19 



but the grown surface is thrown on the land, s; 

 abroad, exposed to the sun and air, and frequently 

 turned over till any slight moisture that it may have 

 imbibed, is dried. If a shower of rain falls, as well 

 as during the night, the heaps of Wheat on the shore 

 are thrown together, in the form of the steep roof of 

 a house, that the rain may run off, and are covered 

 with a linen cloth. It is thus frequently a long time 

 after the Wheat has reached Dantzic, before it is fit 

 to be placed in the warehouses. 



The warehouses are very well adapted for storing 

 Corn. They consist, generally, of seven stories, three 

 of which are in the roof. The floors are about nine 

 feet asunder. Each of them are divided by perpen- 

 dicular partitions, the whole length about four feet 

 high, by which different parcels are kept distinct from 

 each other. Thus the floors have two divisions, each 

 of them capable of storing from 150 to 200 quarters 

 of Wheat, and leaving sufficient space for turning or 

 screening it. There are abundance of windows in 

 each floor, which are always thrown open in dry 

 weather, to ventilate the corn. It is usually turned 

 over three times a week. The men who perform the 

 operation, throw it with their shovels as high as they 

 can, and thus the grains are separated from each 

 other, and exposed to the drying influence of the air. 



The whole of the Corn warehouses now left (for 

 many were burnt during the siege of 1814) are 

 capable of storing 500,000 quarters of Wheat, sup- 

 posing the parcels to be large enough to fill each of 

 the two divisions of the floors, with a separate heap ; 

 but as, of late years, it has come down from Poland 

 in smaller parcels than formerly, and of more various 

 qualities, which must of necessity be kept distinct, the 

 present stock of about 280,000 quarters is found to oc- 

 cupy nearly the whole of those warehouses which are 

 in repair, or are advantageously situated for loading 

 the ships. Ships are loaded by gangs of porters with 



