X 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



I found the house martins in the cowsheds 

 and stables. There are dozens of nests in 

 the ceiHngs, and of course anyone can 

 have a good view without interrupting 

 them. I shall be able to tell you all about 

 them when i come home." 



Good Bread and Cake at Last. 



Any one accustomed to good cooking 

 must despise the stuff sold by most of the 

 bakers, even by the so-called high class 

 bakers, under the name of bread or 

 cake. About the only really good things 

 obtainable from these places for the last 

 quarter century are their cup cakes, 

 cookies, lady fingers and macaroons. The 

 bread seems to be intended for those who 

 do not know what bread is and the cake 

 tastes like pine sawdust. For more than 

 twenty-five years the editor has advised 

 many a baker, and has pleaded with him 

 to make his bread and cake as good as 

 the housekeeper's common kitchen aver- 

 age. Such remarks were kindly intended 

 but were met with long statistical argu- 

 ments to prove that no baker can afford 

 to do better than he is doing. 



It is a delight not only from the 

 housekeeper's point of view but from 

 personal experience to know that at 

 least one concern has crushed all this 

 opposition and argument by making the 

 real thing. For the last quarter century, 

 bakery products have been far below 

 the standard of almost everything else 

 sold to the public. (Read that sentence 

 again.) Not only the methods of pro- 

 duction but the bread itself has been ob- 

 jectionable. Not many years ago the 

 editor had occasion to take an early 

 train out of Stamford. He was in the 

 street at about daylight on the morning 

 of Good Fri.day. In front of a bakery 

 he had to swerve into the road because 

 the entire sidewalk was covered with 

 flat tins filled witli rolls or biscuit. A 

 boy with soiled clothes, and a dirty apron 

 that once miglit have 'been white, had n 

 pailful of whitewash and a brush. If 

 that fluid had been examined it might 

 have proved to be, not whitewash, but a 

 sugar mixture. The brush was an or- 

 dinary whitewash brush. With it that 

 dirtv bov was paintinof the too of those 

 buns. Think of that! A stickv liquid 

 put on the ton of biscuits in a dustv 

 street ! That occurred several vears a^o. 



Probably the custom has been abandoned. 

 Let us hope so. For the last fifty years 

 or more the bakers have been behind the 

 times. For the last half century, clean 

 things have been obtainable from almost 

 any mercantile establishment except a 

 bakery. It is said that the Ward Baking 

 Company is pushing out the small 'bakers 

 because the company is a "combine" with 

 an enormous capital and the ability to do 

 things on a large scale. It is a puzzle to 

 know how the Wards can compete with 

 a local bakery with the local baker's 

 limited expenses and with no expense 

 for transportation, but the company does 

 it successfully. The Ward Baking Com- 

 pany makes cake as good as that grand- 

 mother or even mother used to make. 

 The high price of lumber, or something 

 else, has prevented them from flavoring 

 their cake with a pine board, althoug'h 

 some others continue to use it. 



This is not an advertisement for the 

 Ward Baking Company. We have never 

 sent them a copy of the magazine nor 

 even solicited an advertisement. We will 

 not do so now. Whether they take an 

 advertisement or not is for them to de- 

 cide. The only purpose of this article is 

 to tell a simple truth in a plain and simple 

 manner. It is not our intention to wound 

 any one's sensibilities. We are not ang- 

 ling for something from the Ward people. 

 The proper feeding of the human race, 

 the taking of the material from old moth- 

 er nature, comes within the scope of this 

 magazine's mission. When we seen any- 

 body going to nature, taking her materi- 

 als and putting them into commendable 

 form for human food, then w^e think that 

 person deserves words of unstinted 

 praise. Such we unstintedlv give to the 

 Ward's people for their Tip Top bread, 

 and cake. There may be others just as 

 praiseworthy ; we hope there are. 



I believe that we who are living- at 

 present are seeing ushered in a new era 

 of bakery by the A\'ard oeople and per- 

 haps a few others, notably such concerns 

 as The E. L. Bradburv Company of 

 Bridgeport whose "old - fashioned" 

 doughnuts and crullers are meetine with 

 great success. By the wav. speaking of 

 crullers, it is extremely interesting to 

 note the great popularity of those sold 

 at the Thomoson's Restaurants in New 

 York City. People flock there for those 



