8 FIELD, FOREST AND FARM 



tomary food of the country in the greater number 

 of our departments. 



"The raising of rye becomes in its turn impossible 

 in regions too cold and too sterile. There then re- 

 mains, as a last resort, barley, the 

 hardiest of cereals, which is found in 

 the mountains until we reach the 

 neighborhood of perpetual snow, and 

 can be raised even in the frigid climate 

 of the extreme North. 



"You ought to taste the miserable 



bread made from barley in order to find 



our bread good — or, I might better say, 



in order to find it an exquisite dainty 



even without butter or jam. Barley 



bread is full of long bristles that stick 



in the throat; it contains more bran 



Barley ^ than flour ; it is bitter, stodgy, and of a 



disagreeable odor. Oh, what sorry stuff ! And yet 



many have to be content with it, and are only glad 



if they can get enough of it. 



"In the greater part of the world wheat, widely 

 distributed by commerce, furnishes bread only for 

 the tables of the rich. The rest of the population 

 knows nothing, as a rule, of this article of food, has 

 never so much as seen it, and at most has only heard 

 of it as a rare curiosity. In place of bread the peo- 

 ple eat here one thing, there another, according to 

 the country. Asia has rice, Africa millet, America 

 maize. In India and China the people have hardly 

 anything to eat but rice boiled in water with a little 



