50 THE FARMER AT HOME. 



resembling newly baked bread, having neither seed nor stone. If 

 kept in thi? state twenty-four hours, it grows harsh. It is said to be 

 very satisfying to the stomach, full of nourishment, and therefore, 

 proper for hard working people. It is known at Bantam, by the 

 name of foccum ; and Anson calls the tree rima. It supplies food 

 during three-fourths of the year. 



BREAD FRUIT. 



BREECHES. An article of clothing in use even among the 

 Babylonians, and which, with them, were made so as to cover the 

 foot, and supply the place of stockings. In Europe, we find hose first 

 used among the Gauls. In the fifth century, they had become 

 fashionable in Home ; but the breeches-makers were expelled from 

 the city by an imperial edict, it being considered unworthy of the 

 lords of the world to wear these barbarous investments. The stock- 

 ings were separated from them some centuries since. Sometimes they 

 were worn small, and sometimes large, as the fashion changed In 

 some instances, an immense quantity of cloth was put into them. 

 The poor stuffed theirs out with such substances as they could procure 

 Joachim II., Elector of Brandenburg, who had forbidden the wearing 

 of these enormous integuments, made a person, whom he saw wth a 

 pair, rip them open, when some bushels of bran fell out of them. 



Osiander and Musculus raised their voices against this preposterous 

 fashion. The modern breeches were first introduced during 'he reigri 

 of Louis XIV. 



BREEDING-. A term applied to the improvement of animals 

 by crosses, or breeding from new varieties, by which new and superior 

 kinds are obtained, and any desirable quality, whether of size, pro- 

 pensity to fatten, or for rnilk. secured. It is only within the last half 

 century, that the business of breeding has received the attention it 

 deserves; and the astonishing improvement made in the animals of 

 those countries where it is best understood and practiced, shows that 



