GRANARY. 



duced annually on tlie farm. Where the praftice of houfing 

 corn is followed, there is little or no room, he remarks, 

 within the barn for a granary; but where this is not the 

 pra6tice, particularly where there is a thrafhing mill, the 

 granary may be eafily made over the barn; which, with 

 proper tackle for hoifting the facks from below, is, he 

 thinks, the mofl convenient and leaft expcnfive place a far- 

 mer c?.n have it in. 



The ordering of the corn in many parts of England, after 

 being feparated from the chaft, duft, and other impurities, 

 and well fcreened, is this: after bringing it into the gra- 

 naries, it is fpread about half a foot thick, and turned from 

 time to time, about twice in a week; once a week they 

 alfo repeat the fcreening. This fort of management is con- 

 tinued two month.-, and after that it is laid a foot thick 

 for two months more, and during t'.iis time turned once a 

 week, or twice, if the feafon be damp, and now and then 

 again fcreened over. After about five or fix months, it is 

 raifed to five or iix feet tiilcknefs in the heaps, and then 

 turned once or twice in a month, and fcreened now and then. 

 When it has lain two years, or more, it is only turned 

 ence in two months, and fcreened once a quarter; but how 

 long foever it is kept, the oftener the turning and icreen- 

 ing are repeated, the better the grain wiU be found to keep. 

 It is proper to leave an area of a yard wide on every fide 

 the heap of corn, and other emptv fpaccs, into which it 

 may be turned and tolTed as often as there maybe occalion. 

 In Kent they make two fquare holes at each end of the 

 floor, and one round in tlie middle, by means of which 

 they throw the corn out of the upper into the lower rooms, 

 and fo up again, to turn and air it the better. Their 

 fcreens are made with two partitions, to feparate the duft 

 from the corn, which falls into a bag; and when fufficiently 

 full, this being removed, the pure and good corn remains 

 behind. 



By thefe means corn has been kept in granaries thirty 

 years; and it is afferted, that the longer it is kept the more 

 flour it yields, in proportion to the corn, and the purer 

 r.nd whiter the bread is, the fuperfiuous humidity only 

 liavihg been evaporated in the keeping. At Zurich, in 

 Swifierland, it is faid that corn has been kept eighty years, 

 er longer, by the fame methods of management. 



It is ftated that the public granaries at Dantzick are 

 feven, eight, or nine ftories high, having a funnel in the 

 midft of every floor, to let down the corn from one to 

 another. They are built fo fecurely, that, though every 

 way furrounded with water, the corn contracts no damp, 

 and the velTels have the convenience of com.ing up to the 

 walls for their lading. The Ruflians prcferve their corn in 

 fubterranean granaries, of the figure of a f u n-ar-loaf, wide 

 below and narrow at top: the fides are well plaftered, 

 and the top covered with ftones. They are very careful to 

 have the corn well dried before it is laid into thefe ftore- 

 houfes, and often dry it by means of ovens^ their fummcr 

 dry weather being too fliort to effedt it fufficiently for the 

 purpofe. 



Different contrivances have been propofed by Til. Du 

 Hamel and Dr. Hales, for ventilating or blowing frefi air 

 through corn laid up in granaries or fiiips, in order to pre- 

 ferve it fweet and dry, and to prevent its being devoured 

 by weevils or other infefts. This may be done by naiJinj; 

 wooden bars or laths on the floors of the granary, about an 

 inch dillant from each other, when they arc covered with 

 kair-c!uth only ; or at the dillance of two or tliree inches, 

 v/lien coarfe wire-work, or bafket-work of ofier, is laid un- 

 ^er the hair-cloth, or when an iron plate lull of holes is 

 ksidupoatliem. Thefe latbs may be laid acrofs other laths, 



4 



nailed at the diftanee of fifteen inches, and two or more 

 deep, that there may be a free pafTage for the air under 

 them. The under laths muft come about fix inches fiiort of 

 the wall of the granary at one end of them, on which end 

 aboard is to be fet edgeways, and Hoping againll the wall: 

 by this difpofition a large air-pipe is formed, which, hav- 

 ing an open communication with all the interftices between 

 and under the bars, will admit the paflage of air bflovr 

 forcibly through a hole at the extremity of it, into all the 

 corn of the granary, that will confcquently carry off the 

 moift exhalations of the corn. The ventilators for fupp'y- 

 ing freih air may be fixed againlt the wall, on tlie infide or 

 outfide of the granary, or under the floor, or in the cieling; 

 but wherever they are fixed, the handle of the lever that 

 works them mull be out of the granary, otherwife the per- 

 fon who works them will be in danger of iuffocation when 

 the corn is fiuned with brimflone, as is fometimes done for 

 deftroying weevils. Small moveable ventilators will anfwer 

 the purpofe for ventilating corn in large bins or in fmall 

 granaries, and m.ay be eafily moved from one bin to another. 

 If the granary or corn-fhip be very long, the main air-pipe 

 may pals lengthwife along the middle ot it, and convey air, 

 on both fides, under the corn. In large granaries, large 

 double ventilators, laid on each other, may be fixed at the 

 middle and near the top of the granary, that they may be 

 worked by a wind-mill fixed on the roof of the building, 

 or b\' a water-mill. The air is to be conveyed from the 

 ventilators through a large trunk or trunks, reaching dov n 

 through the feveral floors to the bottom of the granary, 

 with branching trunks on each floor, by means of which 

 the air may be made to pafs into a lar^e trunk along the 

 adjoining crofs walls : from thefe trunks loveral k-rcr trunks, 

 about four inches wide, are to branch off, at the dillance 

 of three or four feet from each other, which are to reach 

 through the whole length of the granary, and their farther 

 ends tobeclofed: feams of one-tenth or one-twelfth of an 

 inch are however to be left open at the four joinings of the 

 boards, where they are nailed together, that the air may 

 pafs through them into the corn. In fome of thefe lefTer 

 trunks there may be Aiding fhutters, in order to Hop the 

 paffage of the air through thole trunks v.hicii are not 

 covered with corn ; or to ventilate one part of the gianary 

 more lirifl<ly than others, as there may be occafion. 1 here 

 muit alfo be wooden iTiutters, hung on hinges, at tiieir upper 

 part, fo as to fhut clofe of themfelves; thefe ir.uil be fixed 

 to the openings in the walls of the granary on their out- 

 fide: by thele means they wdl readily open to give a free 

 paflage for the ventilating air, which afceiids through the 

 corn, to pafs off, but will inilantly fluit when the ventila- 

 tion ceafes, and thereby prevent any dampnefs of the ex- 

 ternal air from entering: to prevent this more fnily, the 

 ventilation fiiould be made only in the middle of dry days, 

 unlets the corn, when firft put in, is cold and damp. 



B'Jt in fmaller granaries, where the ventikitors muil be 

 worked by hand, if thefe granaries ftand on iiaddles, fo as 

 to have their lo-uer floor at fome diltance from the ground, 

 the ventilators may be fixed under the lower floor, between 

 the ftaddles, fo as to be worked by men llaiiding on the 

 ground without or within the granary. A very con.mo- 

 dious and cheap ventilator may be had for fn-.ali granaries, 

 by making the door of the granary lerve the purpofe, vvhicli 

 may be eafily done by making a circular fcrcen, of the fize 

 of a quarter of a circle, behind it; but in order to this, the 

 door muft open not inwards but outwards, of the granary', 

 fo that, as it falls back, it may be worked to and fro in 

 the fcreen; which muft be exacUy adapted to it in all parts 

 of the circular fide of the fcreen, as well as at the top and 



bottom^^ 



