No. 244.] 315 



preserving grain and flour. — (This will be given in our next num- 

 ber.) 



Mr. Meigs called the attention of the club to the well known fact, 

 that wheat and some other grain found in the catacombs of Egypt, 

 where they are believed to have been deposited with the Mummies 

 for two or three thousand years, — still preserved their vitality, — and 

 consequently their qualities for food. Those catacombs are described 

 as beimg perfectly dry. 



Charles Henry Hall. — The process of Mr, Stafford is one of dis- 

 tinguished interest, as it relates to the preservation of bread stuffs, 

 which are so liable to injury. To preserve grain, flour and meal in 

 purity for distant transportation is of immense importance. We 

 have recently sent considerable quantities to relieve the suflferers of 

 Ireland, &c., of which I regret to say, large portions spoiled on the 

 voyage, and much was even hove into the sea, being too much dam- 

 aged for any use whatever. You remember that a few years ago, 

 we imported wheat from the Black Sea, at the cost of two or three 

 dollars a bushel, — and we frequently received it from there in a dam- 

 aged state. It is a practice in the south of Europe, to dry their 

 grain in the sun, — that was an ancient and is a modern method of 

 preservation, — and anciently such dried wheat was stored in perfect- 

 ly dry places, to be ready in the event of famine. It being thus 

 preserved perfectly for years. Mr. Stafl^brd here gives us a method 

 by which our precious Indian corn, the staff of life in America, can 

 be perfectly preserved for foreign and home consumption. I say 

 precious, for it aflfbrds us bread, and in its oil, it is equivalent almost 

 to meat. 



The complete exclusion of moisture is alone necessary to preserve 

 the bread stuffs for an indefinite length of time. I have, in my mer- 

 cantile business, had much to do with t'lem, especially flour, — and 

 found the difficulties to be great, for want of proper drying, — I found 

 flour so caked in the barrels that it required a chisel to break it up, 

 — total losses to the merchant have been not unfrequent. It is in- 

 deed most evident that any process which will enable us to convey 

 our bread stuflfs pure and sweet to all parts nf the c;iobe,will be 

 of incalculable benefit to us and the world. 



Mr. Hall stated that the committee to whom the claim of the New- 

 bold plough had been referred, had not had a meeting, — but that 

 Judge Van Wyck, one of that committee, had prepared a report on 



