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WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
is dough in which this process of decomposition has begun, 
and which will impart active fermentation to other portions of 
dough with which it is mixed. 
This is the common method employed among the peasantry 
of Europe, and is used to some extent in this country. “ Milk 
risings ” and “ salt risings ” are modifications of the same 
method in which fermentation is induced in new portions of 
flour, while leaven is dough preserved from a pievioas baking. 
On account of the offensive odor, and slightly putrescent taste 
imparted to the dough by this method of fermentation, yeast 
is much more generally used as a ferment, in America. 
In the process of bread making, flour, warm water, a little 
salt, and the ferment are so thoroughly stirred together as to be 
uniformly mixed, when they are set aside in a warm place to 
undergo fermentation. This mixture constitutes the “ sponge.” 
When the fermentation—“ raising ”—has proceeded far enough, 
the time varying with the amount of ferment used and the 
temperature to which it is exposed, more flour and water are 
added and the whole mass is mixed by kneading until the 
dough is of uniform consistency, and the “sponge” is thoroughly 
incorporated in every part. This dough is then formed into 
loaves and again set in a warm place, that fermentation may be 
induced in the last portions of flour that have been added. 
When the loaves have become sufficiently light, they are 
baked, the heat of the oven checking the process of fermenta¬ 
tion, and causing a farther raising of the dough by the expan¬ 
sion of the gas contained within its pores. 
During these manipulations it is found that changes have 
taken place in the mechanical structure, and in the chemical 
composition of the materials that have been used. And it is 
to these changes that the well-baked loaf owes its savory taste 
and easy digestibility. 
Experiment has proved beyond question that the gas which 
is the active agent in raising the dough is carbonic acid gas, 
and that the production of alcohol accompanies the process of 
bread fermentation, showing that it is of that kind known as 
