1857. 



NEW EXGLANJ) FARMER. 



73 



than lambs fed upon whole turnips, the cost of Granted, that we cannot eat a meal of such hard 

 usinsr the machine being but Is. per head, and the bread in four, or even in eio;ht minutes, but, on the 



machine itself not more than £5 ; thus effecting a 

 saving of 70s. an acre upon the turnip crop 



For the I\ew England Farmer. 



HEALTHY BREAD. 



Bread is universally acknowledged to be the staff 

 of life ; and yet, on no one point among house- 

 keepers is there such a diversity of practice as in 

 regard to the preparation of this highly useful, and, 

 I might e\en say, indispensable article. 



First : there is an unending diversity of opinion, 

 with regard to the material. Thus, a few prefer 

 wheat meal, or that which is unbolted ; but the far 

 greater number prefer to have it bolted or sifted. 

 With many, the finer it is the l)etter. Others pre- 

 fer rye. In very many parts of New England, even 

 at this late day, a large number of the people pre- 

 fer simple rye bread. With us in eastern Massa- 

 chusetts, a mixture of rye and Indian is deemed 

 preferable. In a fev,- portions of our country, corn 

 meal is greatly prelei-red for bread ; and in a still 

 smaller section, bread of buckwheat or oatmeal. 



Secondly : the methods of preparing bread are 

 as various as the material. The great body of our 

 housekeepers are thoroughly imbued with the idea 

 that all bread must be raised, if possible. They 

 dread heavy bread, as they would the plague itself. 

 But they confound heaviness (such as is form.ed 

 M-hen bread made of very fine flour falls from the 

 upper crust, and is doughy, or rather leady,) with 

 mere solidity. Hence, some device there must be 

 to diminish the adhesiveness of the mass, whether 

 in order to make a large loaf, to encourage that 

 indolence which prevails about mastication and sal- 

 ivation, or to add to the amount of gustatory en- 

 joyment, by bringing more of the mass, with a 

 slighter effort, in contact with the papilla? of the 

 tongue, deponent is not able to sa}'. 



One thing, however, he can say, viz., that all the 

 forms of raising bread which have ever been invent- 

 ed, so far as he is informed, stand entirely arrayed 

 against pleasure, economy and health. Bread not 

 raised, is, in reality, ahvays sv/eeter, more economi- 

 cal, and more healthful. 



Such a statement I well know, so far as it is re- 

 ceived and acted upon, will not please the vast ma- 

 jority of your readers. Especially will it be likely 

 to displease the friends of some of our fashionable 

 effervescing mixtures, such as are frequently adver- 

 tised in the papers. If bread is to be raised at all, 

 I greatly prefer to raise it by effervescence ; and 

 perhaps the "dietetic saleratus," which I see adver- 

 tised in the papers, the Morning Post, 8:6., may be 

 as good as anything. Yet, I repeat the assertion — 

 although in repeating it, I am well aware that I am 

 in danger of treading rather heavily on the toes of 

 our ancestors on the one hand, or of offending the 

 pride of the present generation — that it is wrong 

 to raise bread, any way. The very argument usu- 

 ally brought in favor of the practice, constitutes its 

 strongest objection — viz., that without being raised, 

 it is not so easily masticated. Why, the harder 

 our bread is, provided we do not break the enamel 

 of the teeth in chewing it, the better. Wheat 

 bread, for example, is true bread, just in proportion 

 as it approximates in the degree of solidity to the 

 character of the unground wheat from which it is 

 saade, ' 



contrary, are compelled to devote thirty minutes to 

 the purpose ; so much the better. God, in nature, 

 never intended a man should eat his meal in five or 

 ten minutes, although hundreds boast that they 

 want no more. The great normal changes on our 

 food, which were intended by the Creator, can neT- 

 er be effected by bolting it ; that is, by swallowing 

 several pounds of it in five minutes. Nor do we 

 gain half as much pleasure in this latter way, as we 

 do in the former. 



But M-hy, then, should we grind our grain at all ? 

 I shall doubtless be asked. For if it be true that 

 the true artof bread-makingconsists in breaking the 

 smaller kernels of the grain, and then moulding 

 them, as it were, into larger kernels, or, in other 

 words, into cakes or loaves, why should it be ground 

 at all ? By eating it in the kernel, it will be add- 

 ed, we should save ourselves much time and trou- 

 ble. 



The reply to these objections is as follows : In 

 the present highly refined state of society, very few 

 people have teet^ of such perfection, as to be able 

 to masticate very thoroughly the smaller grains, as 

 they come from the Creator's hands. And if they 

 could, it is by no means certain that art may not 

 in this respect improve nature. The process of 

 mixing and baking bread, even though all fermen- 

 tation is, by its rapidity, precluded, seems to in- 

 crease in no slight degree its sweetness. Whether 

 there is, in such circumstances, a corresponding 

 loss of nutriment, as there certainly is in fermenta- 

 tion, is, I grant, quite undetermined. 



The word ferm.entation will recall another ob- 

 jection, wliich not a few will be likely to interpose. 

 They will say, "But we always thought bread raised 

 with yeast or leaven was greatly preferable to that 

 which is raised by effervescing, and other mixtures ; 

 above all, by saleratus." The latter, of course, is 

 objectionable, as everybody admits ; but why the 

 other effervescing mixtures should be preferable to 

 yeast, will not be, by the class of persons to which 

 I refer, so readily understood. 



But the chemists can tell them, and this, too, 

 without any very great show of learning, that in all 

 fermentation, there is a change of the saccharine, 

 or nutritious part of the bread, into carbonic acid 

 gas and wine ; both of which, and most certainly 

 the last, involve a real loss in the same proportion. 

 This is not all. Yeast, or leaven, not only induces 

 fermentation, and thus induces a loss of nutritious 

 substance, but that fermentation is, practically and 

 really, the first stage of decomposition or putrefac- 

 tion; so that he who eats raised or fermented 

 bread, eats putrified or rotten bread. At least, it 

 is partly rotten, and can never be so well adapted 

 to the wants of a normal stomach as that which is 

 pure. 



My subject is not exhausted, but I have written 

 at sufficient length, for once. W. A. Alcott. 

 Dietetic Institute, La Grange Place, Dec. 10, 1856. 



Agricultueal Weaxth of England. — If the 

 mines of California were to produce one million of 

 dollars per week for two hundred years, the amount 

 would be something short of the estimated value of 

 the cultivated lands, with their appurtenances, of 

 old England,— which is said to be §10,860,000^000. 



