156 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



throughout with saleratus. We never see persons making a 

 feed (it cannot be a meal,) on such indigestible stuff but 

 visions of dyspepsia, nightmare, and work for the dentist come 

 up before us ; for it is now admitted by all that nothing 

 destroys the enamel of teeth like saleratus taken into the 

 stomach. Yet we have heard people who daily eat bread 

 made green by saleratus, cursing the doctor, who, in a case 

 of sickness years ago, gave them a dose of calomel, and 

 destroyed their teeth. 



We once heard a lady, who took pride in her cooking, assert 

 that to have good bread it must rise till it was thoroughly 

 sour, then add saleratus till it was sweet ; that would make 

 nice bread. It was suggested that it could be soured with 

 cream of tartar. Ah ! no ; she knew better ; she wanted the 

 natural sour. We could never imagine why people who use 

 cream of tartar to sour their dough, do not buy sour flour as 

 a matter of economy ; it can be bought less, and would save 

 buying cream of tartar. We do not see why the same result 

 could not be obtained. We wish every family in this country, 

 (rebels included,) could have, daily, as good bread as the 

 poorest specimen offered for our inspection, although we sup- 

 pose, some persons, who have been used to eating bread of the 

 brickbat sort, would not relish decent bread, because the taste 

 gets so depraved they could not recognize good bread when 

 they eat it. This ought not to be so ; for of all the various' 

 kinds of ailment to which civilized man has had recourse 

 during our historical period, none have been so universally 

 employed as bread. 



Like most arts of primary importance, the invention' of 

 bread undoubtedly long preceded its history, which is involved 

 in the usual obscurity of early times. The Greeks ascribe the 

 introduction of agriculture to Ceres, and the invention of 

 bread to Pan ; but we know that the Chaldeans and Egyptians 

 were acquainted with these arts at an earlier period. " And 

 Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, make ready 

 quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes 

 upon the hearth." There is reason to think, from some of the 

 ancient writers, that the art of fermenting bread with yeast 

 was known eighteen hundred years ago. Yet it was not 

 common in Europe till within two hundred years. In 1688, 



