AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 473 



of the floiir to the fermented dough at the proper time, we obtain, 

 after baking, an excellent, elastic, spongy bread, free from acid, 

 of an agreeable taste, and which is preferred to all other bread 

 after it has been eaten for sometime. 



The proportions of flour and lime water to be employed are in 

 the ratio of nineteen to five. As the quantity of liquid is not 

 sufficient for converting the flour into dough, it is completed with 

 ordinary water. The quantity of lime contained in the bread is 

 small, 160 ounces of lime require more than 300 quarts of water 

 for solution. The lime contained in the bread is scarcely as 

 much as that contained in the seeds of leguminous plants. Prof. 

 Liebig remarks that " it may be regarded as a physical truth, 

 established by experiment, that flour is not a perfectly alimentary 

 substance, administered alone, in the state of bread, it does not 

 suffice for sustaining life. From all that we know, this insuffi- 

 ciency to sustain life is owing to want of lime, so necessary for 

 the formation of the osseous system." 



The phosphoric acid likewise required is sufficiently repre- 

 sented in grain, but lime is less abundant in it than in legumi- 

 nous plants. This circumstance, perhaps, gives the key to many 

 of the diseases observed among prisoners, as well as among 

 children, whose diet consists chiefly of bread. The yield of bread 

 from flour kneaded with lime water is more considerable. In my 

 house, nineteen pounds of flour treated with lime water, rarely 

 give more than 24^ pounds of bread; kneaded with five quarts of 

 lime water, the same quantity of flour produces from 26 pounds 

 6 ounces to 26 pounds 10 ounces, of well baked bread. Now, as 

 according to Heeren 19 pounds of flour furnish only 24 pounds 

 1^ ounces of bread, it may be admitted that the lime water bread 

 has undergone a real augmentation. — Annalen der C/iemie und 

 Pharmacie. 



[Journal De Cultivateur. Montreal.] 



DRAINAGE. 



Mr. Brown, of Essex county, Massachusetts, had a piece of 

 eight acres, part of which was covered with stagnant water the 

 greater part of the year. A part of this was underdrained by 

 him, and has borne since the greatest crop of onions ever raised 



