156 



NEW EI^GLaKD FAiniER. 



yixt 



to raise corn or potatoes enough to exchange for 

 the flour, for a year, required by a family of eight 

 or ten persons. Would it not be better for New- 

 England farmers, as a general thing, to devote an 

 acre to wheat, save all the cost incident upon ex- 

 changing, and eat the product of their own fields ? 

 We think it would. A farmer needs a good deal 

 of skill to trade advantageously with those whose 

 w-its are sharpened by making trade the business 

 of life, and who are too often unscrupulous in their 

 transactions. The more directly the farmer's pro- 

 ducts come from his fields to his table, the more 

 profit he will find in them. 



NEW BOOKS 



Agriculture op Massachusetts. For the year 1862. By 

 Charles L. Fliut, Secretary of the State Boanl of Agriculture. 

 Boston: Wright & Potter, printers. 1 vol., 8 vo., 692 pp. 



We have before us the Tent?i Annual Report of 

 the Secretary of the MassaclmseUs Board of Agri- 

 culture, Reports of Committees, and some account 

 of a Trip to Europe by the Secretary, during the 

 last summer. 



The first paper of the volume relates to the 

 breaking out, anew, of the pleuro-pneumonia, in 

 Norfolk county. The next relates to the premium 

 offered by various county societies for the best 

 conducted experiments on the application of ma- 

 nures. Then follows a report on Fruit Culture, 

 with a Catalogue of Fruits, adapted to the Com- 

 monwealth of Massachusetts, and icith special ref- 

 erence to Nomenclature, and one on The Cultivation 

 of the Orape in Massachusetts, embracing the top- 

 ics of Soil, Aspect, Manures, Preparation of the 

 Soil, Planting, Distance apart, Pnining, Propaga- 

 tion, Raising New Varieties from Seed, Hybridiz- 

 ing, and Profits of Grape Culture. In a repoi-t on 

 the Sheep Law, we learn that 3,124 dogs have 

 been licensed, and an estimate that 1,126 still run 

 nnlicensed. 



A paper upon the Insects of 3fassachisetts which 

 are bet^efcial to Agriculture, by Mr. Francis G. 

 Sanborn, Curator of Entomology, is a valuable 

 one. It is written in the most popular manner in 

 which the subject can be treated, is numerously 

 and handsomely illustrated, and contains much in- 

 formation long desired by the agricultural com- 

 munity. 



The next paper is Mr. Flint's brief report of 

 his Tri]) to Europe, which is all too short, crowd- 

 ed as it is, with the interesting things which he 

 saw or heard in his travels. We cannot, now) 

 specify, but shall find room hereafter for some 

 portions of his interesting narrative. 



The reports of delegates who visited the vari- 

 ous County Societies, extracts from addresses de- 

 livered at the annual meeting, with reports of sev- 

 eral committees on farms, &c., make up the rest 

 of the volume. The volume is a valuable one. 

 Its subjects are practically treated, and are gener- 



ally entitled to serve as a guide in the operations 

 of our farmers. It is too valuable to be thrown 

 together in the unworkmanlike manner in which 

 it is presented. It is well printed, on good paper, 

 and is in good binding — but the "making tip," as 

 it is technically termed, of its pages, does not 

 show a particle of the skill of the craft. For in- 

 stance : — The article on the sheep and dog law 

 page 109, occupies about eight pages, ending with 

 a table of "rule and figure" work, when the next 

 paragraph, without any indication that the subject 

 has been changed, introduces an important report 

 from a select committee. Again, on page 12-3, 

 Mr. Sanborn's report on Insects — a paper of 60 

 pages — is introduced in two lines, at the bottom of 

 thep'age, and without any indication whatever that 

 the paragraph did not belong to the previous sub- 

 ject. 



On page 186, Mr. Flint's report of his trip to 

 Europe, is dignified by opening a page, because 

 the preceding page was full into a single line. 

 The State will feel the loss of that line ! This re- 

 port deserves a more formal introduction. It cer- 

 tainly should have had a "half-title," if nothing 

 more. 



These examples are sufficient. The contents of 

 the work are crowded in continued succession, one 

 subject rushing into another, without anything to 

 indicate that the stoiy upon which one begins,, is 

 ended. When so much talent and labor have been 

 expended, the State can certainly afford to have it 

 arranged in a skilful and int elligible manner. 



Fiir the Aew England Farmer. 



BREAD MAKIWa. 



From an Essay read before the Concord Farmers' Club, by J, 

 Reynolds, M. D. 



The grains which we use for bread consist chiefly 

 of starch, sugar and gluten. The object of form- 

 ing them into bread is to effect such a change in 

 them as will render them more palatable and more 

 easily digested. The grain is first pulverized and 

 then sifted, to separate the different qualities of 

 the meal. The external, or woody portion of the 

 grain is the bran. The inner portion is the flour. 

 The gluten is tough, and the most difficult to 

 grind. The finer and Mhiter portion obtain-^d bj- 

 repeated siftings, consists of a large proportion of 

 starch. The darker colored part is richer in glu- 

 ten, and as the nutritive properties are in projjor- 

 tion to the gluten, that portion makes the most 

 nutritious bread. 



When flour is mixed with water, kneaded ini.o 

 dough and baked, it will he tough and clammy. If 

 spread and cut into a thin sheet, it will be hard 

 and horny. In neither case will it be palatable or 

 easily digestt'J. To avoid these results, and to 

 form a light, spongy dough, different methods are 

 adopted. If a paste of flour and water be permit- 

 ted to stand some days in a Avarm place, it com- 

 mences to ]nitrefy and grows sour. If a . small 

 portion of this sour paste be incorporated into fresh 

 dough, the decomposing gluten acts upon the su- 

 sar of the flour and excites what is called the 



