Granary
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A granary is a storehouse or room in a
Early origins
From ancient times grain has been stored in bulk.[1] The oldest granaries yet found date back to 9500 BC[2] and are located in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A settlements in the Jordan Valley. The first were located in places between other buildings. However beginning around 8500 BC, they were moved inside houses, and by 7500 BC storage occurred in special rooms.[2] The first granaries measured 3 x 3 m on the outside and had suspended floors that protected the grain from rodents and insects and provided air circulation.[2]
These granaries are followed by those in
Historically, a silo was a pit for storing grain. It is distinct from a granary, which is an above-ground structure.
East Asia
Simple storage granaries raised up on four or more posts appeared in the
China built an elaborate system designed to minimize famine deaths. The system was destroyed in the Taiping Rebellion of the 1850s.[3][4][5]
Southeast Asia
In
Great Britain
In the South Hams in southwest Great Britain, small granaries were built on mushroom-shaped stumps called staddle stones. They were built of timber-frame construction and often had slate roofs. Larger ones were similar to linhays, but with the upper floor enclosed. Access to the first floor was usually via stone staircase on the outside wall.[6]
Towards the close of the 19th century, warehouses specially intended for holding grain began to multiply in Great Britain. There are climatic difficulties in the way of storing grain in Great Britain on a large scale, but these difficulties have been largely overcome.[1]
Modern
Modern grain farming operations often use manufactured steel granaries to store grain on-site until it can be trucked to major storage facilities in anticipation of shipping. The large mechanized facilities, particularly seen in Russia and North America are known as grain elevators.
Examples
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Granary in Kashan, Iran
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Wooden granaries of the local museum in Iisalmi, Finland
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A large granary in Bydgoszcz, Poland, on the Brda river
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Granary in Verkhivnia, Ukraine, built in 1913
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Former granary in Zürich, Switzerland, 1897
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Meiji period granary, Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan
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Two rangkiang in a photo c. 1895 of rice granaries in the Minangkabau architectural style in Batipuh in the Padang Plateau, Sumatra, Indonesia
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The Port Perry, Ontario, Canada mill and grain elevator, granary, built in 1873 (photographed c. 1930)
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Modern steel granaries in Iowa, U.S.
Moisture control
Grain must be kept away from moisture for as long as possible to preserve it in good condition and prevent
One traditional remedy is to spread the grain in thin layers on a floor, where it is turned to aerate it thoroughly. Once the grain is sufficiently dry it can be transferred to a granary for storage. Today, this can be done by means of a mechanical grain auger to move grain from one granary to another.
In modern silos, grain is typically force-aerated in situ or circulated through external grain drying equipment.
See also
- Hambar
- Hórreo
- Horreum
- Raccard
- Storage silo
- Corn crib
- Groote Schuur, the stately South African home was originally a granary.
- Rice barn
- Treppenspeicher
- Ghorfa
- Parish granary
References
- ^ a b c public domain: Zimmer, George Frederick (1911). "Granaries". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 336. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ^ PMID 19549877.
- ISBN 978-0-89264-091-1.
- S2CID 162829514.
- ISSN 0022-0507.
- ^ "Barn Guide: Traditional Farm Buildings in the South Hams: Their Adaptation and Re-use" (PDF). Retrieved 2021-04-12. The Barn Guide by South Hams District Council