crumbs and stale
bits. It should be carefully washed in boiling soapsuds, scalded, and
dried, every two or three days. If cloths are used to wrap or cover the
bread, they too should be washed and scalded every week, and oftener if
at any time the loaf about which they are wrapped becomes moldy or
musty.

TEST OF GOOD FERMENTED BREAD.--A loaf of good bread, well risen and
perfectly baked, may be taken in the hands, and, with the thumb on the
top crust and fingers upon the bottom of the loaf, pressed to less than
half its thickness, and when the pressure is removed, it will
immediately expand like a sponge, to its former proportions.

Good yeast bread, while it should be firm and preserve a certain amount
of moisture, will, when cold, crumble easily when rubbed between the
fingers. If, instead, it forms a close, soggy mass, it may be regarded
as indigestible. This is one reason why hot, new yeast bread and biscuit
are so indigestible. In demonstration of this, take a small lump of new
bread, gently roll it into a ball, and put into a glass of water, adding
a similar quantity of stale bread of the same kind also. The latter will
crumble away very soon, while the former will retain its form for hours,
reminding one of its condition in the stomach, "as hard as a bullet,"
for a long time resisting the action of the gastric juice, although,
meanwhile, the yeast germs which have not been killed in the oven are
converting the mass into a lump of yeast, by which the whole contents of
the stomach are soured. A soluble article like salt or sugar in fine
powdered form is much more easily and quickly dissolved than the same
article in solid lumps, and so it is with food. The apparent dryness of
stale bread is not caused by its loss of moisture; for if carefully
weighed, stale bread will be found to contain almost exactly the same
proportion of water as new bread that has become cold. The moisture has
only passed into a state of concealment, as may be demonstrated by
subjecting a stale loaf inclosed in a tightly-sealed receptacle to a
temperature equal to boiling heat in an oven for half an hour, when it
will again have the appearance of new bread.

Hot bread eaten with butter is still more unwholesome, for the reason
that the melted grease fills up the pores of the bread, and further
interferes with the action of the digestive fluids.

WHOLE-WHEAT AND GRAHAM BREADS.--The same general principles are
involved in the making of brea