436 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



salt, one quart of milk, and flour sufficient to make it stiff enough 

 to knead." 



Mrs. Oliver Williams, of Sunderland, exhibited superior bread. 

 The following statement accompanied the sample : — 



" Part of the meal scalded, one-half as much rye flour as 

 meal, two spoonfnls molasses, — raised with yeast, composed of 

 hops and potatoes grated and boiled ; baked in a stove oven." 



In closing, the committee express the hope that the entries in 

 the bread department may be more numerous the coming year 

 than they have been the present ; and they would particularly 

 call attention to the articles of brown and unbolted wheat bread, 

 of which there were comparatively but few specimens on exhibi- 

 tion this year. 



Joel S. Sanderson, Chairman. 



BARNSTABLE. 



From the Report of the Committee on Bread. 



The competitors for premiums on bread were quite numerous. 

 This fact, your committee regard as a sure indication of good 

 taste and excellent judgment on the part of the matrons of 

 Barnstable county. Bread has well been called the " staff of 

 life," and as agriculture is to productive labor, by which we 

 obtain the means of subsistence, so bread, simple bread, is to 

 the articles of food, by which life is preserved and all tliepliysi- 

 cal powers are invigorated. There is no product of labor or of 

 art which gives more life, more strength, more pleasure than 

 good bread, and it may not be considered profaning sacred 

 things, to introduce in this place the fact that bread is the 

 chosen emblem by which our Saviour spake of Himself when He 

 said, " I am the bread of life." 



Your committee regretted to find that so small a proportion 

 of the bread presented for examination, both white and brown, 

 was leavened with yeast ; much the larger quantity seemed to 

 have been fermented soda and an acid, either in fluid or in 

 pow^der. We would respectfully recommend that more atten- 

 tion be given to the making and leavening of bread from some 

 kind of yeast ; bread thus made being more palatable and nutri- 

 tious than when fermented with acids and alkalies. . 



