Excerpts from the report: The amount of rice grown in the United States increased considerably between 1950 and 1960. Improvements in harvesting methods and equipment not only kept pace with this increase, but shortened the harvest season. As a consequence, trucks used to transport rice from field to dryer increased in number and size in the same relatively short period of time. The rice dryers, built to dry and handle a given volume of rice, could not change quite as rapidly. Any appreciable increase in the volume received necessitated an expensive modification in the drying and handling facilities. To avoid unnecessary expense, dryer operators became increasingly interested in improved methods and equipment for handling rice. The purpose of this research was to determine what methods and equipment operators of commercial dryers could use to increase labor and equipment utilization and thereby reduce handling costs.