ay, and make it into
flour, horse-corn, or malt. The farmer must take care, however, that his
corn does not get wet, for if it does it will turn mouldly and spoil;
and he must also see that the rats and mice do not reach it, for if they
do he is sure to lose some of his precious harvest.

If the English farmer, who has strong-walled and well-roofed barns, must
take watchful care of his corn, the poor savage, who knows no better
dwelling than a wooden or mud hut, can scarcely take sufficient care to
save his little harvest from destruction almost as soon as it is reaped.
He has far more enemies than the English farmer. In a wild, tropical
country, rats, mice, and similar grain-eating animals are much more
numerous, ants and weevils are terribly destructive, and enemies of the
human kind frequently plunder the grain-stores. The tropical rain is
heavy and often almost incessant, and the warm nights help on the growth
of mildew, when once it has begun. In the tropical parts of Africa it is
almost impossible to keep the grain from the harvest for more than a few
months, and the natives save nothing from harvest to harvest, but eat it
all up, rather than let it be consumed by the ants or spoiled by the
rains. And thus, when the harvest fails, they are quickly reduced to
starvation.

[Illustration: A Clay Grain Storehouse.]

It is interesting to see what clever attempts many savages make to save
their little stores of corn from their enemies. The Kaffirs dig deep
holes in their cattle enclosures, and plaster them very carefully with
clay, which sets hard, and forms a good protection against insects. They
leave an opening level with the ground, and when they have filled the
hole with corn, this opening is covered over, and plastered up like the
sides, and thus the grain is secured, as if it were in a sealed jar.

[Illustration: Grain Huts.]

Some tribes of North American Indians used to store their corn, and even
their dried meat and pemmican, in similar underground holes, which the
French backwoodsmen called _caches_. The holes were shaped liked a jug
six or seven feet deep with a narrow mouth at the top, and this mouth
was sealed up when the cache was filled. The corn and meat were packed
round the side with prairie-grass, and, when the cache was properly
sealed, they were quite safe from the effects of the weather.

It is a very common practice in hot countries to raise the corn-stores
high above the ground, out of the