The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1876-12-09

quires no little care and skill to ensure against
loss. But the sending Of $50 tons OF paddy to
California, there 10 be cleaned for market. when
tie same can be done here equally as eeonomi-
cally and as well, is a transaction the wisdom Of
which Is not very apparent, and we presume viii
not soon occur agnin. 1t signifies paying freight,
wharfage, drayage, insurance, commissions,
storage, ETC., on fifty tons of husks and chaf-
besides the loss to the country Of the labor that
would otherwise be employed.
One who has had experience in rice culture,
both here and elsewhere, writes to US as follows
Like every other grain,-and We may say every
other plaut.-rice is apt to deteriorate not only in
the size Of the grain, but also in the amount OF
untritive matter, by frequent replanting, No rice
planter should SOW the seed harvested from his own
land the second time. but should procure seed from
some other localities. aud it would be preferable to
go beyond ones own island for seed. But it is i'm
perative that as often IS once in four or five years
seed should be renewed by impOrtations from South
Carolina. When it is considered that there IS
scarcely another plant growing that requires such
an immense quantity of silica as rice, and tina, one
single average crop takes nearly one thousand
pounds Of silica from a single acre Of rice land, it
must be obvious to the greatest novice in rice cul-
ture that it is but an act of self-preservatiOn to
restore to the land all the silica that is possible.
knowing that without silica no rice can grow, just
as no OK can live without bone, and that with silica
not very abundant no abundant crop can be ex-
pected. Every crop of rice-straw should be re-
turned to the ground. best by turning under the
straw itself, and we'll If the straw is spread evenly
over the ground and burnt, and then the water is
let on carefully to retain the ashes. Another advan-
tage and one that would pay we'll for the labor
expended, would be to claim from the rice-mill the
husk from the cleaned rice. A surplus of silica
(Which is the pure flint that holds up and stiffens
the stem of the rice and forms the husky will be
the consequence from returning husk and straw to
the soil, and the advantage of returning husk and
straw consists in the fact that the silica is
returned IN that form in which the growing plants
can use it as it is required. without waiting
for the chemical action of alkalies to prepare it.
Where mountain streams run into the rice land.
of course a large amount OF ready prepared
silica is bought by them for the benefit of the
growing rice crop. bnt where planters have rice
land dependent upon nearly stagnant water, or
water from springs near at hand, we would sug-
gest that they will find the advantage of saving
all the silica possible, in the large size of the
grain and the increase of crops. As rice is one of
those grains which draw heavily upon a few sup
plies IN the soil 1t VIII eventually and before
many years become necessary to use fertilizers to
restore that which successive crops have taken
from the soil. South Carolina rice contains 80
500 of starch, GA phosphate of lime, 3S gluten.
At some other time we may take occasion to refer
more particularly to manures for rice"
We commenced this article with the remark
that,
=" There's music in all things, if men had ears"
And as we write the word comes to us that an
unmusical Ministry has resigned and SO we
close these reflections on the music of enterprise
and progress with the earnest hope that the new
Ministry may prove to be men that have ears for
music in all things wherein progress, enterprise
and the public veal is the theme and that be-
fore many years a wooden and a cotton manufac-
tory viii lend their tones to the harmony of the
rice-mill, the barrel factory and the iron foundry