The
upper are socketed into the end of the pestle, and the lower, when a
little blunted by use, are not unlike the jaw-teeth of the mammoth, with
their studs. They say here, that pestles armed with these teeth, clean
the rice faster, and break it less. The mortar, too, is of stone, which
is supposed as good as wood, and more durable. One half of these
pestles are always up. They rise about twenty-one inches; and each makes
thirty-eight strokes in a minute; one hundred pounds of rough rice is
put into the six mortars, and beaten somewhat less than a quarter of
an hour. It is then taken out, put into a sifter of four feet diameter,
suspended horizontally; sifted there; shifted into another of the same
size; sifted there; returned to the mortars; beaten a little more than
a quarter of an hour; sifted again; and it is finished. The six pestles
will clear four thousand pounds in twenty-four hours. The pound here
is twenty-eight ounces: the ounce equal to that of Paris. The best rice
requires half an hour's boiling; a more indifferent kind, somewhat less.
To sow the rice, they first plough the ground, then level it with a
drag-harrow, and let on the water; when the earth has become soft, they
smooth it with a shovel under the water, and then sow the rice in the
water.
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