NEW ENGLAND FAHMER. 



Feb. 



fied that it is a shorter cut, or a safer route. The 

 cautious teamster often avoids a new road, just be- 

 cause it is new. His caution may be excessive, but 

 we sometimes feel disposed, when farmers are 

 urged to turn off into some of the many new paths 

 that are opened to them, to imitate the town au- 

 thorities in Massachusetts, and put up in large let- 

 ters the inscription — "Private Way — Not Safe 

 TO Travel." More than this we would not do. 

 We would fence up no man's path. We would 

 try, cautiously, things new as well as old, and rec- 

 ommend the same course to others. 



And so long as farmers, like other men, require 

 precept upon precept ; so long as the storehouse of 

 the past shall continue to furnish facts and exam- 

 ples which the shifting circumstances of times and 

 places shall make applicable to their case and wor- 

 thy of their imitation ; so long as one farmer shall 

 excel another ; so long as untaught generations 

 shall successively take the place of their fathers 

 and need the instruction, the knowledge, the facts 

 and the ideas that made them prosperous farmers 

 and good citizens; — so long do we hope that the 

 columns of our journal will be both interesting and 

 instructive, though new facts and new ideas be far 

 less frequently presented than they have been here- 

 tofore. 



For the New England Farmer. 



HEALTHY BREAD-No. 2. 



In a former article I have brought together sev- 

 eral reasons for abandoning the use of raised bread. 

 But, while I have pulled down an old building, I 

 have not very distinctly pointed to the proper 

 method of erecting a better. In other words, I have 

 not said how true bread ought to be made. 



First, then, let your meal of every kind be un- 

 bolted. No such thing as a bolter should be known. 

 In the use of buckwheat and oats, it will, of course, 

 be needful to separate the hulls from the meal ; 

 but after washing clean beforehand, no such process 

 is needful, in the case of wheat, rye, barley or 

 corn. In order to subserve the best purposes of 

 health, the use of whole meal, as Dr. Johnson, of 

 England, calls it, is indispensable. 



Some who are as friendly to the use of whole 

 meal as myself, tell their friends, in a good natured 

 way, that, though our grain should never be bolted, 

 yet it may be desirable, before making our meal in- 

 to bread, to pass it through a coarse sieve in order 

 to exclude all the rails, posts, and pig-yokes that 

 may have found their way into it, ; to which, of 

 course, I should not very strenuously object. 



The second thing to be done is to wet the meal 

 thoroughly, and as quickly as possible. Many use 

 scalding water for that purpose, but I prefer to 

 have the water of a common temperature. Let it 

 be thoroughly diftused through the mass, so as to 

 have every particle wet ; but let the mass remain 

 at the same time as dry — that is, as little wet — as 

 possible. They who have no instruction on this 

 subject are very apt to leave the mass in a thin, al- 

 most seini-liquid state ; but as a reward therefor, 

 they usually have heavy bread. . 



The third point to be secured is to bring the mass 



into such a shape that we may be able to bake it 

 quickly without burning it. To this end, let it be 

 rolled or compressed to the thickness of from one- 

 fourth to half an inch. You may bake in cakes of 

 the usual size, and of every describable form, circu- 

 lar, square, oblong, triangular, scolloped, &c. Or 

 you may cut it into narrow strips, from half an 

 inch to an inch in width, and from five to six inches 

 in length. The last named method is more labo- 

 rious than the former, but it is, on the whole, pref- 

 erable. 



If you ask for reasons for giving a preference to 

 the last or more laborious mode, they are found 

 chiefly in the fact that you thus secure a great 

 amount of surface or crust. It has been known, 

 time immemorial, that the crust of bread is the 

 most healthy part of it. I will not now stop to say 

 why, but admit the fact. Now these thin, narrow 

 strips of bread, if properly and thoroughly baked, 

 may be regarded as wholly crust. 



This brings us to the fourth consideration. Un- 

 leavened bread, to be light and tender, as well as 

 the most sweet and healthy, should be baked quick- 

 ly. With this view, we must have a hot oven. — 

 Avoid, however, all burning, as I have before ad- 

 vised, since this developes a bitter and probably 

 poisonous principle. Bread made in this way may 

 be eaten hot, v/'i'ih comparative safety ; which cannot 

 be said of that which is made of fine fiour, and is 

 raised. And not only so, but when several days 

 old, may by steaming, or even by a dry heat, be 

 rendered nearly as palatable and healthy as when 

 it first came from the oven. 



No person who has been trained to this sort of 

 bread will ever desire to return to the old, except 

 under the desire to comply with the mandates of a 

 power which is more tyrannical than any other — I 

 mean custom or fashion. It is sweeter than any 

 other, and it sets more easily on the stomach. It 

 is to be desired, by the way, that families should 

 grind their own meal in hand mills, and a small 

 quantity at a time, since the peculiar flavor of the 

 material from which it is made is thereby better 

 retained. 



If the principles and rules of proceeding which 

 have been laid down in this article are faithfully 

 followed out, we shall no longer hear it objected to 

 unleavened bread that it is heavy. Heavy bread 

 has a permanently doughy or leady api)earance ; 

 but here is nothing of either. Unleavened bread 

 may be more solid than that which is raised by yeast 

 or leaven, or made light by effervescence; but if 

 properly prepared and baked, it can never be real- 

 ly heavy. 



"Would you not salt it ?" I shall doubtless be 

 asked. I reply by saying that in the most healthy 

 parts of these States, out of city and village limits, 

 such a thing as salting bread was, till recently, un- 

 known. And even now, many refuse to salt their 

 bread. In the nature of things, bread should no 

 more be salted than apples or grajjcs ; no, nor yet 

 so much. But who is there that puts salt on his 

 ap])les ? w. a. a. 



Ilijgenlc Institute, La Granf^e Place, Boston, Dtc. 30, 185S. 



How MUCH SHOULD A Cow Eat. — Cows, to give 

 milk, require more food than most farmers imag- 

 ine. J. Vi^ Johnson, writing from Munich to the 

 Country Genlkman, gives an interesting report of 

 some experiments which have been made in Buva- 



