THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



503 



The facilities of credit afforded by the millers have, 

 probably, chiefly arisen out of the excessively keen 

 competition between millers themselves, which the intro- 

 duction of steam for the purposes of grinding has given 

 rise to, by destroying the virtual monopoly that the 

 limited amount of available power previously existing 

 created. "With the flour supply, and the advantages 

 or disadvantages of credit given by the millers to men 

 whose daily returns are looked to as the only means of 

 settlement, we do not propose to deal. Dr. Dauglish 

 argued stoutly for the advantages of unfermented bread, 

 and the use of the bran or cerealine principle attached 

 to it. The latter, according to his sliowiug, has proved 

 to be a new nitrogenous body, analogous to gluten, 

 with a portion of caseine. But how few are there, after 

 all, who eat brown bread or biscuits from choice ? Fine 

 wheaten bread receives the preference, alike from rich 

 and poor, in every country where it can be obtained at 

 all, even when the price is high. Probably, like the 

 great organ of the North — Blackwood — Dr. Dauglish 

 would back the oatcake and the parritcli against all the 

 wheaten messes in the world. " We defy your home- 

 made bread, your bakers' bread, your household 

 bread, your leaven bread, and your brown Georges, 

 your fancy bread and your raisin bread, your baps, 

 rolls, scones, muffins, crumpets, and cookies, your 

 bricks, biscuits, bakes, and rusks, your Bath-buns and 

 your Sally Lunns, your tea-cakes, and saffron-cakes, 

 and slim-cakes, and plant-cakes, and pan-cakes, and 

 seed-cakes, and girdle-cakes, and singing pinnies, 

 your short bread and your currant buns ; and if there 

 be any other names by which you designate your 

 wheaten abominations, we defy and detest them all. 

 We swear by the oat-cake and the parritch, the sub- 

 stantial bannock and the brose. Long may Scotland 

 produce them, and Scotchmen live and fight upon 

 them !" 



We should like to set Dr. Dauglish down for gome 

 considerable time to the unleavened dishes of the 

 tropics — the mess of rice, the plaintain foo-foo, 

 African koskossoo, the supporne and Indian corn- 

 pudding, Johnny cakes or cassava-bread. We doubt 

 whether his heart would not yearn, after a while, 

 for a little leaven to the lump. But there are 

 powerful dissentients to the theory of unfermented 

 bread. Liebig, in his recent letters on the chemis- 

 try of food, is unfavourable to it. Dr. Letheby 



stated to the meeting that the action of fermentation 

 was to change the starch contained in the flour into a 

 soluble substance, so as to make the bread more 

 digestible, and to relieve the stomach of the labour it 

 had to perform in digestion. He further added that 

 the experience of those who, at certain seasons of the 

 year, took unfermented bread, was that, although at 

 first it digested easily and produced no discomfort, in 

 the course of a few days it began to produce symp- _ 

 toms which were evidence of injury to the body — dys- 

 pepsia in various forms. The Jews knew very well that, 

 when they used unfermented bread, various gastric 

 derangements were produced. We require much larger 

 experience in the use of unfermented bread before we 

 can say that it can be used, as fermented bread is, for 

 along period of years, without injury to the body. 

 Various opinions, pro and con., on the subject were ad- 

 vanced by Dr. Lankester, Dr. Waller Lewis, Dr. Od- 

 ling, Dr. Aldis, and Dr. Grey ; insomuch that, to use 

 the words of Mr, Edwin Chadwick upon the chemical 

 part of the question, there was great difference as to 

 what was edible and what was not. The observations 

 of one speaker were, however, discouraging. Dr. 

 Gibbon had found that neither his friends nor his patients 

 would take this bread, on account of its insipidity ; and 

 it is one-third dearer in price too. It was like distilled 

 water — perfectly pure, but insipid. The incidental topics 

 touched upon in the course of the debate led to much dis- 

 cussion ; and Mr. Bonthron, a bakei-, and other speak- 

 ers, spoke on the practical part of the subject as to the 

 condition of the journeymen, the modes of manufac- 

 ture, the use of alum, potatoes, &c. 



It seemed to be generally admitted that alum was 

 only used in the cheaper kind of bread made of inferior 

 flour, when it acted as a corrective. That there is 

 room for improvement in the class of bakehouses, 

 the mode of manipulation, and the hours of labour in 

 many localities, no one will deny ; and therefore the 

 general discussion and ventilation of the subject may 

 do good, apart from the disputed point of the use of 

 leavened or unleavened bread. It should be remem- 

 bered, however, that the profits of the bakers generally 

 are cut down to the very lowest ebb, and the delivery 

 costs as much as a farthing per loaf; while the advance 

 in the selling price to the public does not always follow 

 immediately the rise in flour. 



REMARKS ON SUMMER GRAZING. 



There is uo department of a farmer's business that ; 

 requires so much of his attention and matured judgment 

 as the management of his stock. The anxieties of the ' 

 winter are now over, and the adaptation of his stock to 

 their pastures now claims his chief care. This is a 

 question of no ordinary course. The state and condi- 

 tion of his stock, and the nature, fertility, and fruitful- 

 ness of his pastures are alike equally requiring his notice. 

 These must be in a state to suit each other. The con- 



dition of the stock to be depastured upon them must be 

 in accordance with the " strength " and richness of the 

 pasture. To " lay on " stock in poor or weak condition 

 upon a rich pasture, or on strong land pasture, is cer- 

 tainly a very dangerous course, if not a destructive one. 

 Good land must be stocked with good animals, or at 

 least animals in a safe and healthy state. Poor or lean 

 stock may possibly thrive on poor land, but seldom will 

 they thrive on rich soils, or fast-growing fruitful pas- 



M M 



