The Sun.
London, England, 1846-02-26 00:00:00

REVIEW OP TEE FORFIGN CORN TRADE.

The advices from the North of Europe are of no in-
terest this week ; indeed, whilst so little difference
exists as at present between prices of Corn in this coun-
try and abroad, we cannot expect a very interesting
correspodence. The continued dull accounts from Gnat
Britain do not seem to have produced the least effs et,
holders generally feeling convinced that, sooner or later,
England will require supplies which it may not be easy
to furnish.

Letters from Dantzic of the 14th instant, state that
scarcely any business had been done there since that
day week, and that the quotations remained nominally
unaltered.

The advices from Poland respecting the scarcity of
food, and the consequent suffering of the people, had in
no degree improved ; and it was the general impression
that the supplies of Wheat down the Vistula would be
unusually small in the spring and summer.
From Stettin we have advices of the 14th February.
Holders of Wheat were then very firm, but no foreign
orders having been received, the actual transactions had
been unimportant. Few merchants were willing to enter
into contracts to ship the best Wheat below 495. per qr.
free on board in spring, and for secondary sorts equally
high prices had been insisted upon.
At Rostock a good deal of business appears to have
been done, orders having been received there from Hol-
land and Belgium. Wheat was quoted 48s. to 505., Rye
355. to 365. 6d., Barley 245. 6d. to 255., and Oats 18s. to
18s. 6d. per qr. free on board in spring.
From Hamburgh our prices reach to Tuesday last.
On the spot nothing whatever had been done in Wheat
for export, ar.d from outports only a few thousand quar-
ters had been contracted for, to be shipped from Wis-
mar and Rostock in spring. The prices paid had varied
from 48s to 50s. per qr., according to weight aud qua-
lity. In Spring Corn the transactions had also been un-
important.
From the Mediterranean the news is equally uninte-
resting as from the Baltic. Letters from Marseilles, of
the 14th instant, state that a falling off had taken place
in the demand for Wheat on British and Belgian so-
connt, and that the transactions of the week had been
entirely of a local character.
From Genoa we learn that the Sardinian Govern-
ment had issued a decree reducing the duty on Wheat
received by Sardinian vessels from 6 Jrs. to 4 irs., and
on that received under any foreign 11 ag from 9 Irs. to
5 lrs. The reduced duties to remain in force till June
next.

As the papers and letters brought by the steamer
from America were delivered on the day of publication,
we ware unable to take much notice of their contents in
our last number. It may therefore be as well, on the
present occasion, to state that the rather dull accounts
from this side had influenced prices of Flour and Wheat,
and that a decline in the value of both articles had taken
place at several of the principal ports of the United
States. At New York, on the 31st of January, good
Genessee Flour was freely offered at $5 561 c. per barrel,
and about 9,000 to 10,000 barrels had been sold during
the preceding week at that price. The shipments of
Flour from New York, from the let to 27th January,
had consisted of 64,358 barrels Flour, 45,391 bushels
Wheat, and 87,876 bushels Indian Corn.--Mark lane
Express.

INDIAN CORN and BUCK-WHEAT.
Maize, or Indian Corn, is a plant commonly cultivated
in the warmer parts of the world, where it answers a
purpose similar to that of wheat in more northern coun-
tries. It is the Zea Mays of botanists a monoecious
grass, of vigorous growth, with stems not more than two
feet high in some varieties, and reaching the height of
eight or even ten feet in others. The leaves are broad,
and hang down from large rough sheaths which sur-
round the stem. The male flowers grow in loose, ter-
minal, compound racemes, standing clear of the leaves ;
the females are arranged in numerous rows on a spike,
which is wrapp©d round by several folds of sheathing
bracts, which press upon the grains and give them the
flattened figure they eventually acquire when ripe.
Each grain has a long thread-like style, which projects
beyond the enveloping sheaths ; and as there are some
hundreds of them upon each spike, the whole form a long
tassel, which looks as if made of silk. The ripe grains
are regularly arrayed one over the other in rows, are
compressed at the sides, flattened at the apex, and of
various colours. There most common colour is pale
yellow ; some are white, some party-coloured, and there
are varieties with blood-red and even purple grains. A
plant generally bears two full ears, the grains of which
vary greatly in number some of the largest ears in Ame-
rica contain at least 800 grains.
It seems that there is a particular line on the conti-
nent of Europe north of which the maize does not
thrive. To the south of this line, which passes
through Nancy, formerly the capital of Lorraine, in
France, it has in a great measure superseded wheat and
rye as the common produce of the land. The bread
made from maize is not so palatable as wheat or rye
bread; but by mixing it in certain proportions with
wheat it makes a very pleasant food, In the United
States of North America Indian corn forms almost the
only bread oaten by many of the people; and in the
slave states it is the only bread that the negroes eat. It
is not, however, in the shape of baked bread that maize
is most generally used in Europe, but in boiled messes
and soups, as peas are with us ; it is not only the ripe
grain which is eaten, but the ear in every state, from
that of a green vegetable to an unripe corn. It is
boiled, stewed, and baked; it is a substitute for cabbage
or green peas in its early stage; and is used in some
way or other to its complete maturity. Nothing
can be better than ripe maize to fatten hogs or poultry
with; and the young stem cut down quite green gives
one of the best and most abundant varieties of green
food for cattle.

All animals are fond of maize, especially horses, pigs,
and poultry ; it gives the flesh of the last two a pecu-
liarly fine flavour. The most profitable way to use maize
in fattening animals is to grind it into meal, and mix it
with warm water into a pottage ; and, for horses, to soak
it twenty-four hours in water before they are fed with it.
In the dry state it is so hard that it wears their teeth,
and in young horses is apt to produce blindness by the
exertion of the muscles of the jaw in chewing it.
One of the most important uses of maize in Europe
is to sow it thick to be cut green as food for cows,
oxen, and sheep. In a proper climate there is no
plant which gives so great a mass of green food as
maize. The produce is most abundant and nutritive.
The largest varieties should be chosen. The seed
may be sown in drills in April, and in September
a crop might be mown, which would give ad-
mirable fodder for every kind of cattle. It is said
to exhaust the land ; but what will not exhaust it, more
or less, with much nourishment ? Maize will well re-
pay the manure which may be required to restore the
humus that it has consumed. If it is sown early, a
second crop may be raised the same year ; for it does not
spring up like grass, after being cut. Where the land
admits of irrigation the growth of the maize is most
rapid and luxuriant. The time to cut it is when the
male flowers are just appearing out of the sheath in
which they are enveloped in the early stage of their
growth. It may be dried into hay, and will keep good
for a couple of years ; but in this state it must be bruised
or soaked when given to cattle, as the stems get very
hard in drying ; they may, however, be cut, as the cane
tops are in the sugar plantation..
Buck-wheat is said to be found wild in Persia. The
cultivation of it, according to some authorities, was in-
troduced into Europe by pores of the muse/dere ; accord-

ing to others, the Moors introduced it into Spain from
Africa ; and hence it has in France the name of bled
sarrasin. The name of buck-wheat is a corruption of
the German bush-weizen, which signifies beech-wheat,
from the resemblance of the seed to that of the beech-tree.
It is called wheat, because, when ground, it produces a fine
farina, which resembles that of wheat in appearance. The
botanical name of the genus. Polygonm, is taken from
the angular form of the seed, and the specific name,
Fogopyrnm, from its resemblance to beech-mast. Buck-
wheat grows with a strong, herbaceous, cylindrical, and
branching stem, of a reddish colour, about two feet high.
The leaves, which are ivy-shaped, are placed alternately
ou the stems. The flowers grow in bunches at the end
of the branches, and are succeeded by blank angular
seeds, formed of four triangles, being thus nearly regular
tetranedrons. The plant is an annual, and the flowers
appear very soon after it is out of the ground. They
continue to blow and bear seed in succession, till the
frost destroys the plant. Being a native of a warm
climate, the smallest appearance of frost in spring, while
the plant is tender, entirely destroys it.
The cultivation of buck- wheat has never been very
extensive in the variable climate of Britain_ It is not so
well adapted to cold wet soils as to warm sands; nor is it
so certain a crop as oats or barley on lands which are
suited to the growth of these grains. For countries
where there are very poor light lands with a hot dry
climate, unfavourable to the growth of oats, and not rich
enough for barley, buck-wheat is a great resource; and
without it, many tracts •f poor land would scarcely be
capable of supporting a population. As a principal
crop, therefore, it is confined to some parts of the south
of France and other countries similar in soil and situa-
tion. Ao a secondary and occasional crop, it often
occurs in Switzerland, Germany, and especially in Flan-
ders, where it enters a regular part of their varied
and complicated rotations. Under particular circum-
stances, it might be introduced with advantage into
many parts of England where it is now unknown. The
only counties in which it is cultivaied to a moderate ex-
tent at present are Norfolk and Suffolk, where it is
called " brank." If a small patch of buck-wheat is oc-
casionally met with elsewhere, it is, in general, mainly
for the sake of encouraginggame, particularly pheasants,
which are extremely fond of it.
Buck-wheat as a grain may be given to horses, in-
stead of oats, or mixed with them. No grain seems so
eagerly eaten by poultry or make them lay eggs so soon
and so abundantly. The meal, when it is ground, is ex-
cellent fer fattening cattle and pigs. The flour is fine
and white, but from a deficiency in gluten does not make
good fermented bread. It serves well however for pastry
and cakes ; crumpets made of buck-wheat flour eaten
with butter are a favourite dainty for children in Hol-
land. A hasty pudding is also made of the flour with
water or milk, and eaten with butter or sugar.