for market at the steam toll-mills, in the vicinity
of Charleston; and a mill of this description near
New Orleans, would remedy the greatest defect in the
rice of the country, greatly increase the demand for
the article, and undoubtedly yield a large return
for the investment. The toll mills at and around
Charleston are, and always have been, prosperous.
The mills of Mr. Lucas, in England, erected to clean
“paddy,” i.e. “rough rice,”
sent there in bulk from Carolina, have succeeded also,
and have increased the consumption of the article
in that country. The “rough rice,”
“paddy,” or grain, as it comes from the
ear, is composed, first, of a rough, silicious outer
covering, impervious to water, which is very useful
in the neighbourhood of cities, for filling up low
lots or pools, for horse beds, and for packing crockery
and ice, being far better for the latter purpose
than the sawdust used; second, a brown flour or bran,
lying directly under the outer covering; and third,
of the clean or white rice. There is no question
that, as a common diet, it is better adapted to the
climate of Louisiana than Indian corn; and it can
be grown on the hitherto waste lands of the sugar
plantations; it is always substituted by the physician,
when practicable, as the food best adapted to the
laborer, in seasons of diarrhoea and other similar
diseases, is preferred before any other grain
by the negro; and if the clean rice be ground and bolted,
a meal is produced which can be made up into various
forms of cake and other bread, of unrivalled sweetness
and delicacy. The outer flour, or brown bran,
which is separated from the chaff at the toll mill,
is known as “rice flour,” and corresponds
to the “bran” of wheat, it is a most excellent
food for horses, poultry, pigs and milch cows,
and would always command a ready sale in New Orleans.
It is used extensively for these purposes at and around
Charleston, and is shipped thence, by the cargo, to
Boston and other Northern ports.
No portion of the globe is better adapted to the growth of this grain than the delta of the Mississippi. The river is always “up and ready” to do the all-important duty of irrigation in March, April, May, and June, in which period of the year the crop ought to be made; and I am informed, and doubt not, that two cuttings can be obtained from the same plants, between March and the killing frosts of the succeeding November.
An interesting report by Dr. E. Elliot, on the Cultivation of Rice, was read before the Pendleton Farmer’s Society, South Carolina, at a recent annual meeting, from which I shall make an extract.


