978 THE AMERICAN FARMER 



powder too commonly used as a substitute, because more quickly and easily made. Bread 

 should be sweet, light, palatable, and wholesome ; and when made of the proper materials, 

 and in the proper manner, it will be such; but when made of poor flour, poor yeast, and 

 allowed to over-ferment or sour before baking, or to be but half baked when taken out of the 

 oven, it will not be a suitable article of food. Many housekeepers do not bake their bread and 

 pastry sufficiently; hence, it comes upon the table in a half doughy state, that would 

 seemingly be sufficient to cause dyspepsia to the strongest and most healthy digestive 

 apparatus. When what goes into the stomach has so much influence in determining the 

 health of the individual, no wife or mother should be indifferent or careless with respect to 

 the quality or cooking of the food that is placed upon her table. Hers is the responsibility 

 in this respect, and she should make herself thoroughly efficient either to perform or 

 superintend, as circumstances require, the work that pertains to this most important 

 department of household economy. 



Adulteration of Food, The subject of food adulteration is one of momentous 

 importance to every household. The manufacture of spurious articles, and the adulteration 

 of the genuine has become so common, that there is scarcely anything that is safe from this 

 fraudulent practice. This evil has become so universal that it extends to drugs and medicine 

 supplies, as well as food, and is employed in the manufacture of wines, lager, rum, brandies, 

 and other alcoholic liquors to a fearful extent. Physicians assert that many valuable lives 

 are sacrificed from the failure of adulterated medicines to secure the expected result. Nearly 

 all of our groceries and spices are capable of adulteration. Much of the tea, in order to 

 give it color and weight, is poisoned with prussic acid, mineral green, arsenite of copper, 

 verdigris, clay, etc. The coffee that is bought in packages is rarely pure, but consists 

 of various compounds mixed with a small proportion of coffee, such as peas, chickory, stale 

 bread, etc. The writer once entered the grinding and packing department of an extensive 

 wholesale coffee establishment, that had a good reputation for honesty, and there among other 

 adulterants were barrels of mouldy bread that was being roasted in revolving cylinders and 

 ground to mix with the coffee. Even flour is frequently adulterated with poisonous 

 compounds, while the extensive use of glucose in our sugars, syrups, honey, confectioneries, 

 etc., is asserted by medical authorities to be one of the principal causes of the great 

 prevalence of Bright s disease of the kidneys, as well as some other diseases. Sugars and 

 syrups are frequently bleached and clarified with some of the most poisonous substances, 

 such as muriate of tin; and their bulk and weight are raised by ground stone, white clay, 

 and other materials. Spices are adulterated with various substances, or have much of their 

 oil extracted before being put upon the market; ginger with flour and meal; much of the 

 butter found in the market is a compound of grease; while milk is rarely obtained pure 

 from the dealers in this article. Vinegar is not all made from cider, but from different acids, 

 and the glass washings and refuse beer preserved in beer saloons. Yeast powders are sold 

 that contain soluble salts of aluminum, and other vile compounds. Pulverized alum is sold for 

 pure cream -tartar, etc. 



A recent authentic writer says on this subject: &quot;The agreeable odor of caramel in the 

 neighborhood of the coffee mills tells its own tale, and to explain the wonderful cheapness of 

 the beautiful jellies now in such common use we should have to go further than our matutinal 

 friend Rags-bones, and pursue through the wonderful transformations worked by modern 

 chemistry the bones from our garbage box, flavored and colored by the waste products from 

 gas works, back again to our tables as currant jelly for our famous canvas backs and red 

 heads, and perhaps meet in our sugar bowls our old shirts transformed into very palatable 

 sugar.&quot; 



Even the vessels in which our food is cooked, or put upon the market, are made of 

 poisonous alloys; for instance, canned goods put up in tin cans. Tin vessels as generally 

 found, are not made of pure tin, but a mixture of lead and tin. The lead is easily acted 

 upon by the acids of fruits, vegetables, meats, etc., which is one of the most subtle and 

 dangerous of poisons that can be taken into the system. While Great Britain, Germany, 

 Belgium, and other European nations have enacted and enforced effective laws for the 

 suppression of the gale of adulterations, in this country we may be said to be almost without 

 legal protection in this respect, and the United States is made the market for the most part 

 of such adulterants as are excluded from the principal markets of Europe. When our 

 government employs a more efficient means of remedying the evil than is at present practiced, 

 which can only be secured by the rigid system of inspection, and the punishment of every 

 violation, we may hope to see an improvement in this respect, and human health and life be 

 protected from the murderous process of slow poison administered in food and drink. 



