BREAD. 161 



BREAD. 



MARTHA'S VINEYARD. 



From the Report of the Committee. 



Bread is the most important article of our food. The term 

 bread is sometimes used to express all of our food. God 

 said to Adam, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." 



The invention and manufacture of bread are of very ancient 

 date. The Chaldeans and Egyptians practised the art of 

 bread making, and at a later period the Hebrews found it 

 essential not only for food, but the priests were commanded 

 to offer it at their sacrifices. They had various methods of 

 making their bread. They took " wheaten flour tempered 

 with oil, kneaded it," and baked quickly, on the coals or 

 under the warm ashes. This primitive mode of cooking 

 bread is still practised among the Arabs. This bread, we 

 may suppose, was the unleavened bread which was so often 

 used. 



At the feast of the passover the children of Israel were com- 

 manded thus: "Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread. 

 Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses." 

 For the sacrifice of thanksgiving it was commanded to offer 

 leavened bread ; this leaven was probably similar to the 

 yeast-cakes in present use. 



There has been, perhaps, no time when so much thought 

 and attention has been given to the bread question by scien- 

 tists and medical men as at the present time. Agriculturists 

 feel the importance of it, and for that reason offer generous 

 premiums and awards, hoping to stimulate wives and daugh- 

 ters to renewed efforts at improvement in making sweet, 

 wholesome bread, which is the reasonable and desired result 

 of the improved wheat crops and milling, derived from earnest 

 thought and hard labor. 



21* 



