1858. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



31 



though this seldom happened once in a quarter of 

 d year, and in some families almost never. But I 

 "times are altered." Bread, unsalted, would, in 

 most places, be intolerable ; nor would it, in 

 many families, be regarded as fit to eat without 

 saleratus. Besides these, our farmers' wives, 

 who have plenty of milk, frequently wet their 

 meal with it ; and in making several kinds of 

 bread, they add to all these molasses. I have 

 even, in some places at the South and South-west, 

 seen bread to which a small quantity of flesh 

 meat, finely chopped, had been added. It was 

 called crackley bread. 



Just think of this, Mr. Editor, for a moment. Here, 

 m the more common forms of what is justly called 

 the staff of life, are flour, salt, saleratus, molasses 

 and milk, to say nothing of the substance which 

 is usually added as a ferment, or of the acetic 

 acid, which, in order to prepare the way for the 

 saleratus, as well as to have a large loaf, is often 

 developed before the bread is set in the oven ! 

 Including the last two, and we have an admixture 

 of no less than seven ingredients, in order to the 

 formation of what was once, and ever ought to 

 have remained, a simple loaf of bread. And thus 

 it seems to be, all the way from our most simple 

 articles up to Mrs. Leslie's mince pies, composed 

 of no less than eighteen ingredients ! And then, 

 let me say a word as to the quantity of these for- 

 eign ingredients. I can remember — perhaps you 

 can — when from a quarter of a pound to a poun'd 

 of saleratus or of pearl ash used to suffice for 

 alkali a whole year, in any ordinary New England 

 family. Or, if to this any additions were ever 

 made, it consisted of a little ashes, neatly pre- 

 pared by burning a few cobs of Indian corn. But 

 now how stands the case ? The mother and 

 housekeeper of a well known familj' of Fitchburg 

 told me a few years ago, in the presence of her hus- 

 band, and after careful consultation with him, 

 tliat she made use, in cooking, of no less than twen- 

 ty-five pounds of saleratus in a year. And yet 

 tlie family consisted only of ten persons — about 

 one-half of whom were children. This, I admit, 

 is an extreme case ; at least I would fain hope so. 

 Yet there are thousands of families of five, six or 

 seven persons, that come nearly half way up to it 

 — that is, they use at least ten or twelve pounds. 

 Indeed, from much observation on this subject in 

 different portions of the United States, I am of 

 opinion that the average amount of this alkali 

 which is used in cookery, can hardly be less than 

 eight pounds. For should it be said that there 

 are many indigent families who cannot afford it, 

 my reply is that the poor are usually among the 

 last to dispense with such a luxury as this. I 

 sjjeak of the past and present, however ; for what 

 will be done the coming Avinter, I do not attempt 

 to predict. 



Now, setting aside the fact of its bearmg on 

 health — for Dr. Dunglison says, in his Physiolo- 

 gy, that "all made dishes are more or less rebel- 

 lious" in the stomach — is it reasonable that wo- 

 man should be condemned, for life, to a slavery 

 to custom which demands of her that she should 

 expend so much of her "sacred fire" in mixing 

 natural, healthful and — to every unperverted pal- 

 ate— agreeable food with a multitude of foreign 

 substances ? For who does not know that it con- 

 sumes a vast deal of time over and beyond what 

 is needed in the preparation of the plainer viands ? 



It is not easy to estimate the amount of female 

 time which is consumed in the United States 

 every year, in the manner aforesaid ; but it must 

 be enormous. Perhaps we may form an idea of 

 it, by considering for a moment how much time it 

 requires to form cheese — a far less complicated 

 mixture than many others. From the best data I 

 have been able to obtain, it would take a woman 

 a month to make a thousand pounds of cheese — . 

 I mean on the supposition that she could employ 

 in this way her whole time. Yet who does not 

 see, at once, that not only is nothing gained in 

 this way, even of gustatory enjoyment, to the 

 unperverted jmlate, but that the process is accom- 

 panied by some waste of nutritious matter and a 

 good deal of vexation and fatigue ? Those who 

 have not reflected much on the subject, will, I 

 know, interpose a question here : what should we 

 farmers do with our milk at earlier seasons, if we 

 did not make it into cheese ? — a question, how- 

 ever, which, without pointing them to the king- 

 dom of Brazil, and to some other countries, 

 where butter and cheese have never yet been 

 made, might easily be answered. 



Wm. a. Alcott. 



Aubumdale, Nov. 12th, 1857. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 HEATED BOOMS. 



Physiologists, one and all, agree that for health's 

 sake, the breathing of pure air is of the utmost 

 importance ; say they, "Whatever makes the air 

 impure, makes the blood impure, and from impu- 

 rities of the blood originate nearly every disease, 

 hence the sick person taking medicines, and at 

 the same time breathing impure air, labors under 

 the same disadvantage as the man, who, being af- 

 flicted with the gout, adopts a medical course of 

 treatment, and at the same time indulges in lux- 

 urious living, which was the first and only cause 

 of his disease ; in either case, the former course 

 maj^ act as a curative, while the latter is sure to 

 excite disease." 



Now in regard to our dwellings, we pursue very 

 much the same course ; in winter, we shut up our- 

 selves in small heated rooms in order to keep 

 warm, forgetting that an ordinary man consumes 

 a hogshead of air every hour, and that the stove 

 takes up oxygen, the vital principle of air, twice 

 as fast as a man does ; think of it, reader ! a hogs- 

 head an hour for one person, and judge yourself 

 of how many hogsheads capacity is your room, 

 and how many persons there are to breathe there- 

 in. Still you pursue this course, and cough and 

 croup the M'inter through, and are ready to be- 

 lieve that the human race is fast degenerating, 

 or that the climate has undergone some sad 

 change. F. 



"Died Poor !" — As if anybody could die rich, 

 and in that act of dying, did not loose the grasp 

 upon title deed and bond, and go away a pauper 

 out of time ! No gold, no jewels, no lands or tene- 

 ments. And yet, men have been buried by chari- 

 ty's hand, who did die rich ; died worth a thous- 

 and thoughts of beauty, a thousand pleasant 

 memories, a thousand hopes restored. 



