The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1886-09-16
NORWEGIAN FLAD8ROO.
substitatidn Ut Ihdisestible Bark for Rye
or Wheat Flour.

or Wheat Flour.
Most travellers in Norway have prob.
ably had more than sufficient oppor-
tunities of becoming acquainted with
the so-called .'Fladbrod;" fat bread, OF
the country. Few, however, among
them who have partaken of this dry
and insipid food may possibly be awsre
that in many districts, more especially
in Hardanger, the chief ingredient in
its composition is the bark of trees.
This substitution of an indigestible
product for bona fide flour is not nec-
essarily d proof of the scarcity of ce-
reals, but is to be asctibed rather to
an opinion prevalent among the peasant
women that the bark OF young pine
branches, or twigs of the elm are capa-
BILE of being made into thinner paste
than unadulterated barley or rye-meal,
of which the Morse housewife, who
prides herself on the lightness of her
..Fladbrod," puts in only enough to
make the compound hold together.
The absence Of any nutritive prop
erty in bark bread, whether made with
elm or pine bark, and the positive in
| jury it may do the digestive organs,
has of late attracted much notice among
Norwegian psychologists, and the editor
of Naturesa, With view OF calling the
attention of the public to the subject,
has, with the authors permission, re-
printed some remarks by DIR. Schubeler
ON the history and character of the
bark bread of Scandinavia. From this
source we learn that the oldest refer
| ence to the use OF bark bread in Nor
way occurs in a poem, ascribed to the
Skaid Sighvat, who lived in the first
| half of the eleventh century. In the
year 1900 the annals of Gothland record
d season of dearth in which men were
forced to eat the bark and leaf-buds oil
trees, while then, and during the latter
periods of the middle ages the frequent
famine of the crops in all parts OF Scan
| dinavia led to the systematic use of th ,
bones and roe of fishes, as well as the
bark of trees as substitute for genuine
| flour, and so extensively was the latter
substance used that Pastor Herman
Ruge, who, in 1862, wrote treatise on
the preservation Of woods, has drawn
i attention to the almost complete disap.
pearance of the elm In the Bohus dis
trict, which he ascribes to the univer'
sal practice in bygone times OF stripping
the bark for the preparation of bread
/ In Nordland and Finmark the roo
| Of Strathsopteris gernnanica and other
ferns, as well as the leaves of various
species of Rumex, have been largely
used with barley meal in making orii
nary bread as we'll as. '.Fladbrod. In
Finland the national .pettuleipa" (barl
bread). which was in former time al
most the only breadstuff of the coun
try, still ranks as an ordinary article
OF food in Kaiana and in the forest re
gions of Oesterbotten and Tayastland
Here it Is usually made of the inne
layers of the pine bark, ground to
meal, which Is mixed with a smal
quantity of rye -four to give the requl
site tenacity to the dough. The Fin
landers of an older generation Shove
marvellous ingenuity in composing
breadstuffs in which scarcely q nac
of any cereal could be detected in th
mixture Of bark. berries, seeds, bulb
and roots of wild plants, which the
! seem to have accepted as perfectl
legitimate substitute for corn breat
In the interior of Sweden, according
, Prof. Save, the best bread of the peas
ants consisted till the middle of this cer
tury Of peas, oats and barley-meal !
,, equal proportions, while in the ord
|, nary daily bread the husks, chaff an
spikes of the oats were all grour
down together. In bad seasons eve
!, this was unattainable by the Daleka
! Ian laborer, who had to content hir
: self with pine-bark bread.-Natare.