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or other fine manure, upon the rows of wheat in thespring, about the beginning of February ^ one or both ofthese will, without doubt, restore the land, and improvethe crop. Had Mr. Baker done so, when he perceivedhis crops were declining, he might have gone on withsuccess, as some others have done from eight or ten, tonear thirty years.

Though we, happily, in this kingdom, are not underthe fame necessity as some foreign countries, of buildinglarge edifices for public granaries, because our harvests aremuch less apt to fail us; yet as this work is perhaps toopresumptuously, intended for general use, it is incumbenton me to speak of those effectual, though expensive means,of guarding against dearth or even famine, as well as of ]the cheaper and easier methods, by which every farmermay be enabled to enjoy the advantage of preserving alarge quantity of corn in a small space, without dangerof its hea'ing and fermenting, of its being preyed uponby destructive animals and infects, or of its being spoiledthrough the ignorance or want of judgment, of inatten-tive servants.

Corn reaped in a dry year, and especially that of thegrowth of a hot country, is well known to be the mostperfect, and the fittest for keeping ; as, on the contrary,experience has proved that the softer and less ripened grainsof wet years and rainy harvests should always be disposed osfor more immediate use, though their too great humidity,which woujd infallibly occasion a putrefaction, if not re-medied in time, may be exhaled, and they may then bepreserved a long while in very good condition, as will beIhewn from repeated facts and proper experiments.

The antient Romans imported annually vast quantitiesof corn from Egypt, a very hot and dry country, scarcelyever watered but by the periodical overflowings of thefruitful Nile ; and they found this grain answer much bet-ter than any of their own growth, both for yielding plen-tiful crops, when sown in Italy, and for keeping in theirpublic granaries, where they frequently preserved it manyyears perfectly sound. Pliny tells as, that, in his time,they kept corn along while in subterranean caverns, madein a dry soil, and so closely stopped that not a breath ofair cou'd enter. They then covered the bottom withstraw, and laid upon that the corn in the ear. We havethe concurrent testimony both of the ancients and mo-derns, that it will keep thus perfectly well for at least iixor seven years; and an accident, not long ago, discovereda parcel of corn thus preserved at A mien*, where, thoughit had been laid up during a great number of years, it wasfound to be fiesli and good, neither worm-eaten, rotten,nor mouldv. 'Phis was certainly owing to the moist airhaving been kept out, and with it the eggs of animals, andfeeds of those minute vegetables which we fee in form ofmouldiness on such corn as has been less carefully defend- >ed from their access. In effect, experimental philosophy 1has proved that the air is the great source of corruption ;for even the most corruptible substance, such as meal, but-ter, milk, and the like, have been preserved fresh fourmonths in the exhausted receiver of an air pump.

There still is, near grand Cairo, a vast subterraneanmagazine of corn, defended with good walls, and calledJoseph’s granaries. It is hardly to be supposed that theyare quite so old as the days of that patriarch : but theyabundantly prove the utility of such plates of store, by thevast quantities of grain annually preserved in them.

Many parts of Africa, the corn of which country, andparticularly that about Algiers and Tunis, will keep muchlonger than the growth of any other place, abound withgranaries of this kind. They are deep pits made in thesolid rock, but just wide enough at their top for a man togo down into them, but they grow larger immediately af-ter, and are usually squares of from thirty to forty feet indiameter; In these the great men of the country preservetheir corn. They first cover the floor with straw, thenipread upon that a layer of corn, upon this another, butthin, bed of straw, then another couch of corn, ana soon, till the whole cavity is filled; observing all the while,as the heap rises, to place straw between the corn, and thesides of the walls. When this is finished, they cover themouth of the entrance with a sort of hurdle, over whichthey lay about two feet thick of sand, and over this they'raise a ridge of earth well beaten together, in order tothrow off the rain both ways, that none may settle on theplace and soak into the magazine. The corn thus storedup always keeps three, four, or more years very sound;and not unfrequently the proprietor being taken off by thecruel despotism of the Eastern governments, the magazineis forgotten, some accident discovers it many years after*wards, and the corn is almost always found perfectly goodin it. All the care they take, by way of preparing thegrain, is to expose it two or three days to the heat ofthe fun to dry it thoroughly before they carry it into themagazine.

In the dutchy of Lithuania, and in the Ukraine, thepeople always preserve their corn in nearly the famemanner, in wells or pits made in dry places : but greatcare must be taken there in the opening of these stores;for people who have descended into them, before theyhad had sufficient communication with the fresh air, havebeen killed by the damps.

The Ruffians too preserve their corn under groundin deep pits of almost the figure of a sugar loaf, widebelow, and narrow at top. The sides are well plastered,and the top is covered with stones. They are very carefulto dry their corn well, generally by means of ovens, kilns,or stoves, for their summer is too short to effect it sufficient-ly, before it is laid into these repositories.

The fame thing is practised with unvaried success in the 'island of Malta: and also in Gafcony, the Vivarais, andother southern parts of France, the corn of which is re-markable for keeping many years longer than that of anyother province in the fame kingdom. M. Duhame! triedthis method in the Gatinois: but his corn was soon spoi'est.there by it - humidity when laid up; that country beingsubject to wet and moisture, and his grain, in this trial,not having been previously dried in an oven or stove.Upon the whole, it is evident from these, and from•many more instances, which might be alledged, of thepractice of other countries, that subterraneous granariesproperly made, in a thoroughly dry (oil, are die best of allrepositories for keeping of the corn : but, at the fame time,-,experience Crews that this method will not succeed in ourclimate, the sun here not having power to exhale themoisture from the corn, susn'cently to prevent its fer-menting when laid in a large heap. I must likewise add,that when one of these subterranean magazines is opened :and exposed to the air, it must be emptied immediately,and the corn taken out of it must be thoroughly sifted andscreened, or it will soon corrupt. Some think- it m-»s

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