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The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom by P. L. Simmonds

P >> P. L. Simmonds >> The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom




The rice of Bengal, by the exercise of some care and skill, has
recently been so far improved as nearly to equal that of the
Carolinas. Dr. Falconer has introduced into India the numerous and
fine varieties of rice cultivated in the Himalayas; of these some of
the best sorts were at his suggestion distributed to cultivators along
the Doab canal.

A species of hill rice grows on the edge of the Himalaya mountains.
The mountain rices of India are grown without irrigation, at
elevations of 3,000 to 6,000 feet on the Himalaya, where the dampness
of the summer months compensates for the want of artificial moisture.
The small reddish Assamese rices, which become gelatinous in boiling,
and the large, flat-grained, soft, purple-black Ketana rice, of Java
and Malacca, shown at the Great Exhibition, were curious.

The fertility of the province of Arracan is very great, its soil being
fit for the culture of nearly all tropical productions; rice, however,
is alone cultivated to any great extent; the low alluvial soil which
extends over the whole country, from the foot of the mountains to the
sea, being admirably suited for its growth. About 115 square miles are
under culture with rice. The export trade in rice of the district, is
seen by the following statistical return; and it gives employment to
from 400 to 700 vessels, aggregating 60,000 to 80,000 tons.

QUANTITY OF PADDY AND RICE EXPORTED FROM AKYAB, THE PORT OF ARRACAN.
-------+---------+-------+---------+----------------------------------
| | | |Average price per 100 baskets
| | | Total | of 12 seers, in Rupees
|Maunds of|Maunds | value +------------------+---------------
| Paddy |of rice| Rupees | Rice | Paddy
-------+---------+-------+---------+------------------+---------------
1831-32| 380,600| 28,970| 130,591| 15.4 to 16.6 | 8 to 9
1832-33| 502,740|175,560| 232,915| 16 17 | 7.5 8
1833-34| 555,540|418,950| 430,830| 19 20 | 9 10
1834-35| 127,050|260,650| 176,717| 18 19 | 8 9
1835-36| 783,870|548,460| 354,791| 10 11 | 5 5.8
1836-37|1,737,841|641,010| 666,732| 10.8 12 | 5 6
1837-38|1,621,566|248,783| 650,385| 21 23 | 9 10.8
1838-39|1,364,100|332,380| 821,168| 24 25.1 | 8.8 11.12
1839-40|2,033,698|529,961|1,121,311| 21.8 23 | 9.8 10
1840-41|2,212,068|446,941|1,131,087| 20 21.8 |10 11
1841-42|1,265,388|270,000| 553,014| 19 20 | 8 9
1842-43|1,310,900|393,900| 472,889| 14 15 | 7.8 8
1843-44| 848,922|707,780| 633,710| 17 18 | 7 8
-------+---------+-------+---------+------------------+----------------
(" Colonial Magazine," vol. vi., p. 348.)


EXPORT OF RICE FROM MOULMEIN

Baskets Value
1840 67,318 38,708
1841 11,175 6,900
1842 64,055 40,034
1843 35,635 35,289
1844 71,822 44,529
1845 149,815 73,034
1846 193,267 101,465

--(Simmonds's "Colonial Magazine," vol. xii., p. 462.)

From Tavoy and Mergui rice was also exported, equal in value to 41,000
rupees, in 1846; 100 baskets of 12 seers each, are equal to 30 Bengal
maunds. The basket of rice named above, is equal to 551/2 lbs. English.

Paddy means rice in the husk--rice, the grain when unhusked--a
distinction to be kept in mind.

The daily average consumption of rice in a family of five, is rated in
the Straits' settlements at three and a quarter chupahs.

The Burmese and Siamese are the grossest consumers of rice. A common
laboring Malay requires monthly 30 chupahs, or 56 pounds of rice,
value 3s. 9d. or 4s. The Burmese and Siamese about 34 chupahs, or 64
pounds. Rice land in Penang yields a return which cannot be averaged
higher than seventy-five fold--or nearly thirty guntangs of paddy for
each orlong (1-1/3 acres); but it has been considered advisable to rate
it here at sixty fold only.

The rice land of Province Wellesley gives an average return of 1171/2
fold; the maximum degree of productiveness being 600 guntangs of paddy
to an orlong of well flooded, alluvial land, or 150 fold, equal to 300
guntangs of clean rice, weighing nearly 4,520 English pounds. The
present average produce has been very moderately estimated at 470
guntangs the orlong of paddy. The quantity of seed invariably allotted
for an orlong of land is four guntangs. In Siam forty fold is
estimated a good average produce. At Tavoy, on the Tenasserim coast,
the maximum rate of productiveness of the rice land was, in 1825, and
is still believed to be, nearly the same as the average of Siam; while
their _average_ was only twenty-fold.--(Low, on "Straits
Settlements.")

Rice in Cochin-China is the "staff of life," and forms the main
article of culture. There are six different sorts grown; two on the
uplands, used for confectionery, and yielding only one crop annually;
the other sorts affording from two to five crops a year; but generally
two, one in April and another in October; or three when the
inundations have been profuse.

The late Dr. Gutzlaff stated, at a meeting of the Statistical Society
of London, that the population of China was about 367,000,000, and the
returns of the land subject to tax as used in rice cultivation there,
gave nearly half an acre to each living person; and he further stated
that in the southern and well watered provinces, it is anything but
uncommon to take two crops of rice, one of wheat, and one of pulse,
from the same land in a single season. Rice is the only article the
Chinese ever offer a bounty for; the price fluctuates according to the
seasons, from one and three-quarter dollars to eight dollars per
picul. Siam and the Indian Islands, particularly Bali and Lombok,
supply the empire occasionally with large quantities.

The price of rice in China varies according to the state of the canals
leading to the interior; if they are full of water the prices rise; if
on the contrary they are low, prices fall in proportion at the
producing districts. The amount of consumption is controlled, in a
considerable degree, by the cost of transit; when this is cheap prices
rise from the general demand; but when land-carriage to any extent has
to be resorted to, they fall; it raises prices so much at any great
distance, that rice must be used very sparingly, from its enhanced
price. It is obvious that if the waters are sufficiently high to allow
a boat to pass fully loaded, she does so at an expense of nearly 50
per cent, less than she would do, if, from want of water, she could
only take half the quantity; when transport is cheap every one obtains
a full supply; when it is dear the rice districts have more than they
can consume.

At home we are so much accustomed to the facilities of transit offered
by railroads, canal boats, &c., that we do not readily take into
consideration, that in China, except by water, all articles are
conveyed from one place to another on men's shoulders. Taking the
population of Canton at the usual estimate of a million, and allowing
to each a catty a day, the quantity of rice required for one day's
consumption alone in that city would be 10,000 piculs, of 133 lbs.
each = 1,340,000 lbs.

Java is the granary of plenty for all the Eastern Archipelago; and the
Dutch East India Company occupies itself in this culture with
solicitude, well persuaded that a scarcity of rice might be fatal to
its power. Ordinances to encourage and increase this branch of
agriculture, have been promulgated at different times by an authority
called to watch over the physical well-being of many millions of
inhabitants.

As an evident proof that the culture of rice, of which it would be
difficult to fix the quantity produced annually, increases
considerably, I may mention that the exportation from Java, in 1840,
was 1,488,350 piculs of 125 Dutch lbs.

Rice is cultivated in Java in three systems. The name of _sawah_ is
given to the rice fields, which can be irrigated artificially;
_tepar_, or _tagal_, are elevated but level grounds; and _gagah_, or
_ladang_, are cleared forest grounds. The two last only give one crop;
a second crop may be obtained from the _sawah_, which then most
commonly consists of _katjang_, from which oil is extracted, in
_kapus_ or fine cotton, and in _ubie_, a kind of potato.

There are, says Mr. Crawfurd, two distinct descriptions of rice
cultivated throughout the Indian islands, one which grows without the
help of immersion in water, and another for which that immersion is
indispensably requisite. In external character there is very little
difference between them, and in intrinsic value not much. The marsh
rice generally brings a somewhat higher price in the market. The great
advantage of this latter consists in its superior fecundity. Two very
important varieties of each are well known to the Javanese husbandman,
one being a large productive, but delicate grain, which requires about
seven months to ripen, and the other a small, hardy, and less fruitful
one, which takes little more than five months. The first we constantly
find cultivated in rich lands, where one annual crop only is taken;
and the last in well watered lands, but of inferior fertility, where
two crops may be raised.

Both of these, but particularly the marsh rice, is divided into a
great number of sub-varieties, characterised by being awned or
otherwise, having a long or round grain, or being in color black, red,
or white. The most singular variety is the _O. glutinosa_, of
Rumphius. This is never used as bread, but commonly preserved as a
sweetmeat. The rudest, and probably the earliest practised mode of
cultivating rice, consists in taking from forest lands a fugitive
crop, after burning the trees, grass, and underwood. The ground is
turned up with the mattock, and the seed planted by dibbling between
the stumps of trees. The period of sowing is the commencement of the
rains, and of reaping that of the dry season. The rice is of course of
that description which does not require immersion.

The second description of tillage consists also in growing mountain or
dry land rice. This mode is usually adopted on the common upland
arable lands, which cannot conveniently be irrigated. The grain is
sown in the middle of the dry season, either broadcast or by dibbling,
and reaped in seven or five months, as the grain happens to be the
larger or the smaller variety.

The culture of rice by the aid of the periodical rains forms the
third mode. The grain being that kind which requires submersion, the
process of sowing and reaping is determined with precision by the
seasons. With the first fall of the rains the lands are ploughed and
harrowed. The seed is sown in beds, usually by strewing very thickly
the corn in the ear. From these beds the plants, when 12 or 14 days
old, are removed into the fields and thinly set by the hand. They are
then kept constantly immersed in water until within a fortnight of the
harvest, when it is drawn off to facilitate the ripening of the grain.

The fourth mode of cultivating rice is by forcing a crop by artificial
irrigation, at any time of the year; thus, in one field, in various
plots, the operations of sowing, ploughing, transplanting, and reaping
may be seen at the same period.

The fertile, populous, and industrious countries of the Eastern
Archipelago export rice to their neighbours. The most remarkable of
these are Java, Bali, some parts of Celebes, with the most fertile
spots of Sumatra, and of the Malay Peninsula. Rice is generally
imported to these western countries from those farther east, such as
the Spice Islands. Java is the principal place of production for the
consumption of the other islands, and the only island of the
Archipelago that sends rice _abroad_. The rice of the eastern
districts is generally superior to that of the western. The worst rice
is that of Indramayu, which is usually discolored. The subdivision of
the province of Cheribon, called Gabang, yields rice of fine white
grain, equal to that of Carolina. The rice of Gressie preserves best.
All Indian rice is classed, in commercial language, into the three
descriptions of table rice, white rice, and cargo rice. From the
limited demand for the first, it is only to be had in Java, in small
quantity. For the same reason the second is not procurable in large
quantity, unless bespoken some time before-hand; but the third may be
had at the shortest notice in any quantity required. Java rice is
inferior in estimation to that of Bengal or Carolina in the markets of
Europe.

The following statistics show the extent and progress of the culture
in Java:--

In 1840. In 1841.
--------- ----------
No. of Residencies in which rice is cultivated 18 18

" Regencies 69 68

" Districts 414 414

" Desas or villages 39,931 36,296

Amount of the population who take a part in it,
without distinction of caste 6,704,797 6,857,372

Number of families, &c. 1,466,845 1,475,675

" " families who devote themselves to the
cultivation 1,150,406 1,146,083

Number of men bound to obligatory service 1,321,767 1,325,746

Cleared grounds in _bahus_, of 71 decametres 1,470,047 1,540,054

Upon this extent the population had cultivated for
the government, in _bahus_ of 71 decametres 78,182 74,277

Extent of fields which the population had cultivated 1,286,139 1,381,216
on their own account, in _bahus_, &c.

Extent of land in fallow in _bahus_, &c. 105,726 84,561

Produce in piculs of fields cultivated by the
population on its own account 21,273,278 23,810,573

Average produce of a _bahu_ 161/2 17

Gross amount of the land tax of 1840 8,502,402 fl 9,030,761 fl.

Extent of rice fields newly cultivated in
_bahus_ 10,328 13,561

This comparative summary shows that the culture of rice increases
yearly, and that the average produce of the fields is also continually
increasing. These results have been obtained by the attention paid to
the proper irrigation of the soil fit for this culture; and to the
hydraulic works which the Government executes on its own account in
the parts of the island where rice fields can be established, and
where they are required to feed a population whose number is still
increasing yearly.

I have seen, continues Mr. Crawfurd, lands which have produced, from
time beyond the memory of any living person, two yearly crops of rice.
When this practice is pursued, it is always the five-months grain
which is grown. The rapid growth of this variety, has, indeed, enabled
the Javanese husbandman, in a few happy situations, to urge the
culture to the amount of six crops in two years and a half. Rice
cultivated in a virgin soil, where the wood has been burnt off, will,
under favorable circumstances, give a return of twenty-five and thirty
fold. Of mountain rice, cultivated in ordinary upland arable lands,
fifteen fold may be looked upon as a good return. In fertile soils,
when one crop only is taken in the year, marsh rice will yield a
return of twenty-five seeds. When a double crop is taken, not more
than fifteen or sixteen can be expected. In the fine province of Kadu,
an English acre of good land, yielding annually one green crop and a
crop of rice, was found to produce of the latter 641 lbs. of clean
grain. In the light sandy, but well watered lands of the province of
Mataram, where it is the common practice to exact two crops of rice
yearly without any fallow, an acre was found to yield no more than 285
lbs. of clean rice, or an annual produce of 570 lbs. --("History of
the Indian Archipelago.")

The low estimation of Java rice is not attributable to any real
inferiority in the grain, but to the mode of preparing it for the
market. In husking it, it is, for the want of proper machinery, much
broken, and, from carelessness in drying, subject to decay from the
attack of insects and worms. When in the progress of improvement more
intelligent methods are pursued in preparing the grain for the market,
it will equal the grain of any other country. Machinery must be
employed for husking the grain, and some degree of kiln drying will be
necessary to ensure its preservation in a long voyage.

I know nowhere that rice is so cheap as in Java, except in Siam,
whence it is exported at one-third less cost. A great deal of rice is
exported from Siam to China by the junks, and also occasionally a
little from Java.

The quantity exported from Java in 1830 was 13,521 coyans.

" " 1835 " 25,577 "

" " 1839 " 1,103,378 piculs

" " 1841 " 676,213 "

" " 1843 " 1,108,774 "

Rice is grown to some extent in the Dutch portion of Celebes; it
yields at a minimum one hundred and fifty fold. The average annual
delivery of rice to the Government, from 1838 to 1842, was 3,390,119
lbs. At present the Government pays sixty cents for a measure of forty
pounds. That which is sold for the consumption of the inhabitants may
be procured at the public warehouse for a guilder the 351/2 lbs.; and
that which is sold for export may be had at public auction for 125
florins the coyan of 3,000 lbs.

The following description of some varieties of rice cultivated in the
Philippine islands, is given by Mr. Rich, botanist to the United
States Exploring Expedition. The varieties are very numerous; the
natives distinguish them by the size and shape of their grain:--

_Binambang_.--Leaves slightly hairy; glumes whitish; grows to the
height of about five feet; flowers in December: aquatic.

_Lamuyo_ greatly resembles the above; is more extensively
cultivated, particularly in Batangas, where it forms the principal
article of food of the inhabitants of the coast: aquatic.

_Malagcquit_.--This variety derives its name from its being very
glutinous after bailing; it is much used by the natives in making
sweet or fancy dishes; and also used in making a whitewash, mixed
with lime, which is remarkable for its brilliancy, and for
withstanding rain, &c.: aquatic.

_Bontot Cabayo_.--Common in Ilocos, where it is cultivated both
upland and lowland; it produces a large grain, and is therefore much
esteemed, but has rather a rough taste.

_Dumali, or early rice_.--This rice is raised in the uplands
exclusively, and derives its name from ripening its grain three
months from planting; the seed is rather broader and shorter than
the other varieties; it is not extensively cultivated, as birds and
insects are very destructive to it.

_Quinanda_, with smooth leaves.--This variety is held in great
estimation by the people of Batangas, as they say it swells more in
boiling than any other variety; it is sown in May, and gathered in
October: upland.

_Bolohan_.--This variety has very hairy glumes; it is not held in
much esteem by the natives, but it is cultivated on account of its
not being so liable to the attacks of insects and diseases as most
of the other upland varieties.

_Malagcquit_.--With smooth leaves, and red glumes (all the preceding
are whitish); possesses all the qualities of the aquatic variety of
the same name--that of being very glutinous after boiling. This rice
is said to be a remedy for worms in horses, soaked in water, with
the hulls on; it is given with honey and water.

_Tangi_.--Leaves slightly hairy, glumes light violet color. This
upland variety is held in much esteem for its fine flavor.

435,067 arrobas of rice were exported from Manilla in 1847.

A simple but rude mill is in use in Siam, and many parts of India, for
hulling paddy, which is similar to those used 4,000 years ago. It
consists of two circular stones, two feet in diameter, resting one on
the other; a bamboo basket is wrought around the upper one, so as to
form the hopper. A peg is firmly set into the face of the upper stone,
half way between its periphery and centre, having tied to it by one
end a stick three feet long, extended horizontally, and attached by
the other to another stick pending from the roof of the shed under
which the mill is placed. This forms a crank, by which the upper stone
is made to revolve on the other set firmly on the ground. The motion
throws the rice through the centre of the stone, and causes it to
escape between the edges of the two.

More starch is contained in this grain than in wheat. Braconnet
obtained from Carolina rice 85.07, and from Piedmont rice 83.8 per
cent. of starch. Vogel procured from a dried rice no less than 98 per
cent. of starch. There are several patent processes in existence for
the manufacture of rice-starch, which are accomplished chiefly by
digesting rice in solutions, more or less strong, of caustic alkali
(soda), by which the gluten is dissolved and removed, leaving an
insoluble matter composed of starch, and a white substance technically
called fibre. Under Jones's patent, the alkaline solution employed
contains 200 grains of real soda in every gallon of liquor, and 150
gallons of this liquor are requisite to convert 100 lbs. of rice into
starch. In manufacturing rice-starch on a large scale, Patna rice
yields 80 per cent, of marketable starch, and 8.2 per cent. of fibre,
the remaining 11.8 per cent. being made up of gluten, gruff, or bran,
and a small quantity of light starch carried off in suspension by the
solution.

Jones's process may be thus described:--100 lbs. of rice are macerated
for 24 hours in 50 gallons of the alkaline solution, and afterwards
washed with cold water, drained, and ground. To 100 gallons of the
alkaline solution are then to be added 100 lbs. of ground rice, and
the mixture stirred repeatedly during 24 hours, and then allowed to
stand for about 70 hours to settle or deposit. The alkaline solution
is to be drawn off, and to the deposit cold water is to be added, for
the double purpose of washing out the alkali and for drawing off the
starch from the other matters. The mixture is to be well stirred up
and then allowed to rest about an hour for the fibre to fall down. The
liquor holding the starch in suspension is to be drawn off and allowed
to stand for about 70 hours for the starch to deposit. The waste
liquor is now to be removed, and the starch stirred up, blued (if
thought necessary), drained, dried, and finished in the usual way.[44]
Rice is imported into this country in bags of 11/2 cwt., and tierces of
6 cwt., not only for edible purposes, but, when ground into flour, for
cotton manufactures, in aiding to form the weaver's dressings for
warps. Rice-meal is commonly used for feeding pigs.

Imported.
British Retained for home
Plantation. Foreign. consumption of all kinds.
Bags. Bags. Bags.
1843 136,319 35,125 60,965
1844 127,876 69,112 126,733
1845 173,794 5,713 114,933

Tons. Tons. Tons.
1847 38,736 3,033 28,375
1848 21,226 4,631 15,468
1849 19,397 1,410 14,961


Total imported. Re-exported.
1849 976,196 cwts. 290,732 cwts.
" in the husk 31,828 qrs.
1850 785,451 cwts. 248,136 "
" in the husk 37,150 qrs.
1851 714,847 cwts. 345,677 "
" in the husk 31,481 qrs.
1852 989,316 cwts. 414,507 "
" in the husk 23,946 qrs.

The quantity of rice retained for home consumption, by the corrected
returns, in 1850, was 401,018 cwts. and 35,119 quarters; in 1851,
399,170 cwts. and 31,481 quarters; in 1852, 574,809 cwts. and 23,946
quarters. The aggregate imports range from 40,000 to 80,000 tons
annually, of which about 500 to 800 tons are in the husk.

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Articles published by guardian.co.uk Books

Stephen King fan publishes Shining's Jack Torrance's novel
Three Women was first heard as a radio drama and then published as a poem. Robert Shaw explains his desire to stage the piece as it was intended

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A Stephen King fan has published an 80-page version of the book which novelist Jack Torrance obsessively writes during King's The Shining, where his descent into madness is revealed when his wife discovers that his work consists of just one phrase, endlessly repeated.

Torrance, played by Jack Nicholson in terrifying form in Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film, is a frustrated writer who goes with his wife and son to spend the winter in the isolated Overlook Hotel in an attempt to get the novel he has always wanted to write started. But the hotel's grisly past and unquiet ghosts have their way with him, and his wife Wendy eventually finds that the manuscript he has been working on actually only contains the phrase "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy", typed over and over again.

Now New York artist Phil Buehler, who describes himself as "a big fan of Stanley Kubrick and Stephen King", has self-published a book credited to Torrance, repeating the phrase throughout but formatting each page differently, using the words to create different shapes from zigzags to spirals.

"The idea has probably been marinating for years, because I loved the movie and the Stephen King book," said Buehler. "I'd just finished my own obsessive art project [and] it was an idea I had over the Christmas holidays."

He said he decided to stick to type and formatting that could have been created on a typewriter, with the first ten pages duplicating shots of Torrance's work from the film. "I thought 'if he continues to get crazier, what would those pages look like?'" he said. "I hit writer's block about 60 pages in, and I had to get to 80 - that went on for about a week." His fiancée, who had neither read the book nor seen the film, became a little concerned about his actions. "I finally showed her the movie, and she realised I wasn't really losing it," said Buehler.

He's included a spoof review from the blog OverThinkingIt.com on the book's back jacket, which compares it to "the best of Beckett" in its "lack of forward momentum", and considers the struggles of the author, "heroically pitting himself against the Sisyphusean sentence". "It's that metatextual struggle of Man vs. Typewriter that gives this book its spellbinding power," the review says. "Some will dismiss it as simplistic; that's like dismissing a Pollack canvas as mere splatters of paint."

So far, Buehler says that around 1,000 people have viewed the book, for sale on Blurb.com for $8.95 in paperback, or $22.95 in hardback, and he's sold "a few" copies, with sales now starting to pick up steam. "A few people have asked me to sign it - they're looking it as a piece of art rather than a funny thing to give to a Kubrick fan," he said. "If you're not a Kubrick or King fan, you might not even get it."

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