The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1905-08-02

Bread of the Assyrinns-First Water
Power Mills In Norway.
Bread was made of fairly respect
able quality long be lore 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. Meisskomer, 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 crushed grain and
well baked under conditions that mark
its manufacture as long before the ad-
vent Of man rs he Is today. This loaf
has the appearance of having been
been baked before an open fire, the
mass of dough thrown on fiat stone
before the open blaze and turned until
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 We're not finical
The ancient Egyptians were the pl-
Oneers in extensive grain growing and
bread making. Their grains were
wheat, barley and doura, 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 1t 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.
tice 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
stufs were 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
cient people prepared their bread. Ap-
parently the Assyrlans were 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 warred In the years from $50 b. G.
to S25 y. G. One engraving shows the
women of 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
Ion 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 one of the leguminous
plants that gave him precarious sus-
tenance. Gradually, seeing the strength
obtained by those who fed exclusively
upon grain diet man, with his intel
ligence increasing, began to care for
the patches where the desirable plants
grew, and from this it was not far
step to the careful cultivation of grain. |
Each family of the Jews had a mill |
for itself, differing in this from its CON
races, where the grain |
was ground In community mill. So |
important was the milestone in the |
economy Of the Jewish home that |
Moses laid down the law, mo man |
shall take the neither or the upper mill |
stone to pledge, for he taketh a mans |
'i'N W pANbSN' ihlo, uSt "
pledge" would indicate that the pawn
shop was not unknown at even 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 as grain users and
bakers. Women were principally In
charge of the preparation of the grain
md of the bakeries. The grinding was
lone in mills run by horsepower, wind
)r even by large dogs.
Some of the first water power mills
Known of were in Norway. The bak-
pg here was usually done in ovens
and maintained by the
owns and villages. People with grain
% be baked into bread came to the
bakeries, where women received the
same baked it and returned the bread
10 the owner with q 1.-THE taken out for