Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1908-12-30

! isViiieS up untll II reaches q height of
j eight to ten inches, the young crop
| Is allowed to depend on the rainfall
for moisture. From this time ON un-
I'll the grain is in the milk, the fields
are kept flowed. Ten or twelve days
before the fields of matured grain
are ready for cutting, the fields are
drained off The grain rapidly hard
ems and natures, and by the time it
IL ready to cut the field is sufficient
ly dry to permit the use of the reap
er and binder
The harvesting and threshing is
done in the same manner and with
the same machinery used on the big
wheat farms of the north and west,
but here the similarity ends, for rice
has TO go through several other man
ipulations before we get the bright
polished kernels found in the grocers
barrel.
The threshed rice, as it comes from
the machine, is covered with hull
or cuticle which adheres to il close
ly and is hard to remove. This is re-
moved by a machine called ''huller'
consisting of cast-iron cylinder with
a revolving shaft passing through it
from end to end. Both shaft and
fcylinder are supplied with projecting
ribs, which remove the cuticle from
the rice. The products of this ma
chine are rice bran, some flour and
clean9rice consisting of entire grains,
called -"straight-head rice" and grains
broken into various sizes. This
cleaned rice is not ready for market
ing, but later passes through polish
ing machine, which gives it highly
finished surface and pearly luster.
Polishing is effected by pieces Of
skins passing over the rice and by
I living a thin, fine coat of paraffin.
Within a cylinder of wire gauze re-
wolves a cylinder of wood, around
which sheepskins are tackled, wool in
side. This gives soft surface. over
which tanned skin worked to vel
vet like softness is fastened. The
grain, with piece of paraffin, is
put into the large cylinder. The
cylinder revolves. and passing the
soft surface over the grain gives it a
bright, pearly luster.
( After polishing the rice is passed
over screens and graded for market.
The first grade is composed of the
large size unbroken kernels and is
called the "Straight-head Rice" Then
come two grades of broken rice differ
ling only in size. The fourth, or low
lest grade, is called Brewers Rice"
and is used in the large brewing es-
Establishments.
Z At first, the milling or preparing
o; rice for market was done in the
large cities, but a few enterprising
men built and equipped mill at
considered very doubtful by even the
boldest spirits, but it was soon dem
onstrated that rice could be milled
III the country quite as successfully
as in the city, and at an appreciably
lower cost to the farmer. New mills
were built in every section where rice
was grown and in a surprisingly brief
time the whole rice belt was dotted
with them, all over southwestern
Louisiana and southeastern Texas.
A picture of this part of the Gulf
Coast Country" of fifteen years ago
would show the prairies dotted with
scrub cattle and horses, with q small
village, side rtack, or section house,
little or no business for merchant or
railroad, very little revenue for the
state or its people.
| A picture of the same country to-
day would show thrifty farmers; their
up-to-date farm implements; improv-
ed stock; the fifty or more rice
mills and their large storehouses; the
enormous rice irrigation pumping
plants and canals, the shallow ant
deep we'll systems of irrigation. which
|reduce the cost of producing rice and
other crops the minimum.