re af is iy be da fy. 
358 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
ways of making bread, but all are included in the two principal methods, 
viz.: unvisciculated and visciculated bread. Unviscviculated bread is the 
simplest form,under which head come passover cakes,scones, bannocks, &c.; 
viscicuiated bread is that which is rendered spongi-form by the action of 
carbonic acid within the dough and which is not baked hard and dry- 
Visciculated bread is made in three different ways: 1st. By the develop-— 
ment of carbonic acid within the dough, through fermentation of the 
flour. This is the ordinary method. 2d. The mixing of dough with 
water previously aerated with carbonic acid. 'This produces the aerated 
bread of the late Dr. Dauglish. 3d. By the disengagement of carbonic — 
acid from chemical agents introduced into the dough; baking powder, 
yeast powder, cream of tartar and soda bread come under this head. 
In the making of bread we have millions of particles, each of which 
has to be moistened on its surface; and each, when thus moistened, be- 
comes remarkably adhesive, and, therefore, sticks fast to all its surround- 
ing neighbors. We require, without altogether suppressing this adhesive- 
ness, to interpose a barrier that shall sunder these millions of particles 
from each other so delicately as neither to separate them completely nor 
allow them to completely adhere. 
It is evident that, if the operation that supplies each particle with its 
film of moisture can simultaneously supply it with a partial atmosphere 
of gaseous matter, the difficult and delicate problem will be effectually 
solved. It is thus solved in bread-making. 
As we have said, the seed which is broken up into flour contains disa- 
tase as well as starch, and this diastase when aided by moisture and - 
moderate warmth converts the starch into dextrine and sugar. This ac- 
tion commences when the dough is made. This alone would only in- 
crease the adhesiveness of the mass, if it went no further, but the sugar 
thus produced may by the aid of a suitable ferment be converted into 
alcohol. As the composition of alcohol corresponds to that of sugar,: 
minus carbonic acid, the evolution of carbonic acid gas is an essential . 
part of this conversion. With these facts before us, this practical appli- 
cation in bread-making is easily understood. To the water with which 
the flour is to be moistened is added some yeast, and the yeast cells, which 
are very much smaller than the grains of flour, are diffused throughout 
the water. The flour is moistened with this liquid, which Only demands 
a temperature of about 70 degrees Farenheit to act with considerable en- 
ergy on every granule of flour that it touches. Instead, then, of the 
passive, lumpy, tenacious dough produced by moistening the flour with 
more water, a lively ‘‘sponge,” as the bakers call it, is produced, which 
‘‘rises,” or grows in bulk by the evolution and interposition of millions 
of invisibly small bubbles of gas. This is then kneaded to effect a com- 
plete and equal diffusion of the gas bubbles; then raised till the mass be- 
coming porous is ready to be moulded for the oven, which should be raised 
to the temperature of about 450 degrees Farenheit. 
W. Matthieu Williams says we should not demand whiteness in bread, 
while, on the contrary, we should not follow the recent agitators for 
whole meal. Hesays: “If the husk, which is demanded by the whole- 
meal agitators, were as digestible as the inner flour, they would be 
unquestionably right; but it is very easy to show that itis not, and that, 
in some cases, the passage of the undigested particles may produce mis- 
