distance between the stones can be easily regulated, to grind either fine or coarse. The grain about to be submitted to the action of the mill, is thrown into the hopper, H, whence it passes by the shoe, or spout, larly on the other; so that each of the ridges which they form, has a sharp edge: and when the upper stone is in motion, these edges pass one another, like the blades of a pair of scissors, and cut the grain more easily, as it falls upon the fur-I, through a hole in the upper stone, and then between them both. rows. 6. The upper stone is a little convex, and the other a little concave. There is a trifling difference, however, between the convexity and concavity of the two stones: this difference causes the space between them to become less and less towards their edges; and the grain, being admitted between them, is, consequently, ground finer and finer, as it passes out in that direction; in which it is impelled, by the centrifugal power of the moving stone. 7. By a careful inspection of the following picture, the whole machinery of a common mill may be understood: 8. If the flour, or meal, is not to be separated from the bran, the simple grinding completes the operation; but when this separation is to be made, the comminuted grain, as it is thrown out from between the stones, is carried, by little leathern buckets fastened to a strap, to the upper end of an octagonal sieve, placed in an inclined position in a large box. The coarse bran passes out at the lower end of the sieve, or bolt, and the flour, or fine particles of bran, through the bolting-cloth, at different places, according to their fineness. At the head of the bolt, the superfine flour passes; in the middle, the fine flour; and at the lower end, the coarse flour and fine bran; which, when mixed, is called canel, or shorts. 9. The best material of which millstones are made, is the burr-stone, which is brought from France in small pieces, weighing from ten to one hundred pounds. These are cemented together with plaster of Paris, and closely bound around the circumference, with hoops made of bar iron. For grinding corn or rye, those made of sienite, or granite rock, are frequently used. 10. A mill exclusively employed in grinding grain consumed by the inhabitants of the neighbourhood, is called a grist or custom mill; and a portion of the grist is allowed to the miller, in payment for his services. The proportion is regulated by law; and, in our own country, it varies according to the legislation of the different States. C 14. In our Southern States, hominy is a favourite article of food. It consists of the flinty portions of Indian corn, which have been separated from the hulls and eyes of the grain. To effect this separation, the corn is sometimes ground very coarsely in a mill; but the most usual method is that of pounding it in a mortar. 11. Mills in which flour is manufactured and packed in barrels for sale, are called merchant mills. Here, the wheat is purchased by the miller, or by the owner of the mill, who relies upon the difference between the original cost of the grain, and the probable amount of its several products when sold, to remunerate him for the manufacture, and his investments of capital. 15. The mortar is excavated from a log In Virginia, and, perhaps, in some of the of hard wood, between twelve and eighteen other States, it is a common practice inches in diameter. The form of the examong the farmers to deliver to the mil-cavation is similar to that of a common iron lers their wheat, for which they receive a mortar, except that it is less flat at the specified quantity of merchantable flour. bottom, to prevent the corn from being 12. The power most commonly employ-reduced to meal during the operation. The ed to put heavy machinery in operation, is pestle is usually made by confining an iron that supplied by water. This is especially wedge in the split end of a round stick, by the case, with regard to mills for grinding means of an iron ring. grain; but when this cannot be had, a 16. The white flint corn is the kind substitute is found in steam, and animal || usually chosen for hominy; but any kind, strength. The wind is also rendered sub- with the requisite solidity, will answer the servient to this purpose. The wind-mill purpose. Having been poured into the was invented in the time of Augustus Ca-mortar, it is moistened with hot water, sar. During the reign of this emperor, and immediately beaten with the pestle, and probably long before, mules and asses until the eyes and hulls are forced from were employed both by the Greeks and Ro- the flinty portions of the grain. The part mans, in turning their mills. The period of the corn which has been reduced to at which water-mills began to be used can- meal, by the foregoing process, is removed not be certainly determined. Some writers by means of a sieve, and the hulls by the place it as far back as the Christian era. aid of the wind. 13. Wheat flour is one of the staple commodities of the United States, and there are mills for its manufacture in almost every part of the country, where wheat is extensively cultivated; but our most celebrated flour-mills are on the Bran- || dywine creek, in Delaware, and at Rochester, in New-York. A 17. Hominy is prepared for the table by boiling it in water for twelve hours, with about one-fourth of its quantity of white beans, and some fat bacon. It is eaten while yet warm, with milk, or butter; or, if suffered to get cold, it is again warmed with lard, or some fat substance, before it is brought to the table. 1. THE business of the Baker consists || expended in their completion, may fancy in making bread, rolls, biscuits, and crackers, and in baking various kinds of provisions. 2. Man appears to be designed by nature, to eat all substances capable of affording nourishment to his system; but, being more inclined to vegetable than to animal food, he has, from the earliest times, used farinaceous grains as his principal means of sustenance. As these, however, cannot be eaten in their native state, without difficulty, means have been contrived for extracting their farinaceous part, and for converting it into an agreeable and wholesome aliment. 3. Those who are accustomed to enjoy all the advantages of the most useful inventions, without reflecting on the labour that there is nothing more easy than to grind grain, to make it into paste, and to bake it in an oven: but it must have been a long time, before men came to prepare their grain in any other way than by roasting it in the fire, or boiling it in water, and forming it into viscous cakes. Accident, at length, probably furnished some observing person a hint, by which good and wholesome bread could be made by means of fermentation. 4. Before the invention of the oven, bread was exclusively baked in the embers, or ashes, or before the fire. These methods, with sometimes a little variation, are still practised, more or less, in all parts of the world. In England, the poor class of people place the loaf on the heated hearth, and invert over it an iron pot, or kettle, which they surround with embers or coals. 5. The invention of the oven must have added much to the conveniences and comforts of the ancients; but it cannot be determined, at what period, or by whom, it was contrived. During that period of remote antiquity, in which the people were generally erratic in their habits, the ovens were made of clay, and hardened by fire, like earthenware; and, being small, they could be easily transported from place to place, like our iron bake-ovens. Such ovens are still in use in some parts of Asia. 6. There are few nations that do not use bread, or a substitute for it. Its general use arises from a law of our economy, which requires a mixture of the animal fluids, in every stage of the process of digestion. The saliva is, therefore, essential; and the mastication of dry food is required, to bring it forth from the glands of the mouth. ternal commotion in the particles of dough during fermentation. 9. There are three general methods of making bread: 1st. by mixing meal, or flour, with water, or with water and milk; 2d. by adding to the foregoing materials a small quantity of sour dough, or leaven, to serve as a fermenting agent; and, 3d. by using yeast, to produce the same general effect. 10. The theory of making light bread, is not difficult to be understood. The leaven, or yeast, acts upon the saccharine mucilage of the dough, and, by the aid of heat and moisture, disengages carbonaceous matter, which, uniting with oxygen, forms carbonic acid gas. This, being prevented from escaping by the gluten of the dough, causes the mass to become light and spongy. During the process of baking, the increased heat disengages more of the fixed air, which is further prevented from escaping by the formation of the crust. The superfluous moisture having been expelled, the substance becomes firmer, and retains that spongy hollowness, which distinguishes good bread. 7. The farinaceous grains most usually employed in making bread, are,-wheat, rye, barley, maize, and oats. The flour and meal of two of these are often mixed; 11. Many other substances contain ferand wheat flour is sometimes advantageous-menting qualities, and are, therefore, somely combined with rice, peas, beans, and times used as substitutes for yeast and potatoes. leaven. The waters of several mineral springs, both in Europe and America, being impregnated with carbonic acid gas, are occasionally employed in making light bread. 8. The component parts of wheat, rye, and barley-flour, are,—fecula, or starch, gluten, and saccharine mucilage. Fecula is the most nutritive part of grain: it is found in all seeds, and is especially abun- 12. The three general methods of making dant in the potato. Gluten is necessary to || brand, and the great number of materials the production of light bread; and wheat | employed, admit of a great variety in this flour, containing it in the greatest propor-essential article of food; so much so, that tion, answers the purpose better than any we cannot enter into details, as regards other. The saccharine mucilage is equally the particular modes of manufacture adoptnecessary, as this is the substance on which ed by different nations, or people. There yeast and leaven act, in producing the in- l are, comparatively, but few on the globe, in which this art is not practised in some way or other. 13. It is impossible to ascertain at what period of time the process of baking bread became a particular profession. It is supposed, that the first bakers in Rome came from Greece, about two hundred years before the Christian era; and that these, together with some freemen of the city, were incorporated into a college, or company, from which neither they nor their children were permitted to withdraw. They held their effects in common, with out possessing any individual power of parting with them. 14. Each bake-house had a patron, or superintendent; and one of the patrons had the management of the rest, and the care of the college. So respectable was this class of men in Rome, that one of the body was occasionally admitted as a member of the senate; and all, on account of their peculiar corporate association, and the public utility of their employment, were exempted from the performance of the civil duties to which other citizens were liable. 15. In many of the large cities of Europe, the price and weight of bread, sold by bakers, are regulated by law. The weight of the loaves of different sizes must be always the same; but the price may vary, according to the current cost of the chief materials. The law was such in the city of London, a few years ago, that if a loaf fell short in weight a single ounce, the baker was liable to be put in the pillory; but now, he is subject only to a fine, varying from one to five shillings, according to the will of the magistrate before whom he may be indicted. 16. In this country, laws of a character somewhat similar have been enacted by the legislatures of several States, and by city authorities, with a view to protect the community against impositions; but whether there be a law or not, the bakers regulate the weight, price, and quality, of their loaves, by the general principles of trade. 17. There is, perhaps, no business more laborious, than that of the baker of loaf bread, who has a regular set of customers to be supplied every morning. The twentyfour hours of the day are systematically appropriated to the performance of certain labours, and to rest. 18. After breakfast, the yeast is prepared, and the oven-wood provided: at two or three o'clock, the sponge is set: the hours from three to eight or nine o'clock, are appropriated-to rest. The baking commences at nine or ten o'clock at night; and, in large bakeries, continues until five o'clock in the morning. From that time. until the breakfast hour, the hands are engaged in distributing the bread to custoners. For seven months in the year, and, in some cases, during the whole of it, part of the hands are employed, from eleven to one-o'clock, in baking pies, puddings, and different kinds of meats, sent to them from neighbouring families. 19. In large cities, the bakers usually confine their attention to particular branches of the business. Some bake light loaf bread only; others bake unleavened bread, such as crackers, sea-biscuit, and cakes for people of the Jewish faith. Some, again, unite several branches together; and this is especially the case, in small cities and towns, where the demand for different kinds of bread is more limited. C 2 |