overtop his head ; children glean amongst the shocks ; and even the unwalkable infant, sits propt with 
sheaves, and plays with the stubble, and 
‘ With all its twined flowers.’ 
Such groups are often seen in the wheatfield as deserve the immortality of the pencil. There is something 
too about wheat harvest, which carries back the mind and feasts it with the pleasures of antiquity. The 
sickle is almost the only implement which has descended from the olden times in its pristine simplicity — to 
the present hour neither altering its form, nor becoming obsolete amid all the fashions and improvements 
of the world. It is the same now as it was in those scenes of rural beauty, which the scripture history, 
without any laboured description, often by a simple stroke, presents so livingly to the imagination ; as it 
was when tender thoughts passed 
Through the sad heart of Ruth, when sick for home, 
She stood in tears amid the alien corn ; 
when the minstrel king wandered through the solitudes of Paran, or fields reposing at the feet of Carmel ; or 
‘as it fell on a day that the child of the good Shunamite went out to his father to the reapers. And he said 
unto his father, My head, my head ! And he said to a lad. Carry him to his mother. And when he had 
taken him, and brought him to his mother, he sate on her knees till noon, and then died/ 2 Kings, c. iv. 
18 — 20 . 
Let no one say it is not a season of happiness to the toiling peasantry ; I know that it is. In the days 
of boyhood I have partaken their harvest labours, and listened to the overflowings of their hearts as they 
sate amid the sheaves beneath the fine blue sky, or among the rich herbage of some green headland beneath 
the shade of a tree, while the cool keg plentifully replenished the horn, and sweet after exertion were the 
contents of the harvest field basket. I know that the poor harvesters are among the most thankful con- 
templators of the bounty of Providence, though so little of it fall to their share. To them harvest comes as 
an annual festivity. To their healthful frames, the heat of the open fields, which would oppress the languid 
and relaxed, is but an exhilarating and pleasant glow. The inspiration of the clear sky above, and the scenes 
of plenty around them, and the very circumstance of their being drawn from their several dwellings at this 
bright season, open their hearts and give a life to their memories ; and many an anecdote and history from 
the simple annals of the poor are there related, which need only to pass through the mind of a Wordsworth 
or a Crabbe, to become immortal to their mirth or woe.” 
Bread made out of wheat flour, when first taken out of the oven or skillet, is unprepared for the stomach. 
It should go through a change, or ripen before it is eaten. Young persons, or persons in the enjoyment of 
vigorous health, may eat bread immediately after it is baked, without any sensible injury from it, but weakly 
and aged persons cannot ; and no one can eat such without doing harm to the digestive organs. Bread, after 
being baked, goes through a change similar to the change in newly brewed beer, or newly churned butter- 
milk — neither being healthy until after the change. During the change in bread it sends off a large portion 
of carbon, or unhealthy gas, and imbibes a large portion of oxygen, or healthy gas. Bread has, according to 
the computation of the physicians in London, one-fifth more nutriment in it when ripe, than it has when 
just out of the oven. It not only has more nutriment, but imparts a much greater degree of cheerfulness. 
He that eats old ripe bread will have a much greater flow of animal spirits than he would if he were to eat 
unripe bread. 
Bread, as before observed, discharges carbon and imbibes oxygen. One thing in connexion with this 
thought should be particularly noticed by all housewives. It is, to let the bread ripen where it can inhale 
the oxygen in a pure state. Bread will always taste of the air which surrounds it while ripening ; hence it 
should ripen where the air is pure. It should never ripen in the cellar, nor in a close cup-board, or in a 
bed-room. The noxious vapours of a cellar or a cupboard never should enter into and form a part of the 
bread we eat. The writer of this article has often eaten bread of this kind, and has felt strongly disposed to 
lecture the mistress of the house on the subject of keeping bread in a pure atmosphere. Every man and 
woman ought to know, that much of health and comfort depends upon the method of preparing their food. 
Bread should be light, well baked, and properly ripened, before it is eaten. — Nat. Rep. 
The table in Davy’s Agricultural Chemistry, says Mr. Burnett, shews, that wheat not only ex- 
ceeds other corn in the absolute quantity of nutritive matter it contains, but that the different proximate 
principles very remarkable in their relative proportions, and the superiority of wheaten bread, depends upon 
the large quantity of gluten that its flour contains. When separated by washing from the starch with which 
it is combined, gluten comes into the market under the name of Maccaroni, Vermicelli, &c. In Italy, and 
especially in Naples, there are immense quantities manufactured, both for exportation and home consumption. 
It forms the ordinary and favorite food of the poorer classes in Italy, especially in the Neapolitan states ; 
and Maccaroni is sold by the yard, at the corners of almost every street in the city of Naples. There is 
another advantage of no slight economical importance that wheat possesses over other grain, which is, that 
its flower not only contains more nutritious matter, but yields also a greater quantity ; for fourteen 
pounds of wheat yield thirteen pounds of flour, while fourteen pounds of oats yield only eight pounds, and 
an equal quantity of barley but twelve pounds. 
In the language of flowers Wheat denotes riches. 
