196 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
from the past, that our Agriculture will get no serious 
consideration froua Statesmen, and no important en- 
couragement from the Government. By the practical 
operations of the Government, farmers will not be placed 
on an equality with other citizens. 
“Randolph” says “Government has nothing of its own, 
therefore, it can only give to Peter by taking from Paul.” 
Then our Agriculture is Paul, and our Commerce is Peter, 
because our Government has ever appropriated liberally 
to promote Commerce. From the origin of the Govern- 
ment till now, I am certain that the Government has 
^ven to Commerce, in lands and money, not less than 
two hundred millions of dollars, while Agriculture has not 
received one million. This partial legislation still goes on 
every session of Congress. 
During 1837 our Commerce received from the Treasury 
two millions nine hundred and seven thousand dollars, 
and during 1838, it received appropriations, in money, to 
the amount of three millions three hundred and twenty 
seven thousand dollars. Paul certainly has a right to 
complain of this partial and class legislation. 
It is to be hoped that no farmer will allow his party 
to influence him to oppose any just and reason- 
able measure proposed for the advancement of Agriculture. 
This would be Agricultural suicide. Our interest re- 
quires that the propriety of the proposed Convention shall 
be freely and fairly discussed. I hope the Editors of all 
our Agricultural journals, and their numerous contribu- 
tprs will give it a candid and deliberate consiberation and 
give the result of their reflections to the public. 
With deference to all interested, 
F. H. Gordon. 
Rome, Tenn., May, 1859.- 
SODA vs. YEAST FOR BREAD. 
Editor Southern Cultivator — An uncompromising 
warfare hasbeen waged against those almost indispens- 
able culinary helps, the bi*carbonates of soda and potash. 
If this had originated only in quack advertisements, or in 
the frightful pictures that a certain class of empirics are so 
fond of drawing of many innocent habits and practices, 
common among men, I should not waste time in oppos- 
ing it : but the opinion that these alkalies, when habitu- 
ally used in bread are productive of serious injury to the 
human body, has been advanced by men, whose author- 
ity we are bound to respect, and whose influence is de- 
servedly extensive, 
I will try to base my defense strictly upon scientific 
facts, and if I am in error, I will feel under obligations to 
the man who can convince me of it. 
Hitherto, I have only seen assertions that the alkalies — 
soda and potash — are injurious when used for the pur- 
pose of raising bread ; and usually in connection with 
this assertion, yeast, or ferment, is recommended instead. 
Now, I shall show, in conclusion, that yea-st may be pro- 
ductive of much more mischief than either of the bi-carbo- 
nates above referred to. 
Soda is a caustic alkali in its uncombined state. It is 
the base of common salt, and in this form is daily taken 
into our stomachs with food; and also administered, 
regularly, to domestic animals by the careful husband- 
men. And when we remember that, notwithstanding the 
chloride of sodium has been used from time immemorial, 
by man, and eagerly«ought after by wild animals, it, too, 
has naet opposers among ultra hydropathists, it is not so 
astonishing that the bicarbonate, which is of such recent 
introduction, should also have its enemies. 
Potash is an alkali extracted from wood ashes by per- 
colation; and for culinary purposes, is combined with 
two equivalents of carbonic acid, and sold under the 
name of salersetus. The chemical natures and physio- 
logical effects of the two bi-carbonates are so nearly iden- 
tical that I shall not keep up the distinction in treating 
of them, though, from the fact, that the bi-carbonate o f 
soda is dryer and more easily reduced to powder, it is 
preferable. 
To secure the desired effect of bi-carbonate of soda, it 
is necessary to use it in connection with some acid which, 
by combining with the alkali, sets free the carbonic acid, 
in form of gas, at the time of baking. Sour milk, which 
contains lactic acid, is best. The lactic acid, having a 
stronger affinity for the soda than the carbonic acid has, 
combines with it, forming lactate of soda, a neutral salt, 
possessed of no caustic property whatever ; while the gas, 
disengaged, fills the bread with minute cells and thus 
renders it light. 
In the absence of sour milk, tartaric acid, or cream of 
tartar should be used. If tartaric acid is used, tartrate of 
soda results ; a harmless substance, even in considerable 
quantities, and by no means unpleasant t 0 4take, these 
warm days, in the form of an effervescing draught. If 
cream of tartar is used, the product is tartrate of soda and 
potassa, or Rochelle salt, which is known to be one of 
our mildest saline purgatives in ounce doses. 
A hearty eater will take only a few grains of any of 
these salts at a meal, and these readily pass off through 
the excretions of the body, or enter upon thrir physiologi- 
cal offices in the gastric fluids, the bile or blood. For the 
presence of both soda and potash is essential in the healthy 
body. They exist, to a greater or less extent in our daily 
food, aside from their use in raising bread, and the only 
way in which we can entirely avoid them, is to abstain 
from food — by no means a desirable alternative. 
These bi-carbonates, used without an acid, render 
bread unpalatable; and this of itself would prevent per- 
sons from using them to a hurtful extent. 
Instead of being a curse to the world, the introduction 
of the bi-carbonate of soda has been a great blessing in 
banishing lard, in a great measure, from our biscuit. 
That the large quantity of grease necessary to make good 
short biscuit of superfine flour, renders bread, in a high 
degree indigestable, will be universally admitted. Make 
biscuit according to the following formula, and you have 
an article altogether superior in point of digestibility and 
flavor to those in which lard is used as the only shorten- 
ing. * 
R 1. Flour, two pounds ; fine Indian meal, a teacupful; 
bi carbonate of soda, a heaping teaspoonful. Thoroughly 
mix these dry and make up with new butter-milk, or if 
the milk is very sour, add water, sufficiently to make it 
about like new butter-milk. The soda must be neutralized, 
and, in using milk, judgment on this point must be exer- 
cised. 
R 2. Flour and meal as above; rub together dry a tea- 
spoonful of soda and two-thirds as much tartaric acid. Mix 
this dry with the meal and flour and make up with 
water. 
R 3. Same as No, 2, except use a teaspoonful of cream 
of tartar instead of the tartaric acid. 
A very small quantity of lard or butter may be used 
with advantage to the taste, but it is not esserrtial. These 
ingredients added to corn bread make a wonderful im- 
provement on the old-fashioned hoe-cake. 
I am indebted to my wife for the above recipes for mak- 
bread. Try them. 
Now let me propound the question to those opponents 
of the bi-carbonates in bread-making who profess to be 
posted up in chemistry and physiology, in what respect 
can the lactate or tartrate of soda do more mischief to the 
human organism than the chloride of sodium 7 If they 
cannot answer this theoretically, nor show, by experiment, 
that such is the case, they must choose between the two 
alternatives— abandon the position that soda, as a lactate, 
or tartrate is injurious, or enter the same protest against 
common salt. 
