THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



319 



in the stook dry, when the wind is playing thi-ough them ; 

 and the same effective means will be found equally iiccts- 

 sary in the drying barn. 



The objection that the sheaves would not be equally dried — 

 the bottom ones being liable to be too dry before the upper- 

 most ones were ready for stacking— must be entertained ; 

 but, although the objection has a certain amount of truth in 

 it, it is only but an illustration of what is experienced in the 

 Btook — the sheaves on the one side being dry before those of 

 the other. The air must not be of too high a temperature; 

 and, if this be attended to, the stacking of the top and 

 bottom sheaves together will obviate the contemplated harm. 



The egress and distribtion of a uniform current of heated 

 air below the sheaves is our next problem. If the air is 

 drawn-out at the top of the building by means of fans, it will 

 flow in at the bottom through any opening made for it, on the 

 principle that air flows into a vacuum. But to dry the sheaves 

 properly, the heated air which thus flows in below must 

 ascend equally through the sheaves to dry them. 



We must now go back and take a closer view of our feeding 

 boxes and passage between, lest we get into a dilemma with 

 our practical readers. This passage between the two rows of 

 cattle, they will say, should be some four or five feet at least 

 above the bottom of the boxes, otherwise the liquid from the 

 manure will soon drain into it. Instead, therefore, of the 

 three railways and trucks being on the same level, the middle 

 one will be the height of the passage above the other two. 



Can we take any advantage of this passage by constructing 

 a permanent flue along its whole length? can we by means 

 of a fan or otherwise send along this main flue a continuous 

 blast of hot air from the furnace of our fixed engine, which 

 would be driving the other fans on the top of the drying-barn 

 and keeping all the machinery of this kind in motion ? and 

 can we then by means of moveable flues distribute to either 

 side heated air to dry the sheaves in the two side-rows of 

 trucks? If we can dry them, there will be no diflSculty ex- 

 perienced in letting out plenty of heated air, to dry the 

 sheaves in the trucks immediately over the main flue. The 

 temporary flues of the two side lines could be made of large 

 drain pipes under the trucks. 



Motion could easily be given to any number of fans on the 

 top of the building by meaus of a lying shaft, with rope or 

 chain, so as to discharge the greatest quantity of air required. 

 The fans and whole of the working-parts could be inside the 

 roof, and protected alike from the breath of the cattle as from 

 the weather, 



But to make the discharging fans effective in producing a 

 uniform upward current of heated air through the sheaves 

 from the flues below, the whole building must be made close — 

 the flues only excepted — so as to exclude the influx of the 

 external atmosphere at doors, windows, and other places. 

 This can easily be done at little expense, save at the ingress 

 and egress of the trucks, which would require double door- 

 ways, so as to permit of the one set being shut before opening 

 the others. In this, however, the extra expense would be very 

 trifling, as such subdivisions and doors are already required. 

 The only difference necessary would be in the extra size of 

 the doors, and a little ingenuity in wet cloth or other contri- 

 vance to make them comparatively close, so as to keep out 

 air. But in this, too, little difllculty would be experienced, as 

 the inward current at any crevice or small opening would have 

 a tendency to draw a wet cloth or the lilce close to it, so as 

 effectually to shut it. 



Such is a general view of what we and many other farmers 

 appear to be looking forward to, as an auxiliary in a wet har- 

 vest ; and however many objections it may yet have— and 



doubtless it has mauy — it has nevertheless something so utili- 

 tarian about its several parts, as to give to them the common 

 characteristic or family likeness as if they were already the ac- 

 tual members of a successful working system. What is sound 

 in principle, however imperfect it may be in many of its minor 

 details, is soon improved by the hand of practice, every turn 

 or bend from the right line of progress being gradually 

 worked off by daily use. 



The system has another utilitarian characteristic of some 

 promise, which must not be passed over unnoticed altogether. 

 Many are now not only looking forward to drying-barns in 

 wet harvests, but to the artificial heating of their homesteads 

 in winter — the combustion of coal being cheaper than that of 

 feeding material. And here, again, the main flues required 

 for drying sheaves in a wet harvest, are also required to keep 

 our cattle warm in a cold winter ; so that a twofold object in 

 the march of improvement may again be obtained — a most 

 important consideration, especially when the subject is ex- 

 amined from an £ s. d. point of view — a view which must never 

 be lost sight of, in all agricultural projects of the kind. 



Drying- houses of the kind in question may be made of any 

 size. By means of a few croas-bara and draining-pipes, a 

 small farmer may, in a wet morning, convert hia ham or cow- 

 house into a place for drying his crop, the fan on the top being 

 worked by manual labour. Some of the small kilns in the 

 North, for drying corn, are not more than six feet square. 

 Across this small area a thin layer of straw is laid upon joists, 

 and over the straw is placed the corn or malt, to be dried by 

 a gentle fire below. And although we never saw sheaves 

 dried in such kilns, we know that in very bad years stook 

 after stook has been dried in them, until the whole of the 

 small farmer's crop was secured. And there is nothing to 

 prevent the principle being carried out on a somewhat larger 

 scale, and a pretty large crop dried by heated air from the 

 kitchen-fire of the small farmer in a wet harvest, and his 

 cows kept comfortable in winter by the same means. 



Much disappointment aud loss is often experienced from the 

 corn not being sufficiently dry for thrashing to meet an early 

 market, even in comparatively good harvests ; so that, were 

 the practice of artificial drying once commenced, it is difiicult 

 to say to what extent it might be carried even in the South : 

 while in the less favourable climates of the North the proba- 

 bility is that drying-houses would be annually used. In many 

 places it is generally Christmas before corn is in a profitable 

 condition for thrashing and marketing ; while the loss sus- 

 tained in such cases is often twofold — the quality of the grain 

 and straw being deteriorated, and the price more than propor- 

 tionably reduced. To say nothing of the deterioration of the 

 grain and the reduction of its price, if the loss now sustained 

 on the straw could be avoided, it would amply pay for the 

 whole process of drying. 



The common objections to drying corn artificially are the 

 extra work it requires at a time when hands can often hardly 

 be had for money, and the thrashing out of the corn in the 

 frequent handling. Many of the proposals made for drying 

 corn in wet seasons are wholly impracticable on account of 

 this latter objection, the quantity of corn thrashed out and 

 lost in the handling being so great, as to exceed in value the 

 benefits gained. Another cardinal objection is the injury 

 done to the land by the horses' feet and the wheels of carta 

 when it is wet. Even when dry, no little damage is often 

 sustained : but in rainy weather the cutting aud poaching is 

 ruiuous to the land, while the extra work it incurs is killing 

 to the teams. These are drawbacks which will always be ex- 

 perieuced against the system. So that the practical problem 

 for solution i« the least of two evils- W. B, 



