102 FOOD AND DRINK 



ible, and can only be used after undergoing many preparatory 

 processes. Great care must therefore be exercised, and many 

 experiments made, before we can arrive at a complete knowl- 

 edge in reference to these articles of diet. Tea, coffee, and 

 other substances from which drinks are made are of vegetable 

 origin. 



24. Bread. Wheat is the principal and most valuable kind 

 of grain for the service of man. Bread made from wheat-flour 

 has been in use for many hundreds of years, and on this 

 account, as well as because of its highly nourishing properties, 

 has been aptly called " the staff of life." We never become 

 tired of good bread as an article of daily food. The white 

 kinds of flour contain more starch and less gluten than the 

 darker, and are therefore less nutritious. The hard-grain wheat 

 yields the best flour. In grinding wheat, the chaff or bran is 

 separated by a process called "bolting." Unbolted flour is 

 used for making brown or Graham bread. (Read Note 10.) 



25. The form of bread most easily digested is that which 

 has been "leavened," or rendered porous by the use of yeast, 

 or by some similar method. Unleavened bread requires much 

 more mastication. Hot bread is unwholesome, because it is 

 not firm enough to be thoroughly masticated, but is converted 

 into a pasty heavy mass, that is not easily digested. 



10. Bread.- ''The health and power of a nation, as of an army, 

 depend greatly on its food. The quality of bread in any nation, com- 

 munity, or family is a pretty good measure of itg civilization. No one 

 can entirely dispense with it. Good or bad, in some form it must be had. 

 So it is, and has been from the earliest records of the race, and so it will 

 doubtless continue. Leavened or fermented bread is as old as the time 

 of Moses, and its value has been fully tested. Whatever be the precise 

 action of the leaven, it transforms the grain by partial decomposition of 

 its original elements, and leaves as its resultant what all men in all ages 

 have approved. Is the art of making good, honest, leavened, Bible bread 

 lost in Massachusetts, as some of our friends declare ? Baker's bread is 

 almost universally adulterated. Bread hastily made in families is mixed 

 in a variety of ways, with a variety of chemicals, and is generally imper- 



24. Wheat? " Staff of life ?" White flour? Hard-grain wheats ? Bolting? Graham 

 bread? 



25. Leavened bread ? Unleavened? Hot bread? 



