158 CULTURE OF FARM CROPS. 



development of the principle of using currents of air and of 

 other drying means in the preservation of the valuable 

 grain products of the farm. The principle is applied very 

 extensively, and with remarkable success, in many branches 

 of our own manufactures, and to materials not a whit more, 

 if indeed so valuable as grain ; nor, new as the suggestion 

 may seem to some of our readers to be, is it in reality so, 

 for the importance of preserving grain has long been re- 

 cognised, and it is many years since the first plan was pub- 

 lished which proposed to effect it. 



In the year 1743 Dr. Stephen Hales published a work 

 in which he described his ventilating machines and detailed 

 their advantages for a variety of purposes ; amongst others, 

 he endeavoured to prove their " great usefulness in preserv- 

 ing all sorts of grain dry and sweet, and free from being 

 destroyed by weevils both in granaries and ships, and also 

 in drying corn, malt, hops, &c." That his plan was not 

 chimerical appears from contemporary evidence of its use- 

 fulness for these purposes. It consisted in forcing a quan- 

 tity of air through the mass of grain, flour, &c., by means 

 of his ventilators. It is unnecessary to describe how these 

 are constructed, as these comparatively clumsy machines are 

 now entirely superseded by the efficient fanners of the 

 present day. It is, however, singular to notice that the 

 other part of his plan presents a great similarity to a 

 plan hereafter to be described. Dr. Hales carried a tube 

 through the centre of the mass, perforated with holes to 

 admit the air, which was forced into it to the surrounding 

 mass. It appears that this plan was held in high esteem 

 by the farmers of the day. A hollow reed or cane per- 

 forated with two hundred holes was placed in the cen- 

 tre of the sack, and a common bellows being attached to 

 the tube by a leathern pipe, a quantity of air was forced 

 into the tube. The plan was also adopted in France, for 

 it appears by a statement in the Gentleman's Magazine, 

 that M. de Humel de Monceau, a member of the Royal 

 Academy of Sciences, " preserved a large heap of corn free 

 from weevils for two years without turning, by merely 



