The Farm Table. 639 



It is very difficult to keep weeds out of the vegetable garden because 

 their seeds are carried to the soil in so many ways. When they have 

 sprouted or grown a httle, they may be pulled up easily. In the bread- 

 garden we want only yeast to grow, but it is very difficult to have this, 

 when neither the good plants nor the weeds ever become visible. 



The chief enemies are the bacteria. They are in the dusty air of the 

 kitchen, on the bread pan, the spoon, the cup, in the milk, — • yes, and in 

 the yeast, too, whether it is the dry or the coriipressed. 



The wise housekeeper will be careful not to sow many bacteria in her 

 yeast garden. She will scald the milk or boil the water, letting it become 

 cool before she puts it with her yeast. She will have clean dishes in 

 which to measure and to mix her bread. She will not sweep nor do any 

 dirty, dusty work in the room just before she mixes it, because the bac- 

 teria will be raised into the air and then settle. She will carefully cover 

 the dough while it is rising, to keep out the dust. With all her care there 

 will always be some bacteria present, but these do not like the sugar solu- 

 tion very well and they want a higher heat than the yeast plants, but 

 they do like the alcohol which the yeast makes, so that the dough should 

 be kept at about summer heat only long enough for the yeast to make a 

 sufficient amount of gas. If the dough becomes too hot so that the yeast 

 cannot work well, or if it is allowed to stand too long, the bacteria will 

 feed on the alcohol and turn it into an acid — the acid which is in vinegar. 

 Then the housewife has sour bread. 



There are poor kinds of yeast, and if a poor kind gets in it will make 

 a bad tasting bread. 



Do any of you still make the " salt rising " bread or " milk emptins," 

 which years ago our grandmothers made? The "barm" made delicious 

 bread, but " it never kept well." No, because it was then, and is now, 

 made to rise by the wild yeasts, but the bacteria with the yeasts fell into 

 it from the air, or perhaps were in the milk, and they soon made it sour 

 or even putrid. 



The yeast plants perhaps do more work which the housewife likes 

 than either molds or bacteria, but she must not suppose that these last are 

 enemies only. She owes much to both of them, because their chief work 

 in the world is to feed on and, by so doing, decompose or break up use- 

 less, organic substances. Bacteria, especially, are scavengers, and molds 

 soften hard parts and make the work of the bacteria easier and more 

 thorough. When organisms work on material which we are glad to be 

 rid of, we appreciate the result but do not give them the credit. But 

 whether these extraneous organisms are directly injurious or not. many 

 of them are no proper part of our food and should be looked on as a 

 contamination. 



