AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 563 



loaf apart, it will draw out in strings like india rubber, exhaling an odor 

 that resembles anything but roses. This is particularly so in summer. 



The cities of New York and Brooklyn are, with but slight exceptions, 

 supplied with bread, of what I consider a most health-destroying quality, 

 and have been for a long time past ; but the cause is not at all attributable 

 to the bad quality of the flour from which it is ii ade, but to the ignorance 

 and carelessness of its bakers. First, in using yeast that is already sour. 

 and from which sweet bread can never be made; and, secondly, by an 

 excess of fermentation allowing the dough to become sour before being 

 baked. But chief of all its faults is being little more than half baked, 

 from which arise many diseases of the stomach and bowels. This half 

 •baked, sour dough, commences another fermentation in the stomach and 

 furnishes ample business for physicians. I have tried all the bakers' bread 

 in Williamsburgh, where I have resided for several years, and have found 

 but one from whom I can obtain anything approaching to sweet bread. But 

 as the same fault in the baking applies to his, I have prevailed on him to 

 leave mine in his oven till thoroughly baked. By this means, I escape the 

 evils many have to endure. 



The next subject to discuss is that of " Unleavend Bread or Biscuit," 

 commonly termed ship-bread, a much greater innovation. Or, with more 

 propriety, I might say revolution in the mode and means of its production, 

 attributable to the introduction of machinery, by which it is now altogether 

 produced and its quality greatly improved. Without wronging any one, I 

 can justly claim the credit of being the original inventor of the first suc- 

 cessful machinery for this purpose. 



At one of my exhibitions at the American Institute Fair, in 1836, a 

 committee was appointed to see how soon biscuit could be produced from 

 wheat in the sheaf. The feat was performed in the short time of ten min- 

 utes, as the b/)oks of the Institute will show. 



It is a singular fact, notwithstanding our greatly increased commerce and 

 shipping, that there are at this time fewer men engaged in that business 

 than there was fifty years ago. This is attributable to men of large capital 

 having engaged in the business, from other professions, by which all others 

 less favored are now excluded, so much the case throughout the United 

 States. In the ship-bread business there is more opportunity, for those so 

 disposed, to adulterate than in the other ; but I know of no article that 

 could be used for such purpose with profit that could escape detection by 

 the first one tasting it. Besides, if plaster of Paris, or any such substance, 

 even Indian meal, however finely ground, its tendency would be to render 

 the dough, before elastic, to be like clay, and to render the bread made 

 from it like slates when baked, and thus made altogether unfit for use. 



There is still another article of bread that partakes of both the leavened 

 and unleavened ; this is what is termed soda-biscuit, but which are as inno- 

 cent of containing soda as they are of containing «ugar, unless pearl-ash is 

 entitled to that term. 



It may not prove uninteresting to the members to learn the history andi 



