Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1905-10-12
ANTIQUITY OF BREAD
THE STAFF OF LIFE AS PREPARED az
THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS.

Primitive Methods of Grinding the
Wheat and Baking the Loaf The
Bread of the Assyrinns-First Wnter
Power Mills In Norway.
Bread was made Of fairly respect
able quality long before the advent Of
the days of Biblical chronology. Syn
chronous with the development and
progress Of grinding stones was the
improvement In the manner of making
bread. MISSIONER, to whose delvings
Into subjects on race progress much
present knowledge Is due, discovered,
says the Flour Trade News, an eight
pound loaf Of evenly rushed grain and
we'll baked under conditions that mark
its manufacture as long before the ad-
vent Of man as he is today. This loaf
has the appearance Of having been
been baked before an open fire, the
mass Of dough thrown on a fiat stone
each side had been subjected to the
heat. 1t Is hardly up to the standard
Of our present bread, but the men Of
those days were not 1nical.
The ancient Egyptians We're the pi-
oneers in extensive grain growing and
bread making. Their grains were
wheat, barley and douru, and were
much like the grains Of today. The
Egyptians were really the best farm
ers" Of which we have any coherent
record. They harvested their wheat
five months after it was put in the
ground and bound it into sheaves much
like the hand bound sheaves Of today.
Their thrashing was done by driving
cattle over the granary floors.
The old style of grinding obtained
with the Egyptians, the women usu-
ally being required to perform the
work, but they had discovered the
power Of fermented yeast cells, as in
several instances leavened bread has
been found dating to this era. 1t is
also with the Egyptians that the pro-
fessional baker first springs into no.
dce in the world. There is picture
writing on several tombs that shows
bake shops long before the time Of the
dynasty. The story Of Joseph con-
serving the abundance Of the fat years
} for use during the seven lean years
shows how important grain and bread
stuffs We're to latter day Egyptians.
Thanks to the art Of the Assyrians
and the enduring qualities Of bronze,
we have records to show how this an
Gent people prepared their bread. APP
parently the Assyrians were a most
abstemious people and little given to
riotous feasting, even in the celebra-
ton of victories for their armies.
On the bronze gates Of Balawat are
found engravings depicting the warlike
doings of Shalmaneser H., who ruled
and varied in the years from $50 B. G.
to S25 B. c. One engraving shows the
women Of a tribe baking bread, great
piles Of bread, for the benefit of return
ing victorious soldiers. The Assyrians
also knew how to raise grains, their
hydraulic machines and aqueducts
showing how they appreciated the
value Of irrigation.
Bread figured prominently in the his
tory and religion Of the ancient Jews.
Their first cereals were only rye,
wheat and barley, and they began their
use by eating them raw after the fash
lon of primitive man. This is the
normal course Of progress with all
peoples that early become extensive
grain eaters. The grain grew wild at
first and was eaten by the naked saw
age only as n Of the leguminous
plants that gave him a precarious sus-
tenance. Gradually, seeing the strength
obtained by those who fed exclusively
upon a grain diet, man, with his intel
ligencc increasing, began to care for
the patches where the desirable plants
grew. and from this it was not Il far
step to the careful cultivation Of grain.
Each family Of the Jews had a mill
for itself, differing in this from it's con-
temporaneous races, where the grain
was ground in a community mill. SO
important was the milestone in the
economy Of the Jewish home that
Moses laid down the law, NO man
shall take the neither or the upper mill
stone to pledge, for he taketh a mans
life to pledge" This, the phrase ito
pledge" would indicate that the pawn
shop was not unknown at Eel this
early stage Of the worlds career.
To come down to more recent days,
the old time residents Of the Scandina-
Wan countries in their time stood forth
most prominently al grain users and
bakers. Women were principally in
charge Of the preparation of the grain
and OF the bakeries. The grinding wa1
done in mills run by horsepower, wind
or wen by large dogs.
Some Of the first water power mills
known of were in Norway. The bak-
ing here was usually done in ovens
constructed and maintained by the
towns and villages. People with grain
to be baked into bread came to the
bakeries, where women received the
same, baked it and returned the bread
to the owner with a 1.-THE taken out for
the baking.
Benconsheld's Sevcrest Critic.
The grateful affection which Lord
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