e propriety of its use; though fashion has often led us to overlook
or despise it--like air, and fire, and water, and nearly every other
common but indispensable blessing.

The best kind of bread is made from wheat, the worst from bark,
saw-dust, &c. Wood and bark afford so little nutriment, that it is only
in such countries as Norway, Sweden, Lapland. Iceland, Greenland, and
Siberia, that the inhabitants can be induced to make use of them. Here
they are often useful; either because people cannot get food which is
better, or to blend with their fat or oily animal food. For it should
never be forgotten, that healthy digestion requires a large proportion
of innutritious matter along with the pure nutriment. In order to make
bread from wheat, the meal should not be bolted. If it seems to contain
particles which are too coarse, it may be well to pass it through a
coarse family sieve; but the best bread I have ever eaten, as well as
the cleanest and neatest, was not sifted at all.

I know there is an almost universal prejudice against this sort of
bread. Some complain that it scratches their throats; others, that it is
tasteless; and others still, that it does not agree with them. With
others there is another objection--which is that bread of this sort has
sometimes been called _dyspepsia_ bread; and with others still, that it
has been called _Graham_ bread. Either of these appellations seems
sufficient to condemn it.

Now as to the harshness, this is owing to its being made of bad
materials, or to its being baked too hard, or kept too long. Much of
what they call dyspepsia bread, in our cities, is evidently made by
mixing the bran and flour of wheat after they have been once separated;
besides which, in not a few cases, the finest of the flour appears to be
taken away. Now bread made of such materials thus combined, will always
be darker colored, as well as harsher, than when made from the wheat,
simply ground without any bolting, and wet up in the usual manner. Such
bread is best two or three days old. After four days, it becomes dry and
somewhat harsh.

They who complain that such bread is insipid, are persons whose
appetites have been injured by food which is high-seasoned; and who, if
they eat bread at all, must eat it hot, or soaked in butter. No wonder
such persons do not like plain bread, and say it is tasteless. But it
must not be denied that bakers often suffer this kind of bread to be
over-risen, in order to m