200 THE YEAR-BOOK OF AGRICULTURE. 



from injured. It is only by artificial drying and keeping from the air that this deterioration 

 is prevented. In rye flour, this change occurs as soon, perhaps sooner, than in wheat flour. 



About twenty-four years ago, the Belgian bakers commenced the use of a remedy by means 

 of which bread equal to that made from the freshest, best flour, was manufactured from flour 

 which, by itself, would give only damp, heavy bread. This remedy consisted of an addition 

 of alum, or of sulphate of copper, to the flour. The effect of both these substances in the 

 preparation of bread rests upon the fact that when warm they form a chemical t combination 

 with the gluten, (previously made soluble in water, and changed thereby,) which restores to it 

 all its lost properties ; it is again insoluble, and capable of holding water. The relations of 

 vegetable gluten to caseine, with which it has sc many properties in common, induced me to 

 make some experiments, whose object was to replace both of the substances (sulphate of cop- 

 per and alum) so deleterious to health and to the nutritious properties of bread, by some 

 substance having the same effect, (as regards the gluten,) but devoid of injurious qualities. 

 This substance is pure cold-saturated lime-water. If the lime-water be mixed with the flour 

 intended for dough, and then the yeast or leaven added thereto, fermentation progresses in 

 the same manner as in the absence of lime-water. If at proper time more flour be added to the 

 "risen" or fermented dough, and the whole formed into loaves, and baked as usual, a sweet, 

 beautiful, fine-grained, elastic bread is obtained, of exquisite taste, which is preferred by all 

 who have eaten it any length of time to any other. The proportion of flour to lime-water is 

 as follows: for 100 pounds of flour, take 26 to 27 pounds or pints of lime-water. This 

 quantity of lime-water does not suffice for mixing the bread, and of course common water 

 must be added, as much as is requisite. As the sour taste of bread is lost, much more salt 

 may be used to give it a palatable quality. 



As to the amount of lime in the bread, 1 pound of lime is sufficient for 600 pounds of 

 lime-water. In bread prepared as above there is nearly the same amount of lime as is found 

 in an equal weight of leguminous seeds, (peas and beans.) It may yet.be established as a 

 physiological truth, by investigation and experiment, that the flour of the cereal grain is 

 wanting in the property of complete nutrition ; and from what we know thereof, the cause 

 would seem to lie in its deficiency in the lime necessary for the formation of the bones. The 

 cereal grains contain phosphoric acid in abundance, but they contain far less lime than the 

 leguminous seeds. This fact may explain many of the phenomena of diseases observed among 

 children in the country or in prisons, if the food consists principally of bread ; and in this 

 connection the use of lime-water by physicians merits attention. The amount of bread pro- 

 duced from a given quantity of flour is probably increased in consequence of an increased 

 water-compound. From 19 pounds of flour, without lime-water, seldom more than 24 

 pounds of bread were obtained in my house ; the same quantity of flour, baked with 5 pounds 

 of lime-water, gave 26 pounds 6 ounces to 26 pounds 10 ounces of good, well-baked bread. 

 Now, since, according to Heeren's determinations, the same quantity of flour gives only 25 

 pounds 1J ounces, the increase of weight, in consequence of the use of lime-water, appears 

 to me indubitable. 



The Preservation of Cheese. 



THE following article on the preservation of cheese is translated from the Maison Rustique, 

 Paris, for the Working Farmer, by H. S. Olcott, Esq. : 



The preservation of cheeses is a most important point to those engaged in their manufacture, 

 especially when they are intended for export. Their consistence and their state of fermenta- 

 tion more or less advanced in the storehouses or cheese-rooms should serve as a guide. The 

 method of manufacture also affects largely their preservation. Those cheeses which have 

 received pressure in a too fresh state, and from which the whey is not entirely separated, are 

 liable to rise, and have in their centres holes or reservoirs of air, which give to the paste 

 a spongy and disagreeable look. When this accident arises during the manufacture, and if 

 the fermentation is considerable, place the cheese in a cool and dry place, and pierce it with 

 skewers of iron in the places where it rises the most; the air or the gases escape by these 

 openings, the cheese subsides, and the interior presents fewer cavities. To prevent this 



