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Agriculture is the most Healthy and Honorable, as it is the most Natural and Useful pursuit of Man. 



VOL. X. 



ROCHESTER, N. Y. — SEPTEMBER, 1849, 



NO. 9. 



EXPORT AND PRESERVATION OF BREADSTTJFFS. 



The export of Breadstuff's from the United States 

 to Great Britain and Ireland is steadily on the in- 

 crease. From September 1st, 1848, to July of the 

 present year, the export of corn was 11,472,017 

 bushels against 3,386,636 during the corresponding, 

 period of the year previous. In the quantity of 

 wheat and flour sent to England, the gain is equally 

 large. • Whatever competition the latter may encoun- 

 ter in British markets from continental or home grown 

 wheat, American corn and meal if delivered in good 

 order, must be cheaper, one year with another, than 

 any other article of human food of equal nutritive 

 value. In 100 pounds of potatoes there are 75 

 pounds of water. This renders potatoes more liable 

 to rot, and a more precarious means of subsistence 

 thaii the seeds of cereal plant's. The latter will 

 alone form good bread; and hereafter they must con- 

 stitute the main dependance of the poor and laboring 

 people of Ireland and Great Britain for daily con- 

 sumption. All parties there now concede that the 

 lower classes should be provided with ways and 

 means, somehow, to command more of the comforts of 

 civilization than they hitherto have enjoyed. We. 

 have great faith in the maxim, " where there is a 

 will there is a way." The British empire is under- 

 going a social revolution of no small moment to the 

 agricultural interests of this country. It is barely 

 possible that the production of public paupers on a 

 magnificent scale may continue a year or two longer; 

 but the turning point, if not already reached, soon 

 will be. 



Blackwood's Magazine for July contains an inte- 

 resting and instructive article under the expressive 

 title: "The Crowning of the Column and the Crush- 

 ing of the Pedestal.''' From this we learn that the 

 poor rates of England haveTeached the immense 

 sura of £7,000,000 a year; and that one seventh of 

 its entire population are now T supported by the parish 

 rates." The whole poor rates for England, Scotland 

 and Ireland for the last year were £9,460,757; or 

 about forty-seven and a half millions of dollars. 

 " The poor rates of Glasgow, which five years ago 

 did not exceed £30,000 a year for the parliamentary 

 city, have now reached £200,000: viz., Glasgow 

 parish £90,000; Barony £70,000; Gorbals £40,000; 

 total £200,000." Let the independent and compar- 

 atively untaxed Amer"can farmer realize the con- 

 dition of society in a city where one million of dol- 

 lars are required to support its public paupers a year ! 



Had American corn meal arrived at British ports 

 in a sound condition, and in no degree impaired by 

 kiln-drying, the consumption of this food would be 

 double what it now is. To learn a nation to eat and 

 love this great staple of the Union, with whiph it is 

 unacquainted,*we should not begin by sending sour 

 and musty meal, to offend both the taste and smell 

 of our new customers. Nor should its panification, 

 or ability to ferment and make light bread, be de- 

 stroyed by overheating and partial cooking in drying 

 corn by steam, boiling water, stoves or furnaces. 

 Incalculable damage has been done by processes of 

 this kind. Wheat and corn, flour and meal naturally 

 contain from eleven to thirteen per cent, of water, 

 about one half of which must be expelled and the 

 flour or meal well packed in good barrels or water- 

 proof sacks, to exclude both moisture and common 

 air. It does not require that water should be up to 

 a boiling heat to cook flour, meal, meat, eggs, potatoes 

 and corn. This remark applies alike to starch, glu- 

 ten and albumen. Hence, in drying the seeds of 

 cereal plants, and meat, the temperature should 

 never be raised much above the heat of a summer's 

 sun; say 130 degrees. This is abundant in Georgia, 

 and will be in every other state for drying corn. By 

 taking, a little more time to drive off the moisture at 

 a comparatively low temperature, not the least chem- 

 ical change or cooking takes place. The natural 

 flavor and fermenting properties of the meal are fully 

 preserved. This is a matter of great importance. 



Instead of placing corn, wheat or meal on heated 

 iron cylinders, plates, or brick, it should be desic- 

 cated by hot and dry air sent up through the grain 

 and carrying off its dampness without heating a 

 single kernel more than 130 or 140 degrees. The 

 shallow bins which hold corn or wheat should have 

 a fine wire seive-like bottom, resting on a strong 

 frame so as to permit heated air to pass upward 

 through the seive and yet hold the grain. These 

 drying bins should be made to tip like a common cart 

 body, and deliver well dried grain in a storage room, 

 which should be in the drying house to prevent the 

 re-absorption of moisture from the atmosphere, befor' * 

 the corn or wheat is ground and put up in barrel 

 In an ordinary room, perfectly dried meal or our 

 will imbibe from the air, from eight to ten per cent. 

 of water in twenty-four or thirty hours, according 

 to the weather. It is obvious this tendency mrist be 

 guarded against. Grain should be ground as sfoon as 

 may be after it has been dried, and the meal or flour 

 be well put up for market. The dryiDg building 



