TRACTS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS, &c. 2fi 



SECTION III. 



Easy Mode of Thrashing, Cleaning, and Preserving all Sorts of Grain, as 

 practised in India, and various Parts of Europe ; recommended in the 

 Infancy of St. Helena Farming. 



1 HROUGHOUT India, the manner of reaping and preserving 

 corn, is nearly the same. It is cut down within fonr inches of the 

 ground ; and when dried in the sun, it is, without binding it in 

 sheaves, put in small stacks about ten or twelve feet high. The 

 stalks are placed outward, and the ears inward. After remain- 

 ing in the stacks a week or ten days, it is spread evenly on a 

 thrashing-floor, made hard, level, and smooth ; and coated with 

 a mixture of cow-dung, clay, and water. The grain is then 

 trodden, l»y driving a number of cattle over it. When the thrash- 

 ing is completed, the straw is separated from the grain and chaff"; 

 and these being projected in the air, by means of wooden shovels, 

 the corn becomes perfectly winnowed, by this simple process, 

 whicb is performed entirely in the open field. 



T he natives of India have various ways of preserving grain. 

 Some put it in large earthen jars, and keep it in their houses ; 

 others use pits, about fifteen or twenty feet deep. These are 

 excavated, in a dry and compact soil, by digging a narrow shaft, 

 two or three feet in diameter, which is gradually widened towards 

 the bott(Mis. and forms a spacious cave under ground, leaving 

 only a small openutg at top. Through this opening, after the 

 cave has been lined with straw rope, the grain is deposited ; and 

 the < pening is ther closed by a few sticks or boards, over which 

 soil is laid, and made level with the surface of the field. These 



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