THE BEASON WHY. 303 



" He that tilleth the land shall have plenty of bread : but he that followeth after 

 vain persons shall have poverty enough." PBOVEBBS xxvm. 



opinions prevail respecting the qualities of chicory. We belive it 

 to be perfectly healthful, and attribute the prejudice that prevails 

 against it, to its having been used, from its cheapness, to adulterate 



coffee. 



1197. What is sugar? 



Sugar is a sweet granulated substance, which may be derived 

 from many vegetable substances, but the chief source of which is 

 the sugar cane. The other chief sources that supply it are the 

 maple, beet-root, birch, parsnip, &c. It is extensively used all over 

 the world. Sugar is supposed to have been known to the ancient 

 Jews. It was found in the East Indies by Newcheus, Admiral of 

 Alexander, 325 B.C. It was brought into Europe from Asia. 



The art of sugar refining was first practised in England, in 1659, and sugar 

 was first taxed by name by James II., 1 685. Sugar is derived from the "West 

 Indies, Brazil, Surinam, Java, Mauritius, Bengal, Siam, the Isle de Bourbon, 

 &c. &c. Before the introduction of sugar to this country, honey was the chief 

 substance employed in making sweet dishes ; and long after the introduction of 

 sugar it was used only in the houses of the rich. The consumption in England 

 in 1700 reached only 10,000 tons ; in 1834. it had reached 180,000 tons. The 

 English took possession of the West Indies in 1672, and in 1646 began to export 

 sugar. In 1676 it is recorded that 400 vessels, averaging 150 tons, were 

 employed in the sugar trade of Barbadoes. Jamaica was discovered by 

 Columbus, and was occupied by the Spaniards, from whom it was taken by 

 Cromwell, in 1656, and has since continued in our own possession. When it was 

 conquered there were only three sugar plantations upon it. But they rapidly 

 increased. Until the abolition of slavery in the West Indies, the production of 

 sugar was almost exclusively limited to slave labour. (See 1226). 



1198. What is wheat? 



Wheat, rye, barley, oats, millet, and maize, all belong to tho 

 natural order of grain-bearing plants. They all grow in a similar 

 manner, and all yield starch, gluten, and a certain amount of phos- 

 phates. They are commonly spoken of as farinaceous foods. 



From tho Sacred writings we learn that unleavened- bread was common in the 

 days of Abraham. In the earlier periods of our own history, people h^ no other 

 method of making bread than by roasting corn, and beating it in mortars, then 

 wetting it into a kind of coarse cake. In 1596, rye bread and oatmeal formed a 

 considerable part of the diet of servants, even in great families. In the time of 

 Charles tlis First, barley bread was the chief food of the people. In many parts 

 of England it was more the custom to make bread at home then at present. In 

 1804, there was not a single public baker in Manchester. In France, when the 

 use of yeast was first introduced, it was deemed by the faculty of medicine to be 

 so injurious to health that its use was prohibited under tho severest penalties 



