Note 1770 — Chapter V · THE VARIOUS PROCESSES OF AGRICULTURE.

The granaries of the island of Syra, with the contrivance by which corn is there preserved at the present day, are thus described by Della Rocca:—“Les granges, appelées en Grec θεμονέα, ont communément une vingtaine de pieds de long, sur huit à dix de hauteur et de largeur. On les remplit jusqu’à la moitié de leur hauteur, de paille bien foulée: on pratique un espace de trois ou quatre pieds, que l’on remplit de grain. A côté on en forme un autre, que l’on remplit de même, et ainsi de suite, selon l’étendue de la grange, et la quantité de grain que l’on a; cela fait, par des ouvertures pratiquées dans la couverture, on recouvre de paille tout le bled, jusqu’à ce que la grange soit exactement remplie. Quand on veut en faire usage, on commence par le tas le plus voisin de la porte; on enlève d’abord la paille avec beaucoup de précaution: plus on approche, plus cette précaution augmente; enfin, pour ôter les derniers brins de paille, on se sert d’un balai de millepertuis ou d’autres plantes que l’on fait sécher; et si malgré tous ces soins, la surface du monceau de grain n’est pas bien nette, on achève d’en enlever toutes les menues pailles en la vannant avec un chapeau car les paysans de nos îles portent comme ici, dans les champs, des chapeaux ronds de feutre; ils en portent aussi de paille, que l’on travaille avec beaucoup de délicatesse à Sifanto.” Traité Complet sur les Abeilles. t. i. p. 199, seq. Among the tribes of Northern Africa a more complete system of preserving grain prevails. “The Arabs, in lieu of granaries, preserve all their grain in pits: forty or fifty of these are made, each to contain about a thousand bushels: the spot selected is a dry, sandy soil, the hole being formed in the shape of a large earthen jug, the sides are plastered with mortar about a foot in thickness, and the wheat or grain filled up to the mouth, which is left just large enough for a man to get in at, and is about three feet below the surface of the ground; this is now plastered over also, and filled with the soil around to the same level as the surrounding country. The earth taken out in forming the pits is removed to a distance, and being scattered abroad, in a month or two the grass grows over the surface, and no one, unless those who have buried this treasure, would imagine that there was anything beneath their feet. The grain thus buried preserves for many years. I have eaten bread at the Esmailla made from wheat as old as the Sultan, having been buried the year of his birth, and it was as good as that made of flour from this year’s crop.” Colonel Scott, Journal of a Residence in the Esmailla of Abd-el-Kader. p. 155, seq. Mandelslo (lib. ii. c. iii.) found corn-vaults of similar construction in the Azores; and most travellers who have visited the island of Malta will have observed in the fortifications of Valetta that series of curious and beautiful granaries excavated in the form of a bottle in the solid rock.