810 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



especially by M. Ternaux at St. Ouen, near Paris, are not yet sufficiently matured to enable us to lay any 

 useful result before the public. That corn has been so preserved in former ages, and that to a considerable 

 extent, is beyond a doubt; and it is equally certain that in the interior of Africa, among the Caff'res and 

 other nations^ as well as in the south of Russia, in Turkey, and in Egypt, tlie practice is still employed on 

 a small scale. It may be doubted, we think, whether, with the present population of Europe, it could ever 

 be generally adopted. 



4988. Preservation of corn in siloes. Some account of the opening of a siloe was lately read to the 

 Agricultural Society of Paris. " The place consisted of an icehouse, and the grain when put in was of 

 the finest appearance, perfectly dried, and in excellent condition. Tlie door had been hermetically sealed ; 

 and yet, when opened, a considerable thickness of the mass of corn was found destroyed by weevils, the 

 latter being in such quantity as to occasion an elevated temperature. As part of the same corn had been 

 perfectly well preserved in other siloes, the cause of this deterioration was sought for, and a hole was 

 found in the lower part which had been made by mice, and which, by admitting air in sufficient quantity, 

 had allowed the weevils originally in the corn to live, and increase their numbers to the degree mentioned. 

 After some observations upon experiments which showed that. insects could live for a very long time in 

 vitiated air, a committee was named to ascertain the requisite state of the air, and the circumstances 

 connected in the enquiry with the preservation of grain in these repositories. At another meeting of the 

 society, M. Hachette described the method proposed by M. Clement to prevent the destruction of corn by 

 weevils. It is founded upon a fact observed by him, that these insects cannot live in an atmosphere which 

 contains less than a certain proportion of moisture. He therefore proposes that the corn should be subject 

 to a continued ventilation of air dried by passing over quick-lime or chloride of calcium. All the weevils 

 originally in the corn would thus be quickly destroyed." {Recueil Industriel, vol. xii. p. 2G8.) 



4989. The preservation of corn in the north of Russia may deserve notice more as matter of curiosity, 

 and for supplying ideas on the subject, than for imitation. The corn is dried in small ovens or chambers, 

 which communicate with a larger chamber or oven by small tubes that enter the smaller chambers at the 

 top. The oven is then filled with straw closely pressed, which is lighted and left to consume during the 

 night Next morning the corn is taken from the smaller chambers, the smoke from the ovens having 

 passed into them and perfectly dried it. This practice has several advantages : the corn is lighter to move, 

 and is kept much easier, without requiring to be constantly turned, being preserved from vermin by the 

 smoky taste communicated to it by the straw, which does not quit it until it has passed through the mill. 

 The corn intended to be kept for any length of time is put into pits, in shape like a bottle, sufficiently high 

 for a man to stand erect in, which are dug in elevated places with a clayey soil. When they are dug a 

 fire is lighted for four and twenty hours, which forms a hard crust round the pit. The interior is lined 

 with the bark of the birch tree, fastened with wooden nails. Some straw is then put at the bottom, upon 

 which the corn is placed, and more straw at the top, the mouth of the pit being then closed with a wisp of 

 straw in the form of a cone. Each pit contains from twenty-five to one hundred tchetverts, and the grain 

 in them will keep for twenty years without being injured. {Biblioth. Univer. de Geneve.) 



4990. Tlie uses to which the straiv of corn may be applied are various. Besides food 

 for cattle, litter for animals, thatch, &c., it is bleached and plaited into ribands for forming 

 hats, and bleached, dyed of different colours, split, and glued to flat surfaces, so as to 

 form various works useful and ornamental. Paper is also made from straw ; and the 

 same pulp which forms the paper may be moulded into all the forms given to papier 

 mach^, medallion portraits, embossed works, &c. Whoever wishes to enter into the de- 

 tails of the great variety of articles that may be manufactured from straw, should consult 

 the Bictionnaire Technologique, art. Faille ; or an abridged translation of a part of the 

 article in Gill's Technological Bepository, vol. vi. new series, p. 228. 



4291. The diseases peculiar to the cereal grasses have been included in the diseases 

 common to vegetables in general. (1671.) They are chiefly the smut, the rust, the 

 mildew, and the ergot ; and we shall notice them more at length under the different spe- 

 cies of corn which are most subject to suffer from them. 



4992. The practice of reaping corn before it is perfectly ripe originated in France, and 

 has lately been recommended by M. Cadet de Vaux. 



4993. Corn reaped eight days before the usual time, this author says, has the grain fuller, larger, finer, 

 and better calculated to resist the attacks of the weevil An equal quantity of the corn thus reaped, with 

 corn reaped at the period of maturity, gave more bread, and of a better quaUty. The proper time for 

 reaping is that when the grain, on being pressed between the fingers, has a doughy appearance like the 

 crumb of bread just hot from the oven, when pressed in the same manner. This does not seem to agree 

 altogether with the experience of some agriculturists in the Carse of Gowrie, Perthshire, where oats in- 

 tended to be made into meal are always found to yield most when allowed to stand as long as possible. 

 Corn for seed, however, it is acknowledged by the same agriculturists, will answer the purpose perfectly 

 though cut before fully matured. {Perth Miscellany, vol. i. p. 41.) If the doctrine of Cadet de Vaux be 

 confined to wheat, it may be perhaps considered as confirmed by the following passage from Waistell : 

 *' It is well known," he observes, " that wheat produces the most flour and the sweetest bread when 

 threshed out before it has been stacked ; and as all corn is more or less injured in both these respects, ac- 

 cordingly as it is more or less heated in the rick, it would be highly desirable totally to prevent its heating 

 or becoming musty, in the ricks. In wet harvests it is sometimes impossible to get corn sufficiently dried ; 

 and we see that even in hot and dry harvests, such as that of 1819, a great deal of corn is sometimes spoiled 

 in the ricks : we should, therefore, be extremely cautious to have corn well dried in the field, the ricks 

 made of a moderate size, and raised off the ground, to admit the air to circulate under them, with chim- 

 neys to allow a current of air to pass upwards through them, to carry ofF the hot and musty air from the 

 centre of the rick, which, without such a chimney, has its tendency to heat four-fold greater than one 

 with a chimney. Chimneys being easily made, and so beneficial, it were to be wished that they were in 

 general use." {WaisteWs Designs for Agr. Buildings, p. 101.) 



4994. For seed corn, it not only appears that unripe grain is preferable, but even that mildewed wheat 

 and oats answer perfectly. Mr. S. Taylor, the editor of the Country Times, and formerly an extensive 

 farmer, has been in the practice of sowing from 100 to 130 acres of wheat annually for 20 years and up- 

 wards. " The seed was invariably chosen, not from the best and plumpest, but the thinnest and most 

 mildewed seed." He has seen the most beautiful samples of wheat produced from seed of the most 

 ordinary description. {Country Times, March 22. 1830.) In Perthshire, the same is stated with respect to 

 oats. {Perth Miscellany, vol i. p. 41.) 



4995. The methods of reaping corn are various. The most general mode is by the 

 sickle, already described (2482. and 248S.) ; the scythe is also used, more especially 

 for barley and oats; and a reaping machine (2737.) is beginning to be used in some 

 parts of Scotland; in which country an effectual bean-reaping machine (2740.) was 



