488 MAIZE 



CHAP. 500 muids of mealies. The building is 40 feet high, and the 

 walls, for coolness and strength, are hollow and 3 feet in 

 thickness. The floor at the top is of cement, small trap doors 

 giving entrance to the five silos or bins. Here there is an 

 ingenious appliance for cooling and airing the mealies as soon 

 as the time for weevil life begins. Let us suppose that the 

 contents of one bin have been consumed, and in consequence 

 that one bin is empty. A trough in which a spiral worm 

 continually revolves is built below the exits of the bins. 

 Number two, we will assume, will be taken in hand. The 

 door of the exit, about a foot square, is opened sufficiently to 

 feed the trough ; the revolving worm, like an archimedean 

 screw, then brings along the mealies to the end of the building. 

 Here they fall into a box in which an elevator — a band with 

 buckets — carries them to the top of the building. Here they 

 go into another trough and are forced along by a worm as far 

 as the vacant bin, where an opening in the trough permits 

 them to fall through. It will be seen that as soon as one bin 

 has been emptied this automatic work can go on without 

 cease — and to the discomfiture of the weevils. The cost of 

 the appliances — two troughs with worms, and an elevator — 

 being small, the system deserves consideration of those who 

 handle large quantities of corn, where the climate, as at 

 Mariannhill, is favourable for the weevil." 



460. Kaffir Method of Storage. — After harvest the native 

 hangs up the maize ears to dry in the open air (Figs. 188 and 

 189) for two or three months. In regions of winter rain this 

 simple method would be impracticable owing to probable 

 injury from damp. When sufficiently dry the grain is shelled 

 off and stored in enormous jars of earthenware, wicker-work or 

 grass ; the latter is called in Sesutu a sesco (Fig. 190). These 

 are sometimes buried in the ground. In Cape Province 

 according to Wallace (1) they are simply buried in a pit 

 shaped like a short-necked water-bottle, dug 8 to 10 feet deep 

 underneath the cattle kraal, the narrow mouth being covered 

 by a flat stone, and the joints drawn with fresh dung to her- 

 metically seal it. A foot or so of well-trodden manure on the 

 kraal floor is an effectual protection against rain, and there is 

 little damage from soil moisture ; the few grains on the outside 

 which become mould)', can be used for kaffir beer. The 

 aroma inside the pit is said to be fresh and agreeable, not 

 unlike that of malt or fresh sweet silage. 



