228 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



rise one hour ; again kneaded, and placed in pans for baking. 

 After standing half an hour, it was baked in a brick oven one 

 hour." 



Good flour, good yeast, a good oven, and some experience 

 and native skill, are essential to the production of good bread. 

 Great skill may succeed in making a tolerable bread from poor 

 materials ; and one without skill may sometimes, with good 

 materials, find that she has made a good loaf; but if she cannot 

 make the next one like it she has much to learn. What we 

 strongly desire is, to see the work done in an intelligent manner, 

 according to sure principles of science, so that no failure is to 

 be counted as among the probabilities. This can be brought 

 about only by the education of the bread maker in a knowledge 

 of the process of mixing, kneading, fermentation and baking 

 of bread, so that the how and why of every part shall be well 

 understood. The practical part of this education can be best 

 secured in that divinely established seminary, the family kitchen, 

 under the instruction of an intelligent mother. 



Flour of the best quality is of a light cream color, and holds 

 together in a lump when squeezed by the hand, and shows 

 impressions of the fingers, and even marks of the skin, much 

 longer than that which is inferior. It contains from twelve to 

 fifteen per cent, of gluten, fifty-five to sixty of starch, eight of 

 sugar, five of gum, and twelve of water; these proportions vary- 

 ing considerably in different varieties of wheat and qualities oi 

 flour. The whitest flours contain most starch, and the darkest 

 most gluten ; so that, gluten being the flesh-forming substance, 

 whiteness is not an indication of superior nutritiveness, but 

 rather the reverse. Bakers prefer to mix flour abounding in 

 starch with that which contains a larger proportion of gluten, 

 believing they can by the mixture make a better bread than by 

 either alone ; though possibly their preference may sometimes 

 arise from the fact that they are thus enabled to work in flour 

 of a lower price. Many growers of wheat in the "West sow two 

 varieties together, say the Fife and the Rio Grande, and get a 

 better flour by the mixture. 



In the making of bread, the proportion of water to be added 

 in mixing the dough varies according to the quality of the 

 flour. The best flours, those that contain the largest proportion 

 of gluten, will absorb more than those of inferior quality. The 



