The operation is not conducted in the hurried manner which is here thought to be so essential, but is continued long enough to effect the intended object.  Thorough ventilation, as well as the proper degree of drying, and which is equally important, is thus secured.

It is said that in Russia the sheaves of wheat, carried into the huts, are suspended upon poles and dried by the heat of the oven.  The grain shrinks very much during this process, but it is supposed to be less liable to the attacks of insects, and preserves its nutritive qualities for many years.  During the winter, it is sent to market.—­("The Czar, his Court and People.”  By John S. Maxwell, p. 272.)

With all the necessary attention which may be paid to the proper drying of our breadstuffs intended for export, another point is of equal importance, viz., the shipment in vessels rendered as impervious as possible to the influence of atmospheric moisture.  For however carefully and thoroughly the drying, especially of wheat flour or maize meal, may have been performed, it will be nearly useless if the shipment is afterwards made in the barrels commonly employed.[29] And it is very certain that the transport and shipment of grain in bulk, as usually conducted, are attended with great loss.  This difficulty might be removed at a trifling expense by adopting the plan suggested in the preceding report, and to which I would again respectfully call the attention of those who are engaged in this branch of trade.

I might here adduce a mass of testimony showing the importance of the matters just referred to, but will only advert to the following statements, which although made in allusion principally to maize, are equally applicable to our other breadstuffs.  Maize meal, if kept too long, “is liable to become rancid, and it is then more or less unfit for use.  In the shipments made to the West Indies, the meal is commonly kiln-dried, to obviate as much as possible this tendency to rancidity.”  “When ground very fine, maize meal suffers a change by exposure to the air.  It is oxygenated.  It is upon the same principle that the juice of an apple, after a little exposure to the air, is oxygenated, and changes its character and taste.  If the flour could be bolted in vacuo, it would not be changed.”  “Intelligent writers speak of the necessity of preparing corn for exportation by kiln-drying as indispensable.  Without that process, corn is very liable to become heated and musty, so as to be unfit for food for either man or beast.  The kiln-dried maize meal from the Brandywine Mills, &c., made from the yellow corn, has almost monopolized the West India trade.  This process is indispensable, if we export maize to Europe.  James Candy says that from fifty years experience he has learned the necessity of this process with corn intended for exportation.”  “I have often found the corn from our country