Tools & tillage: a journal on the history of the implements of cultivation and other agricultural processes (6.1988/1991)

GRAIN STORAGE

7

without apparent devices for ensuring venti-
lation or airtightness.
Drying
Most frequently, drying occurs spontane-
ously as it were, as the harvested crop is wait-
ing for transport or for further processing,
etc. There are in addition many cases in
which this “natural” drying is intentionally
assisted by temporarily exposing the crop to
the sun or wind, and in Europe at least, exam-
ples are numerous and quite well recorded in
the ethnography. By contrast, artificial dry-
ing, i.e. the use of an artificial source of heat,
seems rather infrequent. It is known from
some of the moister rice growing areas of
Western Africa (Guinea) and of Madagascar:
the paddy spikes are stacked under the roof
and over a fire kept more or less constantly
burning, either in the kitchen itself, or in a
separate room specially intended for the pur-
pose. This “smoked” rice is said to acquire a
taste not appreciated by people living outside
the areas concerned. Similar practices are to
be expected from the numerous regions of
Southern Asia where climatic conditions are
at least as humid as any in Africa, but I have
no information about them. Finally, one of
the largest areas of artificial grain drying may
well be Northern Europe, but with an impor-
tant difference between the eastern and west-
ern parts. East of the Baltic, the grain was
dried in sheaves, that is before threshing; it
was done in special buildings resembling
barns, called riga in Russian, where a fire was
kept burning. In Northern Britain on the
other hand, grain was dried after being
threshed and winnowed, in often beehive-
shaped kilns. This process is basically similar
to that used for drying malt, touraillage in
French; with it, temperatures reached within
the grain are such that both its germinating
ability and, in wheat or rye, the elasticity of
the gluten, can be destroyed.10

It would be misleading, however, to as-
sume that the importance of grain-drying is
simply a function of the humidity of the cli-
mate. Humidity is itself a seasonal variable,
but other factors come into play, chiefly the
maturity of the grain when harvested, and the
form under which it is intended to be stored.
It is well known, for example, that grain to be
stored in bulk has to be drier than grain to be
stored in the ear or in sheaves: this was one of
the main factors that delayed for one century
the adoption of the combine-harvester in the
wheat-belt of North America. The conse-
quences of the replacement of the sickle by
the scythe in Europe are also well known: to
avoid losses by shattering, the crops had to be
mown earlier, before full maturity; the
sheaves had to be left longer on the fields for
ripening and drying, which made necessary
the adoption of more elaborate forms of
ricks, moyettes in French, specially contrived
for the purpose. In a few cases, moreover,
grain is harvested quite unripe, either inten-
tionally as with the Grunkern (unripe spelt)
of Wiirtemberg, or simply because the whole
crop does not reach maturity at the same
time, as with maize in Southeast Burgundy:
in such cases, immediate drying is necessary,
the grain being more or less parched or
toasted in the process. Finally, seasonality is
important, the more so since it is not infre-
quently overlooked. One cereal variety may
need drying just because it matures a few
weeks later than another. In Asturias, North-
west Spain, spelt is sown late, until Christ-
mas, and it is also harvested late, in Septem-
ber: being stored in spikes, it is not artificially
dried. But it is a question whether late-matur-
ing cereals like spelt are not the simplest ex-
planation for the presence of grain-drying
kilns in Roman and medieval times in places
where they have since disappeared. Season-
ality is even more important in monsoon
countries like China or India: cool season