The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1877-09-22
Rice: How 1t Is Prepared for Market.

the Stubble Tor two days to cure. 1t is
then tied into sheaves and put into
small cocks in the field to more thoroughly
dry. After a few days it will be ready
to be carried to the barnyard, where
usually the thresher is situated, and put
into sacks, where it remains until the
owner is ready to thresh it out. In some
Localities it IS only removed from the
fields daily in sufficient quantities to
supply the thresher, which is almost al
ways a frame building, one and half
stories, with high single roof, filled
with the necessary machinery for sepa-
rating the rice from the straw. The
usual motive power is steam, the boiler
and furnace of which should be placed
outside the main building and incased in
brick. The smoke-stack is frequently of
brick, at least forty feet high, and
placed at least fifty feetfrom the building
with an underground tlue running to the
furnace. This is the best and safest
construction; but sometimes it is not
practicable, and then an iron smoke-stack
is substituted, and when that is the case
the main building and boiler should be
covered with metal and the exhaust
steam not allowed to be vented into the
smoke-stack, as it causes to be thrown
out volume of sparks, not only endan-
gering buildings, but also any stacks of
rice that may be in the yard or on the
flats near by. This evil is supposed to
be obviated by placing spark arrester
IN the smoke stack but the experience
of practical machinists is that they can
not be recommended as safe, and there
fore should be avoided. The speed of
the different portions of the machinery is
not great; the smallest-sized beater,
which is the thresher that takes the
grain from the straw, revolves not ex-
ceedlng 600 per minute, and the
largest $50, and of course sizes between
these at proportionate rates. The speed
of the fans varied from 100 to 200 per
minute; therefore, if ordinary attention
is paid to oiling the machinery, there
should be no fear of fire from friction.
As threshing should only be done by
daylight, and no artificial light allowed
in the building at any time, there will be
very little danger of fire; but, as the
whole is Of an infiammable character, if
fire once gets under way the loss will
most probably be total. Therefore, as
fast as the rice passes through the
thresher 1t should be removed to a stor-
age barn, at a sufficient distance to make
it comparatively safe in case of fire
occurring in the thresher, and should be
kept there no longer than is necessary
to accumulate a vessel load, when it
should be sent to market to be sold at
once as rough rice, or stored in mill until
the owner desires to have it pounded and
sold as clean rice. The straw, which is
separated from the grain in the thresher,
is by machinery delivered outside the
rear building, and should be removed as
fast as it accumulates to a safe distance
from the thresher.
This rice straw is good forage for
animals, and valuable as fertilizer for
high land crops; but where it is not
wanted for such purposes it is much
used for fuel in the furnace, and in the
vicinity of Savannah, Ga, a considerable
amount is used in paper factory, as it
is found to be valuable in the manufact-
ure of that article, which is then fire.
quently turned into genuine Havana
cigars" When it cannot be utilized by
some of the above methods, it is burnt
on the plantation, and the ashes applied
as a fertilizer to the land.
Rice pounding mills are of two classes
as to fire hazard First, the mills on
plantations, which are nearly all two
story frame, shingle-roof buildings, and
next, the mills in cities, which are usual
ly three and sometimes four story brick,
with slate or metal roofs, but all run by
steam, with furnace and boilers bricked
up outside of building, and containing
the same kind of machinery.
The city mills generally have ware
houses adjacent to them, as the storage
capacity of the mill itself is rarely suffi-
Gent for its wants. These mills are
always located on some navigable stream
so as to be easy of access to vessels for
the delivery to them of the rough and
the receipt from them of the clean rice.
When rough rice is sent to mill to be at
once pounded, elevators are lowered into
the hold of the vessel, and the rice taken
out and carried into the mill by hori
Zontal screws, and at once elevated to
the highest floor, and run through screws
which take out all rubbish, such as bits
of stick or straw, and sand 1t then
passes slowly into large millstones, six
feet in diameter, revolving 100 per
minute, ana set so as not to break the
grain of rice, but to cause the hull to
split off. From the stones it passes
through fan which blows the hull or
chatf into an apartment, from which it
discharges itself by spout to the
outside of the building, and is at once
removed. The rice is carried from the
fans to bins over the mortars. These
mortars hold about four bushels each,
and are made of wood, egg,shaped, large
end down, lined with Russia iron. The |
pestles are pieces of timber 9x12 inches,
ten feet long, shod with a heavy |
iron boot, and are lifted by arms from
the pestle shaft in rear and dropped |
about thirty inches into the rice in the |
mortars. This pounding continues from
one to two hours, according to quality of
grain, which reduces to flour a skin or
coating that was left on it by the stones
1t is then emptied out of the mortars,
and carried by elevators to the upper |
part of the mill, and passes through |
screws, which take nearly all the flour
off. 1t is again elevated to upper floors
to screws which separate it into three
qualities whole, middling, and small
and then passes to the brushes. The