Rocky Mountain husbandman. [volume] (Diamond City, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1881-11-17
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BREAD HERE AND ABROAD.

6hEAU dEhE AND ABROAD.
AS our readers are aware, very earnest
agitation has been commenced in England
in favor OF. return to the brown bread 81
our ancestors. "Whole wheat meal bread, =
as the agitators are accustomed. to term it.
Without stopping to discuss whether the al
legged physical degeneration Of the English
race arising from the character Of their
bread is fact or fancy, though judging from
the specimens Of the race that come under
our observation, we fail to see where the
physical decadenee can come in, unless
there were giants in those days. of our
ancestors, cursery comparison OF the bread
mere and In other countries may afford some
explanation of the cause Of the Bread Re
form movement, Which apparently is taking
hold Of the British people in earnest.
We may remark at the outset that the use
OF white bread is more general in England
and the United States and the Canadas, than
III other countries Of the world In Russia,
rye bread is the staple breadstuff, and the
same article is more or less widely used in
| all the countries of Northern Europe. Bar
ley and oats also form large proportion of
the bread materials of most European eeun-
tries. Here, except in the South, wheat
bread is the staple of consumption, the
other grains forming only a small item in
the bread bill of the nation. Ia Austria,
srance and Germany,a good article Of
wheat bread is common but there is also
very much bread consumed in those coatl-
tries ofa quality far poorer than people
would tolerate here. But let us be under
stood We balieve that nowhere is the
bread SO poor, compared with the excellent
quality OF the flour used, as in America.
Even the poorest people in our country use
high grades of Aour, and yet the average
American loaf is not what it ought to be.
We are rapidly improving in this respect
however. The ordinary bakers bread is
infinitely better in quality than it was ten
years ago, and the homemade bread of
families has participated in this change tor
the better. The vastly improved quality of
our flour, OF course, has had much to do
with this improved condition Of the staff Of
lie, but the introduction OF Improved meth
eds OF bread-inaking can justly claim por
tlon OF the credit. We are probably. not
withstandiug Our bad bakes, better provided
with good wheat bread than any nation in
the world. "A gentleman who has devoted
much time and observation to matters per-
tanning to the diet and health Of various
people, affirm that our bread is superior to
that ssed abroad, except in the two capitals
of Vienna and Paris, and that the bread of
some ofthe American cities will compare
favorably with that of those cities. ,.a
A writer in an English magazine has writ
ten very suggestive article ON the subject
Of the bread used by the English people,
The bread OF London is notoriously bad
but we were hardly prepared to find such
positive assertion of the band quality of
English bread in general as the writer OF
the article alluded to makes. In the view /
OF the writer, the chief cause of the bad
bread lies in the poor quality of English
hour, which, it is asserted, ia almost uni-
formly made in old mills, which are not
provided with adequate or modern machin.
ery' taking it tor granted that the bread of
The English people is Of the character AL
'rleuted to it, there may be found in this
circumstance partial explanation of the
sfeaa reform movement. 1t must certainly
'eena strange that people accustomed to 4
sooo article OF white bread should 60 back
% whole wheat meal bread. An American
miller who has spent some time abroad
don. Horace Davis, of San Francisco, saws