Chap. IV. F G R A I^ A R I E S. 461' 



Seventy-five cubic feet of this grown corn, which fmclled very 

 ill, and was fo moift as to wet the floor of the granary where it lay 

 a few days, v/ere put, in this condition, and without being dried, 

 into one of our little granaries, with fniall hopes of fuccefs. The 

 flieaves were moift when they were thredied j the grain v/as bruifed 

 under th-e flail, for want of its eafily quitting the ear; and if it re- 

 mained but a fliort time on the floor of the barn before it wa« 

 cleaned, it heated and contradled a fmell lilcc that of pigeon's dung. 

 It was i'o moiif, that in a ftove heated to 50 degrees of Reaumur's 

 thermometer, it loft an eighth part of its weight. 



As the corn was very hot when put into the granary, it was ven- 

 tilated three or four times the firll week, and once a week during 

 December and January : and as it had loft great part of its bad 

 fmell, from that time till June it was ventilated but once a fort- 

 night. 



Then, perceiving, by the running of one's hand into the top of 

 the heap, that it heated, we concluded it was going to be entirely 

 corrupted ; which determined us to empty the granary : but when 

 we had taken out about a foot of the top, we were greatly furprifed 

 to find the reft cool, with very little bad fmell, and drier than that 

 which was preferved in the common granaries. 



The reafon why the top was the worft, was, the moift vapours 

 being always forced upwards in ventilation : and we apprehend that 

 if, inftead of emptying the granary, it had been ventilated oftener, 

 the moifture that was at the top might have been dried away. 



This experiment teaches us one important thing, which is, that 

 in this fort of granary the top of the heap is moft fubject to heat ; 

 fo that if the grain taken out of the vent-holes is in good condition, 

 you may conclude the reft to be ftill better. 



Where the corn is too moift for the granary, M. Duhamel pro- 

 -pofes drying it in a ftove, of which he gives a particular defcrip- 

 tion, previous to its being put into the granary of prefervation. 

 That the kiln will nearly anfwer the fame purpofe, appears by what 

 Mr. Tull relates of a neighbour of his in Oxfordfljire, who acquired 

 a large fortune by this pradlice. His method was, to dry his wheat 

 en a hair-cloth, in a malt-kiln, with no other fuel than clean 

 wheat-ftraw j never fuffering it to have any ftronger heat than that 

 of the fun. The longeft time he let it remain in this heat, was 

 twelve hours ; and the fl^aorteft time, about four hours : the damper 

 the wheat v/as, and the longer intended to be kept, the more drying 



it 



