Arizona republican., 1898-06-13

the official description of the materials used and the manner of preparation. Here is the description as furnished by the department at Washington:
 Hard bread made from the very best straight soft winter wheat flour, mixed with water only, baked in crackers one inch long by half an inch wide, and about three-eighths of an nlch thick, packed in air-tight cartons made of strong strawboard so process ed as to be grease proof. One end of the carton to be closed with an easy opening flap one and One-half inches wide. Cases of forty cartons to be made of wood that will not impar. odor.''
 The foregoing is the official hardtack prepared for field use in times of peace or when the commiSSarieS are not crowded with rush orders, as is the case at present. But in such times as those of today the officers whose duty it is to provide for the subsistence of the army have no time to be particular about the little pasteboard boxes. The crackers now being furnished to Major Smith are of the usual soda cracker size, made according to the specifca- tions as set forth in the foregoing par agraph. They are packed in cases Of about fifty pounds each.
 Tt has been a long time,' said Major Smith, since we manufactured the old biscuits which are pOpularly known as hardtack. The regulations now speci- fly the size as we'll as materials, an,- tho smal cracker is the official style. But we are rushed night and day to get field ratiOns ready, and have no time to wait for boxes for packing. We are purchasing large quantities of the hard bread made in the usual cracker size packed in large boxes, so that one box has one days rations for about fifty
 men. One pound of the stuff is the daily ration for one man. Ordinarily | it would come in little cases in the boxes, but now we are glad to get enough without going to the added trouble of putting it into the small | cases. It is not bad food, and aside | from the monotony of a continuous cracker diet would never disturb any body''
 The crackers, even after they have
 been packed for several months, do not
 become SO hard as to wreck the teeth,
 although they are so manufactured as
 to develop al the resisting power of the
 wheat. The dough is mixed with pure
 water only, and is absolutely devoid of
 the shortening" which the ordinary
 cracker has. Salt is not mixed with
 the mass, another fact which makes
 the food pail upon ones palate after a
 time. But it is of good materials and
 clean, is we'll packed, and presents few, if any, of the objections which the tra-
 ditional hardtack is popularity suppos- ed to offer. non s- | The dough is made stiff enough to develop all the gluten of the wheat, IS IrOlled out into thin sheets, and cut into the required size and form. Then it IS baked until it is thoroughly cooked and we'll Drowned. If it is used while fresh it crackles readily under the Iteeth. After it has been packed for time the gluten renders it tough, and its Inability is much reduced. Then the man who must eat it has some o1 the troubles of which he has heard foi thirty years or more. But, all told the man who lives on hardtack as pre- lpared now lives on good, wholesome food, although the lack of salt may make it in measure unpalatable fol Isteady diet.