40fc FARMER'S ASSISTANT. 



projecting out, so thut the bellows conld be applied to each 

 alternately; as this would be more effectual for the purpose 

 of expeling all the foul air. 



The tubes are quickly rmde of narrow strips of board, by 

 having grooves cut in them, and then nailed together. One 

 end of each tube should be closed. 



Grain that is to be sown should be frequently ventilated, 

 if it be requisite to keep it long in a confined place, or it 

 will lose much of its vegetative power. 



Where grain is to be kept for some considerable time, it 

 should be thoroughly dried, Mr Humbert insists on this, 

 for wheat in particular, not only for preserving it for years, 

 but also for improving ihe quality of the fl,ur to be made 

 fiom it. The method recommended by him, for drying it, 

 is to spread it thinly on a floor for the purpose, and stiring 

 it up frequently for a sufficient length of time, which may 

 be three or four weeks, keeping the windows of the apart- 

 ment open in dry weather, and winnowing the grain, by 

 leting it down from one floor to another exposed to a brisk 

 wind. 



We believe, however, that it may be as effectually dried 

 in the bins where it is stored, and with very little expense, 

 by ventilating it with heated air. 



Under WARMING OF ROOMS, the method of carrying 

 heated air into rooms is described. 



All that is necessary for carrying heated air into the bot- 

 toms of bins of wheat is, in the first place, to carry this air 

 in a tube from the heating-stove to a vacant place, left for 

 the purpose, which should be central among the bins; and 

 from this tube carry the air, in small ones, into those fixed 

 in the bottoms of the bins, as belore described, Thus the 

 heated air would flow from the main tube into the small 

 ones, in every direction, under the grain, and ascend 

 through it, expeling all the moist air, and at the same 

 time drying the grain. In this way, twenty thousand bushels 

 of grain might probably be thoroughly dried in two or three 

 days, with a mere trifle of expense. 



VERJUICE. A juice extracted from crabed unripe 

 grapes or apples, too sour for wine or cider. The English 

 crabapple is much used for this purpose. 



VETCH (Vicia.) A kind of pulse, the pods being like 

 those of peas, but smaller, and it is cultivated like fi^ld-peas. 

 Some vetches are sown in the Fall, and are called Winter- 

 vetches; and others in the Spring, and are called Spring- 

 vetches. They do not essentially exhaust the soil ; and 

 therefore Mr Livingston supposed that the Spring-vetches 

 might be valuable to be sown on Summer-fallows, to pre- 



