The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-04-10

I HAVE just visited the greatest rice
mill of the world. 1t lies here at
Poozoondoung, on the Irrawaddy
river, below the port of Rangoon. 1t be-
longs to the Bullock brothers, who own
other large mills and export thousands of
tons of rice every year. Budma is about
the best rice patch on the bosom of old
Mother Earth. The lower part of it is
| a garden devoted to the cultivation of the
crop, and upper Burma is more than half
rice. The country has altogether rice
areas equal to the state of Ohio, and its
annual exports of this grain are moro
than two billion pounds. This is enough
to give every human being on earth all
the rice he could eat in one day, and still
have enough over to make pudding for
every man, woman and child, as well as
sprinkle all the brides and grooms of one
year. Rice is the money crop of Burma.
II takes the place of wheat. corn and cot
ton with u.s. The exports sell for millions,
and the people are rich or poor as the rice
grows well or i'll.
Increasing the Rice Crop
| The British government appreciates how
much the prosperity of the country de-
| Ponds upon rice, and 1t is doing wonders
In increasing the crop 1t has an agricul-
tural department whose efforts in this re-
ment at home. 1t is studying seed selec-
| ton, increasing the irrigated territories
and making forecasts showing the pos
sible yield. 1t has its agents in every part
of the country, and their reports upon
rice are more accurately made than our
report upon cotton. During the past
five years, In which a total of 13,OO000O
tons was raised for export, the govern
ment forecasts were only 5000 tons out
IOf largely
from the local officials Burma is land
of villages. Most of the people live in
little settlements OF matched huts raised
upon poles; and they go outside to work
Every village has It's head man, who re-
ports to the government the number of
acres his people will plant His hgures
are sent to the county officials, and they
send their estimate for their district on
to officials of the province. the last cal
culations being made at Rangoon.
l do not know what Uncle Sam Is
doing in this line in the Philippines, but
venture he could learn much from the
British in Burma.
| But come with me and go through this
rice mill at Poozoondoung. The grain Is
harvested as paddy. In the field 1t looks
not unlike wheat or oats, but every ker-
mel has husk on 1t and this sticks to 1t
as though it were glued. When the grain
is ready for shipment to the mills 1t looks
much like our wheat grains unthrashed,
save that the rice husks have neither
heads nor boards and they stick tight to
| the kernels. 1t takes quite as much work
to get them off as to grind the thrashed
wheat into -four. This is the work of
these RIGS mills.
The Poozoondoung mill covers as much
ground as any of our large four-grinding
establishments. 1t has buildings of five
stories, with single rooms as big as
good-sized garden patch. I entered one
on the ground floor which was packed to
the ceiling with rice paddy in bags. 1t
held more than 100000 pounds, and other
rooms of equal size adjoining 1t were
filled with the cleaned rice awaiting ship
ment.
Rice paddy is brought here from all
over Burma. 1t is foated down the
streams to the Irrawaddy river and towed
to Rangoon by steamers in flatboats and
barges. The unloading Is done by East
Indian coolies, many of whom are quite
pretty young girls. They are black, lusty
and buxom, bare armed and bare necked,
and often with legs bare to the knees.
Not few of them wear gold buttons in
their noses and rings in their ears. They
have arnlets and anklets and saw three
with rings on their toes
These girls carry the rice from the
boats to the mills in baskets of so pounds
| each. They lift the grain to their heads
or shoulders. and carry it up and down the
| banks of the river over a plank road
| way. Their hours are from daylight to
dark and their average pay is less than 2
| cents an hour. l am told they are quite
as strong as the men, and that they do
better work although their wages are
| lower.
| And still they save money at cents
| an hour and most of them make savings
| banks of their persons. Nearly every one
I saw had more or less 1ewelry upon her
/ remember q girl of IS with silver
bracelets covering her arm from wrist
to elbow. and heavy anklets of silver M
each of her legs. The lobes and rims of
her ears were pierced with gold rivets,
and the gold ring in her nose was as big
around as a saucer and as thick as a
knitting needle. This ring hung down
| around her mouth, and when she ate
lunch she stuffed in the rice through the
ring. She was a Killing from southern
India, and her husband a straight black
man in a white cotton waist cloth, worked
with her.
Harvard Athletes VS.. HindOo Coolies
In another room saw the men handling
the finished product. The white rice Is
bagged up In sacks of 226 pounds. These
are carried by East Indian coolies into
the warehouses and are piled up in stacks.
Each lifts one of these bags to his Shout
ders and runs up an inclined roadway.
University athletes, who visited the mill
The other day, rather sneered at the
strength of the Hindoes, saying that any
good man could carry such load up
plank. Thereupon the manager asked
one of them to try it. He did so, getting
the bag on his back without very much
trouble. He was able to make his way
across the room but when he tried to go
UP the incline the weight pulled him over
and he fell with the rice to the floor.
This same college crowd tried to Stck
out the broken rice grains in competition
with the Hindoo girls, thinking they
could work quite as fast, but had to give
I'D in despair The rice is of various
grades, according to the broken grains
in it, and every shipment has to be tested
by counting the number of whole grains
In a fixed quantity. 1t takes keen eyes to
distinguish the imperfect kernels, and the
Harvard boys failed In the test.
1t seems strange to think of polishing
rice like your best silver spoons. But
hat is what saw them doing as I went
through this mill. The machinery is the
finest known to the trade The paddy or
rice In the husks is first winnowed and
then carried to the top story, where 1t is
passed through grinding stones so care
fully set that they pare off the husk
without breaking the rice. The stones
are OF a composition harder than iron,
and they have to be roughened every
week by skilled Hindoos who understand
how to fix them. After this process the
rice is again winnowed. 1t goes through
countless fans and shaking sleeves, being
again carried to the top of the mill and