To provide a stirring device which can stir and mix efficiently while mixing a suitable fluid supplied from the outside, and can dry and sterilize efficiently an object to be dried to enable an improvement in operating efficiency in the drying or the sterilizing operation in the case of a dryer using the fluid as a fluid for drying such as high-temperature vapor.

A stirring means provided in a stirring container 1 comprises a rotary shaft 5, a plurality of stirring rods 3 projecting in a centrifugal direction of the shaft around the rotary shaft 5, and a blade 4 arranged according to an arrangement cycle of the stirring rods 3. The rotary shaft 5 is perpendicular to a curved direction of the bottom inner surface in a stirring chamber 2 of the stirring container 1, and has a little gap between the tips of the blade 4 and the stirring rod 3 of the rotary shaft 5 and the curved bottom inner surface of the stirring chamber 2 in order that the stirring rods 3 and the blade 4 may rotate together with the rotary shaft 5. At the same time, the high-temperature vapor 10 is jetted from the jet orifice 3a of the stirring rod 3 substantially in parallel to the rotary shaft 5.