14-3 6-9 0-6 77-3 0-2 0-7 Suitability of the Rices as Food-stuffs Samples of each variety of rice were submitted to commercial experts for expression of opinion as to their quality and suitability for the British market, with the following results : (1) A firm of brokers reported that the following varieties, which are arranged in order of merit, would be saleable in the United Kingdom : Emata, Letywezin, Byatcale No. 10, Bankouk, Taungdeikpan, Ngasein. They stated that the first three samples were similar to Java rice, whilst the Bankouk and Taungdeikpan varieties were similar to Siam rice and the Ngasein rice was equal to a very superior Rangoon. They added that there might be a limited sale for the Beelugyun-Ngasein variety, but that the grain appeared to be too soft to compete with other rices, whilst the Bausamati variety is too small-grained to be of much commercial value. The firm stated that the 4 remaining samples appeared to be very soft in grain and not suitable for the United Kingdom market, adding that Austria was the principal market for rice of this quality before the war. (2) British rice millers were asked to report jointly on these rices, and furnished the following statements : Emata. This is a full-grained rice which would satisfy all the requirements of British millers. Letywezin. A useful grain, similar to the Emata variety, but inferior in size and quality. Bankouk. This has the appearance of being ordinary UTILISATION OF RICE AND ITS BY-PRODUCTS 159 No. i Siam rice of good quality, containing the usual amount of defects but useful for general purposes. Taungdeikpan. This is a useful rice somewhat similar to the Bankouk variety, but inferior in size and colour. Byatcale (10). A good grain as regards transparency and evenness of quality, and answering all requirements of this class of grain. Ngasein. This appears to be a fine sample of ordinary pinky Ngasein grain, which is very useful and keeps well in hot climates, but is hard to mill and on that account not greatly liked by rice millers. Beelugyun-Ngasein. This is a good milling grain which should give the highest satisfaction to both millers and consumers. The production of this quality of Burma rice can be specially recommended. Byatlhidat. A very useful soft-grained rice, much the same as the Beelugyun-Ngasein variety, but smaller in grain and not so good in colour. Bawyut. This is also a useful rice somewhat similar to the two previous samples, but again of inferior growth. Byatcale (20). This is a good full-grained rice, very similar to fine Moulmein rice from which a good grocery product is milled, and which is much sought after by some buyers. Sabanet. This is similar in type to the previous sample but very inferior, and not worth bringing to the notice of importers. Bausamati. An inferior rice of no value to British millers. The percentages of broken grain in these samples show considerable variation, some of the best types containing large amounts. If the husking was conducted uniformly throughout in the preparation of these samples, these figures indicate considerable variations in the milling properties of the rices, but it is realised that as the grain was husked by native methods, no great importance need be attached to the amount of broken rice in these samples as an indication of the amount that would be produced by milling in modern machinery. The percentage of husk in the samples of paddy varies only slightly. It will be seen that the brokers and millers are in i6o UTILISATION OF RICE AND ITS BY-PRODUCTS agreement as to the merits of Emata, Letywezin, Byatcale (No. 10), Bankouk, Taungdeikpan, and Ngasein rices, but differ considerably in their estimates of the value of Beelugyun-Ngasein and Byatcale (No. 20). It was sug- gested to the Burmese authorities that as the millers were favourably impressed with the two last-named types, it would be useful to have large samples of these rices, preferably in the form of either cargo rice or " loonzein " (skinned rice), sent to this country for milling trials. The rices milled from these samples would be examined at the Imperial Institute, and it would then be possible to obtain the opinions of representative firms throughout the rice trade as to their commercial value, and the information so obtained should leave no doubt as to the suitability or otherwise of these rices for this market. Suitability of the Rices for Industrial Purposes I. Starch-making The rices were submitted to a firm of starch manu- facturers, who stated that the chief points to which starch makers devote attention when judging rice for their purposes are as follows : (a) Hardness of grain. Rice of medium hardness is preferred, as hard rices are troublesome to soften and grind. (b) Percentage of starch. The variation in the amount of starch in different kinds of rice is small. The percentage of starch cannot, however, be taken as an index of the yield of pure rice starch obtainable in practice, as some kinds of rice starch are more difficult to purify. (c) Fat. The amount of fat present only varies slightly and does not influence the value of the rice for starch manufacture. (d) Colour of the grain. " Red skin " is an objection, as it produces a dark liquid when the rice is treated with alkali for softening the grain before grinding and tends to stain the starch. Yellowness of the grain is also objec- tionable, but this appears to be due generally to heating during transit and not to be an intrinsic characteristic UTILISATION OF RICE AND ITS BY-PRODUCTS 161 of special kinds of rice. In this connection the manu- facturers suggested that disinfection of cargoes with sulphur dioxide would be useful. (e) Protein. The lower the amount of protein present the better, as a low percentage entails the removal of less material in the purification of the starch. Starch makers are accustomed to buy clean broken rice, as it is suited to their needs and is cheaper than whole clean rice. With regard to the possibility of growing varieties of rice specially suited to starch manufacturers, the firm stated that there seems to be no need for this, as they depend entirely on broken grain for their supplies. They stated that a fully matured rice was preferable, as it seems to contain a higher proportion of starch granules of full size, and less of the very minute granules which cause waste of time and material in the " settling out " stages of the process of manufacture. 'II. Brewing The rices were submitted to a firm of brewers who specialise in the use of rice. They reported that all twelve varieties would be quite suitable for brewing, but that the rices with the minimum amount of fat are preferable to those containing a larger quantity, whilst rices with the greatest amount of starch will yield more beer for a given weight of rice. These points taken in conjunction with the price of the grain would be the governing factor in buying rice for brewing. It appears from the results of these enquiries that any of these twelve varieties of rice could be used for brewing and starch manufacture. It is clear, however, that better prices would be obtained for the whole rice for food purposes, and that only the broken rice need be considered as a raw material for brew- ing or starch-making. In these circumstances it would not be worth while to select varieties of rice for cultivation with the special object of meeting the requirements of these industries. UTILISATION OF RICE AND ITS BY-PRODUCTS RICE STRAW FOR PAPER-MAKING A sample of rice straw was forwarded from Egypt in April 1917 in order to ascertain its suitability as a paper- making material. The sample consisted of clean rice straw of brownish- yellow tint. It was examined with the following results : Per cent. Moisture . . . .11-8 Ash ..... 1 7 -6 \ Expressed on the Cellulose .... 50-0.1 dry straw. Length of ultimate fibres, 0-6 to 3-0 mm. ; mostly 0-9 to 1-3 mm. The straw was submitted to treatment with varying quantities of caustic soda under conditions similar to those usually employed for the manufacture of paper pulp, with the results given in the following table : Caustic soda used. Conditions of boiling. Experiment. Yield of dry pulp expressed on the straw as received. Parts per 100 parts of straw. Parts per 100 parts of solution. Time. Tempera- ture. Hours. Pr cent. A 14 4-0 4 140 C. 44 B 10 2-5 4 140 C. 50 C 8 2-0 4 140 C. 52 E 6 i'5 4 140 C. 53 The pulp obtained in these experiments was in all cases of pale colour, and yielded a strong opaque paper of excellent quality which did not shrink greatly on drying. Except in the case of experiment E the pulp bleached easily to a very pale cream colour, almost a pure white. A further experiment was made in order to ascertain whether the straw could be converted into a satisfactory pulp by boiling with milk of lime under the following con- ditions : Experiment. I4me (CaO) used. Parts per 100 parts of straw. Conditions of boiling. Yield of dry pulp ex- pressed on the straw as received. Time. Temperature. F 2O Hours. 12 140 C. Per cent. 56 UTILISATION OF RICE AND ITS BY-PRODUCTS 163 The pulp produced by this method was bright yellow- brown and did not beat easily. It yielded an opaque paper of fair strength, but it could not be bleached satis- factorily. This pulp should, however, be quite suitable for the manufacture of brown paper and straw board. It will be seen that this rice straw gives a good yield of pulp, and only requires mild treatment, i.e. the use of comparatively small amounts of caustic soda to produce a pulp which will bleach easily to a pale cream colour. The advantage which rice straw possesses of only requiring small amounts of caustic soda to convert it into pulp will, however, be counteracted to some extent by losses in the recovery of the soda, which is incomplete in the case of materials containing a large proportion of silica. The results obtained at the Imperial Institute with this Egyptian rice straw confirm those already recorded in the United States, and show that the straw when treated by the soda process yields pulp of good quality which is suitable for the manufacture of white paper. The straw will also serve for the production of straw board and brown paper if treated by either the soda or lime processes. It is improbable that rice straw could be remunera- tively exported from the producing country as a paper- making material in normal conditions, but if adequate supplies are available, its conversion into " half-stuff " for export would be worth consideration. It is also possible that the rice straw might be used locally for the manufacture of paper or straw board, either to supply the requirements of the local market or for export. RICE HUSKS The profitable utilisation of the enormous quantity of rice husks produced in the milling of rice has long been under consideration. It has been suggested that they might be used for paper-making, and as no experiments on this subject appear to be on record, the matter was recently investigated at the Imperial Institute. The sample of rice husks examined contained 7-9 per cent, of moisture and the dry husks yielded 14-7 per cent. 164 UTILISATION OF RICE AND ITS BY-PRODUCTS of ash and 42 per cent, of cellulose. The ultimate fibres varied in length from 0*5 to 1-5 mm., being mostly from 0*5 to o7 mm. The husks were treated with caustic soda under con- ditions similar to those employed at a paper-mill with the following results : Caustic soda used. Conditions of boiling. Yield of dry pulp expressed on husks as received. Parts per 100 parts of husks. Parts per 100 parts of solution. Time. Temperature. 16 4 Hours. 4* 140 C. Per cent. 36 The pulp contained a large proportion of gelatinous material which could not be satisfactorily removed by beating and washing. It furnished paper of a medium brown colour which was very weak and brittle and cracked when folded. The pulp could not be satisfactorily bleached. The results of this experiment indicate that rice husks are unsuitable for the manufacture of paper. The pulp might be used as a filler in admixture with longer fibred pulps for the manufacture of low-grade paper or straw- board, but it is somewhat unlikely that its preparation for such purposes would be remunerative. Printed by Haxtll, Watson & Vinty, Ld., London *nd Aylesbury, England. BULLETIN OF THE IMPERIAL INSTITUTE A QUARTERLY RECORD OF PROGRESS IN TROPICAL AGRICULTURE AND INDUS- TRIES AND THE COMMERCIAL UTILISA- TION OF THE NATURAL RESOURCES OF THE COLONIES AND INDIA EDITED BY THE DIRECTOR AND PREPARED BY THE SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL STAFF OF THE IMPERIAL INSTITUTE AND BY OTHER CONTRIBUTORS Price 3s. 6d. net. Annual Subscription, 14s. net (postage extra) The BULLETIN OF THE IMPERIAL INSTITUTE, which is now considerably ^cd, has a large circulation in the British Colonies and India, as well in the United Kingdom. he BULLETIN contains: Records of ihe principal Scientific and Technical Investigations on Commercial Products conducted for the Dominions, Colonies, and India at the Imperial Institute, with *a view to' the utilisation of their natural resources. Special Articles relating to Progress in Tropical Agriculture and the Commercial Utilisation of Raw Materials (vegetable and mineral). Notices of recent Books. Reports, Journals, and other Publications dealing with Tropical Agriculture and the Development of Natura, Re- sour r ;-;. "Will