6 THE STORY OF BREAD 



thought of it in just this way — few of us have — but 

 plenty of cheap bread oiled the wheels of progress 

 for all time. And as the world had stood still for 

 so many years, its release was a signal for leaps and 

 bounds. 



I was about to say that to know the story of bread 

 is to know the story of the world. But suppose we 

 interline this with the thought that to know the story 

 of bread is to know the story of industrial and com- 

 mercial progress. By its footprints we can follow 

 the path that leads straight from serfdom to inde- 

 pendence — from the man in a cave to the man in a 

 skyscraper. 



HOSE who have not forgotten their 

 Dickens remember that in passing 

 on the fate of a boat long over- 

 due, Jack Bunsby gave it as his 

 solemn opinion that "the ship has 

 either gone down, or she hasn't 

 gone down." So much for old 

 Jack Bunsby, and so much for the boat. And in 

 like manner, so much for wheat. 



Just where wheat came from, and what it was be- 

 fore it was wheat, are largely matters of speculation. 

 It may have come from the valley of the Nile, or the 

 Euphrates, or from Sicily, or from some other place 



