No. 8. 



IFJiite and Brown Bread. 



259 



got one once through. This plan may be 

 altered and changed to suit circumstances, 

 as may be required. If wished, it may be 

 put ill rye after the wheat ; or it might re- 

 main three years in grass. The field might 

 be put in wheat the same fall, by cutting off 

 the corn, but the grass will never succeed 

 60 well, and therefore I would never advise 

 that plan. It is large crops of grass that 

 will improve the land cheaper and faster 

 than any other mode of improvement. 



As I have spun out a pretty long yarn 

 already, I will soon come to a close, after 

 saying something about tiie subsoil and deep 

 ploughing. If the land is light and dry, and 

 the subsoil land is open and porous, pervious 

 to water, with a large proportion of sand, 

 such land might be ploughed a foot deep in 

 the spring for corn. Tiie fall, however, is 

 the proper time for all subsoil ploughing, and 

 no other time will answer for land when the 

 subsoil is of a hard, stiff clay. The frost is 

 the only and proper agent to commence the 

 work of deepening the soil, 



I really feel as if the boy was making an 

 attempt to instruct the master. Well, if it 

 should be so, I know yon will attribute my 

 saying what I have said to a pure intention. 



To conclude the whole matter, a deep 

 rich soil is indispensable, if you want good 

 crops. Now, the great point is, let every 

 farmer go to work. Let him not only work, 

 but read and study; and the man that shall 

 find out the most judicious plan of deepen- 

 ing and improving the soil, let him have a 

 great monument raised to his memory. 1 

 am sure he would be more deserving than 

 if he had killed a thousand Mexicans. 

 Respectfully, 



Wm. Todd. 



White and Brown Bread. 



Several years ago, we threw out the sur- 

 mise that the separation of the white from 

 the brown parts of wheat grain, was likely 

 to be baneful to health. We proceeded upon 

 theoretical grounds, believing that Provi- 

 dence must have contemplated our using 

 the entire grain, and not a portion only; se- 

 lected by means of a nicely arranged ma- 

 chinery. It struck us forcibly that to go on 

 for a long course of years, thus using a kind 

 of food different from what nature designed, 

 could not fail to be attended with bad conse- 

 quences. We have since learned that our 

 views have some recognized support in sci- 

 ence. The following paragraph from a re- 

 cent pamphlet will at once serve to keep the 

 subject alive in the minds of our readers, 

 and e.xplain the actual grounds on which 



the separation of flour is detrimental. "The 

 [general belief," says the writer, " is that 

 bread made with the finest flour is the best, 

 and that whiteness is the proof of its quality; 

 but both these opinions are popular errors. 

 The whiteness may be, and generally is 

 communicated by alum, to the injury of the 

 consumer, and it is known by men of sci- 

 ence that the bread of unrefined flour will 

 sustain life, while that made with the refined 

 will not. Keep a man on brown bread and 

 water, and he will live and enjoy good 

 health ; give him white bread and water 

 only, and he will sicken and die. The meal 

 of which the first is made contains all the 

 ingredients necessary to the composition of 

 nourishment to the various structures com- 

 posing our bodies. Some of these ingredi- 

 ents are removed by the miller in his ellbrts 

 to please the public ; so that fine flour, in- 

 stead of being better than meal, is the least 

 nourishing; and to make the case worse, it 

 is also tlie most difficult of digestion. The 

 loss is, therefore, in all respects a waste ; 

 and it seems desirable that the admirers of 

 white bread, but especially the poor, should 

 be acquainted with these truths, and brought 

 to inquire whether they do not purchase at 

 too dear a rate, the privilege of indulging in 

 the use of it. The unwise preference given 

 so universally to white bread, leads to the 

 pernicious practice of mixing alum with the 

 flour, and this again to all sorts of adultera- 

 tions and impositions; for it enabled bakers, 

 who were so disposed, by adding more and 

 more alum, to make bread made from the 

 flour of an inferior grain look like the best 

 or more costly, and to dispose of it accord- 

 ingly; at once defrauding the purchaser and 

 tampering with his health. Among the 

 matters removed by the miller are the large 

 saline substances, which are indispensable 

 to the growth of the bones and teeth, and 

 are required, although in a less degree, for 

 daily repair. Erown bread should therefore 

 be given to nurses and to the young or the 

 growing, and should be preferred by all, of 

 whatever age, whose bones show a tendency 

 to bend, or who have weak teeth. It is be- 

 lieved that brown bread will generally be 

 found the best by all persons having slug- 

 gish bowels and stomachs, equal to the di- 

 gestion of the bran. But v.ith some it will 

 disagree; for it is too exciting to irritable 

 bowels, and is dissolved with difficulty in 

 some stomachs. When this happens, the 

 bran should be removed either wholly or in 

 part; and by such means the bread may be 

 adapted, with the greatest ease, to all liabits 

 and all constitutions." 



Mr. Smith, in his late remarkable work 

 on fruits and farinacea as the food of man, 



