22 AMERICAN EXPORT CORN ( MAIZE ) IN EUROPE. 
sufficiently Low in man}' cases to enable the corn to carry safely at 
the naturally increased temperatures encountered en route. 
Thoroughly air-dried corn contains about 12 per cent of moisture. 
Such corn may be shipped for export at any time under ordinary 
conditions with little or no danger from heating in transit, and this 
is practically true also of corn containing up to 14 per cent of mois- 
ture, provided fermentation has not started in such corn." 
CONDITIONS NECESSARY FOR SHIPPING DAMP CORN. 
The fact that certain lots of corn contain high percentages of mois- 
ture does not necessarily mean that they will not stand ocean ship- 
ment safely. The voyage may be short, the air temperature at the 
time of loading and during the voyage may be low, no disturbing 
influence such as heat radiated from the ship's boilers may be en- 
countered, and the corn kept practically in cold storage. Under such 
most favorable conditions a high percentage of moisture may often 
be safely carried in corn. Cargoes of such corn are often landed upon 
the quays in Europe in a perfectly cool (cold, in fact) condition, 
which corn upon being exposed to warmer atmospheric conditions 
soon "goes out of condition" and becomes hot and unfit for reship- 
ment via the waterways of Europe, as is required of much of the grain 
received abroad. 
THE EFFECT OF HIGH AND LOW MOISTURE CONTEXTS. 
When corn goes out of condition, the effect of its relative moisture 
content immediately becomes evident. Corn with a low moisture 
content*requires a much longer time to reach that stage designated as 
"hot" or to become discolored or "damaged" by the process of heat- 
ing than corn with a high moisture content, while corn with a high, 
moisture content will heat, become discolored, and lose weight by 
evaporation quickly, and the processes of deterioration are accelerated 
with each additional per cent of moisture much more rapidly than 
the proportionate increase in the moisture content. 
When corn of a low moisture content is found in a heating condi- 
tion, it can ordinarily be restored to its original condition with but a 
slight amount of handling and ventilating and without much, if any, 
loss in value through discoloration, while corn with a high moisture 
content, when heating in any considerable bulk, quickly becomes 
badly discolored and damaged and is with great difficulty and a 
great amount of handling restored to a cool condition, and then only 
with more or less damage to its quality and a corresponding loss in 
value. 
° None of the corn examined in Europe which contained less than 14 per cent of 
moisture was found in a heating condition, excepting in cases where moisture had 
been expelled through the heating processes, regardless of its location in the ships. 
[Cii •.•->•-.] 
