THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



73 



GLEANINGS— NO. 3. 



About Wheat and Bread. 



Under the Mosaic (li.si)i'iisatiun, strangers 

 ami tho ]>()or were allowed to ijltini in the 

 fence corners and anionfr the stuhhle after 

 harvest. Altiion;;!) not a farmer, I hoi)e the 

 worthy fanners who rea<l TiiK Faumkh will 

 allow the liunilile writer the rifjht to ;/'<(()!, as 

 many full and |ihuii|i ears are scattered, and 

 it is proper that some one shoidd leather tlieni, 

 " .\s till' small iiiit, (for she iiistriu'tti the iiiau 

 Ami iu-fuflu's lalior) t/afhtt-K at) h]u\ rail." 



I also claim the privilege of presenting such 

 matters as I may deem iisel'iil, in my own way, 

 and to collect material from every source, 

 like 

 " The royal bee, queen of the rosy bower, 

 Collect!: licr precious sweets from every flower." 



1 also crave indulgence, should I attenii)t to 

 be llowery. as a hotani.st. 1 k)ve (lowers, and 

 being soinewhat sifted with a taste for the 

 beautiful in |)iietrv and prose, I am, however, 

 not umniiulful of tln' matter of fact, useful 

 and true ; .so that the utilitarian need not be 

 offended by a poetic introductory tnmsgres- 

 sion. 



Now for the gleanings. First among wheat, 

 as the statfof life, when madi' into bread. I 

 of course quote on the authority of IJaron 

 Liebig, and other men of repute. 1. Grain, 

 by its conversion into llower, loses in mitritive 

 properties: that of rye by 10 per cent., that 

 of wheat by !."> iier cent. 



The grain-fniit or seed is constructed simi- 

 lar to an egg; hence botanists call the young 

 or iinmatine seed of a plant the Ovule (Lat. 

 Ondiiiu). The Ovary (l.at. Orum, an egg) is 

 the hollow case enclosing the ovules or young 

 seeds. The yolk in the egg is rich in fat and 

 poor in albumen, but is suri:ounded with a 

 layer of albumen, or the white, as it is called. 

 So in the grain the starchy nucleus is envel- 

 oped by a stratum of an allmnieniferous sub- 

 stance, which, in being ground, passes into 

 the bran ; and this substance is the most im- 

 portant ius a nourishment for the blood. Some 



2 or 3 per cent, more of bread may beoljtained 

 by omitting fennentation. We know that 

 when organic sub.«tanees, under the influence 

 of water, air and warmth, are abandoned to 

 the reciprocal operation of their proximate 

 principles— sugar, starch, gluten, etc.— they 

 are entirely changed and deconifxised, so that 

 their idtimate principles— oxygen, hydrogen, 

 carlxm, and, in some cases, azote— combine in 

 new proiierties, and thus give birth to various 

 new compounds. Uy this is understood the 

 process of fermentation. (.See Ure's Dic- 

 tionary for a fuller account.) 



• In times of scarcity, or in an economical 

 imint of view-, '2 or 3 per cent, saved would 

 seem worthy of some attention, since the 

 same (juantity of grain, in the form of bread 

 from meal, will save for every thou.sand per- 

 sons one hundred and twenty more from hun- 

 ger and its concomitant results than bread 

 from line floiu', freed as the latter is from 

 bran. 



"In regard to the greater value as nutri- 

 ment of bran brea<i, it may be mentioned 

 that in the Crimean war the Kussian prison- 

 ers in the French camji, who were accustomed 

 to the coarse bread, suffered by the use of 

 wheat bread, and supplementary diet had to 

 be granted." 



"The means of preparing brea<l without 

 fermentation are well known, and in constant 1 

 use in Englaiul and the United States, as well 

 as on their vessels. The sim|ilest is the ad- 

 dition to one hundred i)ounds of meal of a 

 pound of super-carbonate of soda, with an 

 eipiivalent (luantity of some acid, preferablv 

 tartaric or cream of tartar." 



Mr. T.iehig .says : " I have for several 

 months past been engaged on a thorough in- 

 vestigation of the changes which hinnan food 

 undergoes, as regards its value as nutriment 

 by its treatment in cooking ; among others 

 also the preparation of bread, and one of the 

 results arrived at is that bran bread, com- 

 monly known as '^iimtpecnicAei, ' cannot be 



obtained of uniform character or eon.stant nu- 

 triti\e value if maile partly by fermentation." 



" A niimlirr of fads eliminated by the re- 

 cent I'russd-Austrian war leail to the conclu- 

 sion that a method of baking which is inde- 

 l)endeid of fermental ion, and not apt to pro- 

 duce a bread which is subject to mould, would 

 be of great value, not only for the army, but 

 for the i)eo|)le at large ; and the close res<'arch 

 into these relations has coulirnicd me in the 

 belief that bread of such qualities is not 

 l)rocurable except by the use of chemical 

 means, and that these, if properly apjjlied, 

 furnish bread of higher value than that at 

 lireseiit in use, and of a nature which leaves 

 nothing to be desired." (Extract from a 

 letter by IJarou Liebig, copied into "Dinglei-'s 

 Journal," from the Augsburg "Zeilinig" — 

 ISGS. ) In the su]ipleni<'nt tofn^'s Dictionary 

 (vol. ii) I lind on page 1S:J ; " Fermentation," 

 says Liebig, " is not only the best and sim- 

 jilest, but likewise the most economical way 

 of imjiarting porosity to bread ; and besides, 

 rluiiiials, i/cneritlti/ .s/zwA//!;/, uliuuhl nircr rc- 

 coitimnid the xw rif vlinitU-dia for rulinary prc- 

 parHtiiiiis^ for chenncals are .seldom met with 

 in conuiierce in a state of purity. Thus, for 

 example, the muriatic acid which it has been 

 proposed to mix with carbonate of .soda in 

 Ijread is ohroi/s very iriiiiure, <md aj'tcn contains 

 arKcnic," etc. 



As a gleaner, I allow this to go with tiic 

 above without comment : It was proposed, 

 and extensively used in what was called un- 

 fermented bread, that instead of adding salt 

 to the mixture of flour and water or dough, 

 to u.se hydrochloric (muriatic) acid and car- 

 bonate of soda, in such exact jiroportions as 

 to ftirm common salt (chloride of sodium) ; in 

 this case the evolved carbonic acid is received 

 into the dough, causing it to rise to the .same 

 extent as by fernientation, and good and pala- 

 table bread may be made ; but it is very dith- 

 cult to obtain it free from small <loughv 

 lumps, in addition to risk of impurity in the 

 acid used, containing traces of arsenic, when 

 clainu'd to be purilicd. 



Aerated bread-loaves are made by Dr. 

 Dauglish's Knglish patent of 18.-9. It is assert- 

 ed that aerated bread was made in the United 

 States prior to 1S54. In this process an 

 aqueous solution of carbonic acid, iirepared 

 under great jiressure, is mixed with the 

 floLU- in a jn-oper ai)paratns, so as to pro- 

 duce a vesicular dough when the jiressure is 

 removed. The process is rapid, aiul jnevents 

 such deteriorations of the flour as are said to 

 be attendant on fermentation in the usual 

 way. Mr. David Fancost, about thirteen 

 years ago, introduced this bread into I^ancas- 

 ter. I regretted it exceedingly when he dis- 

 continued it. AVhy is it not introduced V I 

 am sure I relished it much better than our or- 

 dinary baker's bread. 



Baking is no new discovery. In the Old 

 Testament we find that bread-making was a 

 duty performed by the litmily. Sarah, also 

 Pharaoh's servant.the chief liaker, are men- 

 tioned. So the farmer's wife is the baker, and 

 no doubt makes the more nourishing bread, 

 while we in the city depend upon the baker, 

 and eat what he gives us. In my gleaning I 

 find : The Israelites ate leavened bread, ex- 

 cept on peculiar occasions. The Bechuiin of 

 the present day, as his ancestors did, cooks 

 his unleavened bread in the embers, usually 

 between layers of dung. We are not desti- 

 tute of the same fuel on the western plains, 

 but delicately term it toi.s- <!r vttchr, or, nuu'o 

 s(iuar(ly, hnffdlo-rhijis. When the Arab 

 bakes a i)astry bread on a i)an or griddle, he 

 calls it JliUi, or flitters. Witliout intending to 

 talk Arabic, we do the same sometimes. The 

 Egyptian, like the I,ondou bakers, kneaded 

 bread with their feet. The liractiee is jirob- 

 ably more geu'-ral than we know or care to 

 believe. " Where ignorance is bliss, 'lis folly 

 to be wise." If I have said too much, I beg 

 pardon of bakers and consumers. 



Ching-Nomig. tlu' successor of Fohi, is re- 

 putt-d to have first taught the art of making 

 bread from wheat, and wine from rice — I'.lilS 

 B. C. This was the era of Terah, the father 



of Abraham, of the she))herd kings of Egypt, 

 and of the fabidous wars of the Titans in 

 Greece. A few years subse(piently — 1913 

 B. C. — Melchiscdek brought out wine and 

 bread to Abram and blessed him. ((ieii. xiv. 

 IH. ) Fifteen years afterwards we lind Abra- 

 ham giving threit strangers a morsel of bread 

 to stay their stomachs, while his wife prejiared 

 hot cakes made oi(( (;/" /i/ic incid, lcnttid(d. and 

 no dovd)t cooked in the ashes, a.s tiiey had not 

 then seen the Egyptian phm of baking iii 

 ovens. This was ' served up witli butter- 

 probably bonny-clabber, or curds, milk and 

 veal. 



The Hebrew bread was a flat cake, baked on 

 the hearth or on a metallic i)late. It was 

 broken, not cut, and may have had indenta- 

 tions to Ibrm lines of easy fracture. Thus may 

 have arisen Faul'sremark — " We, heingmuny, 

 are om- hrmd,'' (1 Cor. x. 17.) 



In the time of Fliny we lind that,- though 

 bread was made from a variety of grains, yet 

 that wheat was held in the higliest estimation 

 — the wheat of Italy ranking lirst for weight 

 and whiteness, whiie that of Sicily, one of the 

 granaries of Home, stood third, Bieotian 

 wheat being preferred to it. lie states that 

 the weight of all commissary bread exceeded 

 that of the tloiu' from which it was made by 

 one-third, and this is still held to be the proper 

 l)ercentage of grain in well-made bread from 

 good flour. The German iiroportion, stated \ 

 by Kohler in his liivhcnmcixter, is l.")0 itoimds 

 of dough and l.")3 pounds lb! ounces of bread 

 from 100 iioimds of (lour. But I must stop, 

 lest I satiate my gentle reader with hreiuh 

 ;/'((•( iu'/K/.s-, and yet much of interest might 1)6 

 added liy yoiu' humble caterer. — J. St,\uf- 

 FEii, ia)ica.s(( r, Po,. 



LETTERS, QUERIES, AND ANSWERS. 



Mountain Tea. 



The intere.stinc article on tin's sulyect, page .V, in 

 tlie .\|iril nunilicr of TuE I'"ahmkk, frivcs a correct 

 account. .\s an cx-ilruiririsf and Ixilanist, I am |)cr- 

 I'cctly familiar willi tlic plant. It is also called 

 "Sweet-.sccnted fJolden rod." Scicntilically, the 

 SolidiKjo odora. Dr. (Jray describes thirty-three 

 species. The veins of the leaves arcrcticidatc hut ob- 

 scure, edijes entire or nearly so, lliickisli, stem slen- 

 der, two to three feet hich. The crushed leaves have 

 a jileasant odor, which distiiiL'uishes it from the 

 .S'. pilom and the other spccii'S. As a family, the one- 

 .sided racemes or axillary clusters of golden yellow 

 floweis arc seen every wlicrc, of some one species or the 

 other, in the summer and autumn, incur fence rowsor 

 woodlainls, meadows, cS;e. 



The leaves of the Polidaero odora have a delight- 

 fully frat;rant oilor, iiarlaking of that of anise and 

 sassafras, tiut ditlVrcnt from cither. The transpar- 

 ent cells that dot \hv leaves contain a volatile oil, 

 whicli wliensubjeclcd (o (list illation jiosscsses the taste 

 aiid aroma of ijic plant in a hiirh desree. The vola- 

 tile oil is used in medicine as tieinir aromatic, pleasant 

 to the taste, irently slinuilant. diaphftrclic and car- 

 nu'native. These arc the qualities irivc!i it t»y eminent 

 chemists, and certainly recommi'Ud the plant as a 

 wl)olcs(»me t)everage. Boi^ks say but little about it. 

 .Mr. I'ursh informs us tliat this plant, when dried, Is 

 used in snme parts of the I'nitol Slates, as an agree- 

 al)le sul)s(itue for tea. He Inrllier states, that it has 

 for some time been an article of exiM)rtation to China, 

 where it brink's a Iiiirli lirice. This is news to many. 

 Kxportiiii; tea to China I and why not ? stick a pin 

 there; if the exportation has discontinued — why? It 

 certainly is an abundant, easily grown siH'cies, 

 although not so common apart from the mountain 

 district. \Vtien a boy, tif:y years airo, wc had an 

 annual tea merchant to supply the family, and it 

 was then called inthe vernacular "Blow luTgcr Ta," 

 Blue .Mountain Tea. — J. S. 



Testing Eggs. 



To the Editor of The Linianter /-'anncr ; On page 

 .51, Ai)ril numlicr Laxcastkk Faiimeh, I notice you 

 give us Mr. I*yle's theory as to sex, tN:c., of eggs. Now 

 I would ask you candidly, do your readers believe 

 this theory ? Do they t)elicve that they can tell by 

 examining a fresh, unbroken e^'ir, whether it wilF 

 hatch lit till or not i 1 believe it iiniifp.ssihie to distin- 

 guish even the sex of an egg before it hatches, but 

 admiltiie.r that, are we foolish enoU'.rh to believe that 

 wc can tell which eirir will produce "lively cockerelsof 

 quick irrowth and liirlit plumage?" Sup|)ose it is a 

 black Spanish, will his plumage Iw liglit ? Are we 

 foolish enough to Ix-lieve tlnit we can tell which eggs 

 will pronduce pullets of " quick groHlh and grsHl 

 laying qualities i" also which will produce pullets of 



