67 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, October 30, 1860. 
well closed, and the whole introduced into a basin of water, and 
pressed by the fingers for some time, the starch is squeezed 
through the cloth as a fine white powder, and the gluten is left 
in the cloth as a viscid or sticky substance. Again, if Wheat- 
flour bo burned on a porcelain plate on a fire, or oven, or gas- 
lamp, till it can burn no longer, it leaves behind a small amount 
of ash or saline matter. Previous to being employed in the 
fabrication of bread, the grain of Wheat undergoes the process 
of grinding, with the double object of reducing it to a fine state 
of division, and separating the more hard and indigestible parts. 
During the grinding operations, the Wheat as it passes from 
grain to flour nearly doubles its bulk. The products come from 
the dressing-machine divided into different qualities, a quarter of 
Wheat yielding— 
Eine flour. 
Bushels. 
. 5 ... 
Pecks. 
... 3 
Second flour. 
. 0 ... 
... 2 
Fine middlings . 
. 0 ... 
... 1 
Coarse middlings. 
. 0 ... 
... 0* 
Bran. 
. 3 ... 
... o 
Twenty penny . 
. 3 ... 
... 0 
Pollard. 
. 2 ... 
... 0 
14 . 21 
In the making of bread in Great Britain, the finest flour is em¬ 
ployed in making y/rs/s or the fine 4-/5. loaf; a coarser flour is 
made into seconds or household bread; and a still coarser into 
thirds or coarse bread. There is no bran in firsts , but a greater 
or less proportion of the finer bran in seconds and thirds. In 
the making of good bread three things are absolutely requisite : 
flour or meal, yeast or leaven, and water containing salt. The 
yeast, or leaven, is added to give a start to the fermentation pro¬ 
cess, thereby supplying carbonic acid, which communicates a 
spongy or light texture to the bread. Leaven is the more primi¬ 
tive ferment, and is simply a portion of moistened flour or dough 
in which the putrefactive agencies have begun to work. It may 
be procured by allowing moistened flour to lie in a warm apart¬ 
ment (summer heat) for six or eight days, and when sufficiently 
formed, has an acid taste and reaction, and a somewhat fusty 
odour. When brought in contact with a new portion of flour 
and water, and incorporated therewith by kneading, it very 
quickly acts as a ferment, and developes partial fermentation in 
the whole. Hence it is that where leaven is used, it is customary 
to retain a portion of the leavened dough for the next baking. On 
the continent, leaven is still very extensively employed, especially 
in districts far from breweries. In Britain, yeast is generally 
used as the ferment. The materials being at hand, and the 
proper benches, utensils, and oven being within reach, the baker 
takes a quantity of water and adds to it the yeast and salt; after 
which the flour is added, and the whole thoroughly and labori¬ 
ously kneaded together till it assumes a ropy consistence. It is 
then called the sponge, and is placed in a kneading-trough in a 
warm place, which is styled setting the sponge. In a short time 
the yeast begins to act on the gluten, starch, and sugar of the 
flour, compelling the latter to pass into alcohol and carbonic 
acid gas in every part of the dough, which thereby becomes 
inflated with innumerable air cavities. When the fermentation 
has sufficiently advanced, the baker takes the sponge, adds more 
flour, water, and salt, and a second time subjects the whole to a 
thorough process of kneading, to prevent portions being so far 
fermented as to become sad, and again allows the mass to lie in a 
warm place for a few hours. The dough swells considerably from 
distension by gas, and is weighed out into lumps of the proper 
size, which are shaped into loaves, constituting the batch, or 
placed in tin pans, and are allowed to lie for a short time till they 
get further distended. The oven has previously been heated by 
flues, by heated air, or by wood being burned within it, to a 
temperature of at least 320° E., which is the lowest temperature 
at which bread can be baked, and ranging up to 572° E.; and 
when it has been thoroughly cleaned out, the loaves are intro¬ 
duced and placed on the floor, and the oven shut up. The heat 
acts in dissipating much of the water from the dough, in dis¬ 
tending the air-cavities more fully, and in partially boiling the 
starch and gluten of the dough, and developing some gum from 
the starch. Indeed, though the temperature of the oven is much 
higher, yet the loaves beyond the mere crust are bathed in an 
atmosphere of steam, and are never heated above 212 °, as has 
been proved by direct experiments with the thermometer. One 
effect of the heat is to arrest any further fermentation. After 
several hours’ baking in the oven, the length of time being deter¬ 
mined by the temperature, the loaves are withdrawn and allowed 
to cool. The brown appearance of the crust of the loaves, and the 
pleasant taste of the crusts, are due to the action of the heat on 
the starch and the formation of dextrine, a sort of gum. The 
number of quartern (4 lb.) loaves which a sack of flour weighing 
280 lbs. yields, is 90. It will be apparent, therefore, that as 280 
lbs. of flour yield 360 lbs. of bread, that a good deal more water 
must be present in the latter than in the former; and, indeed, 
ordinary good wheaten bread contains about 45 per cent, of 
water. This water is retained even after the loaf is apparently 
dry, and even mealy, as the gum and gluten have a great affinity 
for water. Improvements in the process of making bread are 
occasionally effected. Thus a form of yeast, called German barm 
or yeast, has been introduced, which is more cleanly than ordinary 
yeast or leaven, but appears to be too rapid in its power of 
causing fermentation to be manipulated easily in the making of 
ordinary loaves, though it does well for pan-loaves and fancy 
bread in general. Ovens heated by flues are being constructed, 
instead of the primitive method of heating them by wood, which 
smokes the whole oven. Instead of raising the dough by the 
action of yeast, which decomposes a part of the flour and causes 
the loss of about 2 per cent., bicarbonate of soda and hydrochloric 
acid are sometimes employed. The proportion by this process 
are 4 lbs. of flour intimately mixed with 320 grains of bicarbonate 
of soda; to this is added a mixture of 300 grains of common salt 
in 35 ounces of water, ant. 6 ^ fluid ounces of hydrochloric acid, and 
the whole is thoroughly kneaded and placed in the oven. When 
the mixture is made, the acid acts on the bicarbonate of soda, 
forming common salt, which is left in the dough, and carbonic 
acid is liberated at every point, and communicates a spongy 
texture to the dough. The disadvantage attendant on this mode 
of raising the dough is, that it is apt to leave too much common 
salt in the bread. This is obviated by using water charged with 
carbonic acid. Sesquicarbonate of ammonia is employed to some 
extent in the preparation of rusks, ginger bread, and other light 
fancy bread; when heated, it entirely passes into gas, and thus 
yields a very spongy mass. Short-bread is prepared from flour 
which has been incorporated with butter.—( Chambers's Ency¬ 
clopedia.) 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Grapes Withering [An Old Subscriber ).—We do not know whether 
yon mean that the berries are spotted or shanked ; probably the latter, in 
which case the stalks of the Grapes are dead. It probably arises from the 
roots being too cold if outside the house, or from their being too deep 
and in an ungenial subsoil if inside the house. 
Seedling Fuchsia (C. Kimberley ).—Good form, large ; corolla spread¬ 
ing wide like a parasol. In this respect resembling the new strain ex¬ 
hibited a short time since before the Floral Committee of the Horticultural 
Society. 
Liliput Dahlias (A Devonian ).—The Liliput Dahlias were only being 
propagated when Mr. Beaton was last at the Wellington Road Nursery, 
and being for beds they are not fit to he so cooked as to be fit to be sent to 
the tables of the exhibitions. None of our staff, we believe, have seen any 
of them yet. Like all new sections of such flowers, they are now the best 
of that strain. The next move will be to improve them : therefore, the 
more they are distributed the sooner wc shall have them our own way. 
For that reason we never cease recommending all new plants and new 
sections of old ones, as soon as we see them or hear of them. Some people 
object to that course, and would rather wait until a new race was at the 
point of perfection ; and if all were of that stamp we should never see any 
improvement at all, as no class of plants has ever yet been fully improved 
in one age. As long as we can remember, attempts have been made to 
improve and vary every class of popular plants. All such attempts have 
been fostered by the public without waiting for perfection. It was that 
stimulus which brought us to what we have, and we can offer no improve¬ 
ment on that branch of our craft. 
Advertisement Charge (Young Subscriber ).—Five lines for half-a 
crown. 
Flowers near Elms (A Constant Deader ).—If the roots of the Elms 
reach to where you wish the beds to be, and you cannot cut through the 
roots and prevent their returning, no flowers will succeed in the beds, for 
the roots of the Elms will suck up all the nourishment out of the soil and 
starve the bedders. The cocoa-nut refuse is only, on sale at the mills near 
Kingston, Surrey, and there are no means of getting it from there without 
calling for it. 
Weight of a Bushel of Roots (Novice ).—The weight of a bushel of 
medium-sized washed Potatoes is always calculated as 56 lbs., so that there 
are forty bushels to the ton. If unwashed, GO lbs. are allowed to the 
bushel, so that then nearly forty-three bushels would be allowed to a ton. 
Mangold Wurtzel, Turnips, Carrots, and Onions, must be nearly the same 
weight as Potatoes. The age to which seeds, will preserve then vitality 
varies much with the care bestowed upon their preservation. If you will 
refer to our No. 538, you will there find a long article on the subject. 
New seeds always produce the most vigorous plants. 
Gathering and Ripening Pears (Pears ).—They are fit to gathei when 
by raising them gently to a little above a horizontal position, the stalk 
separates freelv from the spur. We have appended the usual month of 
ripenino- 10 the'varieties named. Althorp Crasanne (November). BeurrS 
