Chapter II: Part 2

43. You begin by filling the copper with water, and next by making the water _boil_. You then put into the mashing-tub water sufficient _to stir and separate the malt in_. But now let me say more particularly what this mashing-tub is. It is, you know, to contain _sixty gallons_. It is to be a little broader at top than at bottom, and not quite so deep as it is wide across the bottom. Into the middle of the bottom there is a hole about two inches over, to draw the wort off through. In this hole goes a stick, a foot or two longer than the tub is high. This stick is to be about two inches through, and _tapered_ for about eight inches upwards at the end that goes into the hole, which at last it fills up closely as a cork. Upon the hole, before any thing else be put into the tub, you lay a little bundle of _fine birch_, (heath or straw _may_ do,) about half the bulk of a birch broom, and well tied at both ends. This being laid over the hole (to keep back the grains as the wort goes out,) you put the tapered end of the stick down through into the hole, and thus _cork_ the hole up. You must then have something of weight sufficient to keep the birch steady at the bottom of the tub, with a hole through it to slip down the stick; otherwise when the stick is raised it will be apt to raise the birch with it, and when you are stirring the mash you would move it from its place. The best thing for this purpose will be a _leaden collar_ for the stick, with the hole in the collar plenty large enough, and it should weigh three or four pounds. The thing they use in some farm-houses is the iron box of a wheel. Any thing will do that will slide down the stick, and lie with weight enough on the birch to keep it from moving. Now, then, you are ready to begin brewing. I allow _two bushels_ of malt for the brewing I have supposed. You must now put into the mashing-tub as much boiling water as will be sufficient to _stir the malt in_ and _separate it well_. But here occur some of the nicest points of all; namely, the _degree of heat_ that the water is to be at, before you put in the malt. This heat is _one hundred and seventy degrees_ by the thermometer. If you have a thermometer, this is ascertained easily; but, without one, take this rule, by which so much good beer has been made in England for hundreds of years: when you can, by looking down into the tub, _see your face clearly in the water_, the water is become cool enough; and you must not put the malt in before. Now put in the malt and _stir it well in the water_. To perform this stirring, which is very necessary, you have a stick, somewhat bigger than a broom-stick, with two or three smaller sticks, eight or ten inches long, put through the lower end of it at about three or four inches asunder, and sticking out on each side of the long stick. These small cross sticks serve to search the malt and separate it well in the stirring or _mashing_. Thus, then, the _malt is in_; and in this state it should continue for about a quarter of an hour. In the mean while you will have filled up your copper, and made it _boil_; and now (at the end of the quarter of an hour) you put in boiling water sufficient to give you your eighteen gallons of _ale_. But, perhaps, you must have thirty gallons of water in the whole; for the grains will retain at least ten gallons of water; and it is better to have rather too much wort than too little. When your proper quantity of water is in, stir the malt again well. Cover the mashing-tub over with _sacks_, or something that will answer the same purpose; and there let the mash stand for _two hours_. When it has stood the two hours, you draw off the wort. And now, mind, the mashing-tub is placed on a _couple of stools_, or on something, that will enable you to put the _underbuck_ under it, so as to receive the wort as it comes out of the hole before-mentioned. When you have put the underbuck in its place, you let out the wort by pulling up the stick that corks the whole. But, observe, this stick (which goes six or eight inches through the hole) must be raised by degrees, and the wort must be let out _slowly_, in order to keep back the _sediment_. So that it is necessary to have something to _keep the stick up_ at the point where you are to raise it, and wish to fix it at for the time. To do this, the simplest, cheapest and best thing in the world is a _cleft stick_. Take a _rod_ of ash, hazel, birch, or almost any wood; let it be a foot or two longer than your mashing-tub is wide over the top; _split_ it, as if for making hoops; tie it round with a string at each end; lay it across your mashing-tub; pull it open in the middle, and let the upper part of the wort-stick through it, and when you raise that stick, by degrees as before directed, the cleft stick _will hold it up_ at whatever height you please.

44. When you have drawn off the _ale-wort_, you proceed to put into the mashing tub water for the _small beer_. But, I shall go on with my directions about the _ale_ till I have got it into the _cask_ and _cellar_; and shall then return to the small-beer.

45. As you draw off the ale-wort into the underbuck, you must lade it out of that into the tun-tub, for which work, as well as for various other purposes in the brewing, you must have a _bowl-dish_ with a handle to it. The underbuck will not hold the whole of the wort. It is, as before described, a shallow tub, to go _under_ the mashing-tub to draw off the wort into. Out of this underbuck you must lade the ale-wort into the _tun-tub_; and there it must remain till your _copper_ be emptied and ready to receive it.

46. The copper being empty, you put the wort into it, and put in after the wort, or before it, _a pound and a half of good hops_, well rubbed and separated as you put them in. You now make the copper boil, and keep it, with the lid off, at a good _brisk_ boil, for a _full hour_, and if it be an hour and a half it is none the worse.

47. When the boiling is done, put out your fire, and put the liquor into the _coolers_. But it must be put into the coolers _without the hops_. Therefore, in order to get the hops out of the liquor, you must have a _strainer_. The best for your purpose is a small _clothes-basket_, or any other wicker-basket. You set your coolers in the most convenient place. It may be in-doors or out of doors, as most convenient. You lay a couple of sticks across one of the coolers, and put the basket upon them. Put your liquor, hops and all, into the basket, which will _keep back the hops_. When you have got liquor enough in one cooler, you go to another with your sticks and basket, till you have got all your liquor out. If you find your liquor deeper in one cooler than the other, you can make an alteration in that respect, till you have the liquor so distributed as to cool equally fast in both, or all, the coolers.

48. The next stage of the liquor is in the _tun-tub_, where it is _set to work_. Now, a very great point is, the _degree of heat_ that the liquor is to be at when it is set to working. The proper heat is seventy degrees; so that a thermometer makes this matter sure. In the country they determine the degree of heat by merely putting a finger into the liquor. Seventy degrees is but _just warm_, a gentle _luke-warmth_. Nothing like _heat_. A little experience makes perfectness in such a matter. When at the proper heat, or nearly, (for the liquor will cool a little in being removed,) put it into the _tun-tub_. And now, before I speak of the act of setting the beer to work, I must describe this _tun-tub_, which I first mentioned in Paragraph 42. It is to hold _thirty gallons_, as you have seen; and nothing is better than an old _cask_ of that size, or somewhat larger, with the head taken out, or cut off. But, indeed, any tub of sufficient dimensions, and of about the same depth proportioned to the width as a cask or barrel has, will do for the purpose. Having put the liquor into the tun-tub, you put in the _yeast_. About _half a pint_ of good yeast is sufficient. This should first be put into a thing of some sort that will hold about a gallon of your liquor; the thing should then be nearly filled with liquor, and with a stick or spoon you should mix the yeast well with the liquor in this bowl, or other thing, and stir in along with the yeast a handful of _wheat or rye flour_. This mixture is then to be poured out clean into the tun-tub, and the whole mass of the liquor is then to be agitated well by lading up and pouring down again with your bowl-dish, till the yeast be well mixed with the liquor. Some people do the thing in another manner. They mix up the yeast and flour with some liquor (as just mentioned) taken out of the coolers; and then they set the little vessel that contains this mixture down _on the bottom of the tun-tub_; and, leaving it there, put the liquor out of the coolers into the tun-tub. Being placed at the bottom, and having the liquor poured on it, the mixture is, perhaps, more perfectly effected in this way than in any way. The _flour_ may not be necessary; but, as the country people use it, it is, doubtless, of some use; for their hereditary experience has not been for nothing. When your liquor is thus properly put into the tun-tub and set a working, cover over the top of the tub by laying across it a sack or two, or something that will answer the purpose.

49. We now come to the _last stage_; the _cask_ or _barrel_. But I must first speak of the place for the tun-tub to stand in. The place should be such as to avoid too much warmth or cold. The air should, if possible, be at about 55 degrees. Any cool place in summer and any _warmish_ place in winter. If the weather be _very cold_, some cloths or sacks should be put round the tun-tub while the beer is working. In about six or eight hours, a _frothy_ head will rise upon the liquor; and it will keep rising, more or less slowly, for about forty-eight hours. But, the _length of time_ required for the working depends on various circumstances; so that no precise time can be fixed. The best way is, to take off the froth (which is indeed _yeast_) at the end of about twenty-four hours, with a common skimmer, and put it into a pan or vessel of some sort; then, in twelve hours' time, take it off again in the same way; and so on till the liquor has _done working_, and sends up no more yeast. Then it is _beer_; and when it is _quite cold_ (for _ale_ or _strong beer_) put it into the _cask_ by means of a _funnel_. It must be cold before you do this, or it will be what the country-people call _foxed_; that is to say, have a rank and disagreeable taste. Now, as to the _cask_, it must be _sound_ and _sweet_. I thought, when writing the former edition of this work, that the _bell-shaped_ were the best casks. I am now convinced that that was an error. The bell-shaped, by contracting the width of the top of the beer, as that top descends, in consequence of the draft for use, certainly prevents the _head_ (which always gathers on beer as soon as you begin to draw it off) from breaking and mixing in amongst the beer. This is an advantage in the bell-shape; but then the bell-shape, which places the widest end of the cask uppermost, exposes the cask to the admission of _external air_ much more than the other shape. This danger approaches from the _ends_ of the cask; and, in the bell-shape, you have the _broadest_ end wholly exposed the moment you have drawn out the first gallon of beer, which is not the case with the casks of the common shape. Directions are given, in the case of the bell-casks, to put _damp sand_ on the top to keep out the air. But, it is very difficult to make this effectual; and yet, if you do not keep out the air, your beer will be _flat_; and when flat, it really is good for nothing but the pigs. It is very difficult to _fill_ the bell-cask, which you will easily see if you consider its shape. It must be placed on the _level_ with the greatest possible _truth_, or there will be a space left; and to place it with such truth is, perhaps, as difficult a thing as a mason or bricklayer ever had to perform. And yet, if this be not done, there will be an _empty space_ in the cask, though it may, at the same time, run over. With the common casks there are none of these difficulties. A common eye will see when it is well placed; and, at any rate, any little vacant space that may be left is not at an _end_ of the cask, and will, without great carelessness, be so small as to be of no consequence. We now come to the act of putting in the beer. The cask should be placed on a stand with legs about a foot long. The cask, being round, must have a little wedge, or block, on each side to keep it steady. _Bricks_ do very well. Bring your beer down into the cellar in buckets, and pour it in through the funnel, until the cask be full. The cask should _lean a little on one side_, when you fill it; because the beer will _work again_ here, and send more yeast out of the bung-hole; and, if the cask were not a little on one side, the yeast would flow over both sides of the cask, and would not descend in _one stream_ into a pan, put underneath to receive it. Here the bell-cask is extremely inconvenient; for the yeast works up all _over the head_, and _cannot run off_, and makes a very nasty affair. This _alone_, to say nothing of the other disadvantages, would decide the question against the bell-casks. Something will _go off in this working_, which may continue for two or three days. When you put the beer in the cask, you should have a _gallon or two left_, to keep filling up with as the working produces emptiness. At last, when the working is completely over, _right_ the cask. That is to say, block it up to its level. Put in a handful of _fresh hops_. Fill the cask quite full. Put in the bung, with a bit of _coarse linen_ stuff round it; hammer it down tight; and, if you like, fill a coarse bag with sand, and lay it, well pressed down, over the bung.

50. As to the length of time that you are to keep the beer before you begin to use it, that must, in some measure, depend on taste. _Such beer_ as this _ale_ will keep almost any length of time. As to the mode of _tapping_, that is as easy almost as _drinking_. When the cask is _empty_, great care must be taken to cork it _tightly up_, so that no air get in; for, if it do, the cask is _moulded_, and when once moulded, it is _spoiled for ever_. It is never again fit to be used about beer. Before the cask be used again, the grounds must be poured out, and the cask cleaned by several times scalding; by putting in _stones_ (or a _chain_,) and rolling and shaking about till it be quite clean. Here again the round casks have the decided advantage; it being almost impossible to make the bell-casks thoroughly clean, without _taking the head out_, which is both troublesome and expensive; as it cannot be well done by any one but a _cooper_, who is not always at hand, and who, when he is, must be _paid_.

51. I have now done with the _ale_, and it remains for me to speak of the _small beer_. In Paragraph 47 (which now see) I left you drawing off the _ale-wort_, and with your copper full of boiling water. Thirty-six gallons of that boiling water are, as soon as you have got your ale-wort out, and have put down your mash-tub stick to close up the hole at the bottom; as soon as you have done this, thirty-six gallons of the boiling water are to go into the mashing-tub; the grains are to be well stirred up, as before; the mashing-tub is to be covered over again, as mentioned in Paragraph 43; and the mash is to stand in that state for _an hour_, and not two hours, as for the ale-wort.

52. When the small beer mash has stood its hour, draw it off as in Paragraph 47, and put it into the tun-tub as you did the ale-wort.

53. By this time your copper will be _empty_ again, by putting your ale-liquor to cool, as mentioned in Paragraph 47. And you now put the small beer wort _into the copper_, with the hops that you used before, and with _half a pound of fresh hops_ added to them; and this liquor you boil briskly for _an hour_.

54. By this time you will have taken the grains and the sediment clean out of the mashing-tub, and taken out the bunch of birch twigs, and made all clean. Now put in the birch twigs again, and put down your stick as before. Lay your two or three sticks across the mashing-tub, put your basket on them, and take your liquor from the copper (putting the fire out first) and pour it into the mashing-tub through the basket. Take the basket away, throw the hops to the dunghill, and leave the small beer liquid _to cool in the mashing-tub_.

55. Here it is to remain to be _set to working_ as mentioned for the ale, in Paragraph 48; only, in this case, you will want _more yeast in proportion_; and should have for your thirty-six gallons of small beer, three half pints of good yeast.

56. Proceed, as to all the rest of the business, as with the ale, only, in the case of the small beer, it should be put into the cask, not _quite cold_, but a _little warm_; or else it will not work at all in the barrel, which it ought to do. It will not work so strongly or so long as the ale; and may be put in the barrel much sooner; in general the next day after it is brewed.

57. All the utensils should be well cleaned and put away as soon as they are done with; the _little_ things as well as the great things; for it is _loss of time_ to make new ones. And, now, let us see the _expense_ of these utensils. The copper, _new_, 5_l._; the mashing-tub, _new_, 30_s._; the tun-tub, not new, 5_s._; the underbuck and three coolers, not new, 20_s._ The whole cost is 7_l._ 10_s._ which is ten shillings less than the _one bushel machine_. I am now in a farm-house, where the _same set_ of utensils has been used for _forty years_; and the owner tells me, that, with the same use, they may last for _forty years longer_. The machine will not, I think, last _four years_, if in any thing like regular use. It is of sheet-iron, _tinned on the inside_, and this tin _rusts_ exceedingly, and is not to be kept clean without such _rubbing_ as must soon take off the tin. The great advantage of the machine is, that it can be _removed_. You can brew without a _brew-house_.--You can set the boiler up against any fire-place, or any window. You can brew under a cart-shed, and even out of doors. But all this may be done with _these utensils_, if your _copper_ be moveable. Make the boiler of _copper_, and not of sheet-iron, and fix it on a stand with a fire-place and stove-pipe; and then you have the whole to brew out of doors with as well as in-doors, which is a very great convenience.

58. Now with regard to the _other_ scale of brewing, little need be said; because, all the principles being the same, the utensils only are to be proportioned to the _quantity_. If only one sort of beer be to be brewed at a time, all the difference is, that, in order to extract the whole of the goodness of the malt, the mashing ought to be at _twice_. The two worts are then put together, and then you boil them together with the hops.

59. A Correspondent at _Morpeth_ says, the whole of the utensils used by him are a twenty-gallon _pot_, a mashing-tub, that also answers for a tun-tub, and a shallow tub for a cooler; and that these are plenty for a person who is any thing of a contriver. This is very true; and these things will cost no more, perhaps, than _forty shillings_. A nine gallon cask of beer can be brewed very well with such utensils. Indeed, it is what used to be done by almost every labouring man in the kingdom, until the high price of malt and comparatively low price of wages rendered the people too poor and miserable to be able to brew at all. A Correspondent at Bristol has obligingly sent me the model of utensils for _brewing on a small scale_; but as they consist chiefly of _brittle ware_, I am of opinion that they would not so well answer the purpose.

60. Indeed, as to the country labourers, all they want is the ability to _get the malt_. Mr. ELLMAN, in his evidence before the Agricultural Committee, said, that, when he began farming, forty-five years ago, there was not a labourer's family in the parish that did not brew their own beer and enjoy it by their own fire-sides; and that, _now, not one single family did it, from want of ability to get the malt_. It is the _tax_ that prevents their getting the malt; for, the barley is cheap enough. The tax causes a monopoly in the hands of the maltsters, who, when the tax is _two_ and _sixpence_, make the malt, cost 7_s._ 6_d._, though the barley cost but 2_s._ 6_d._; and though the malt, tax and all, ought to cost him about 5_s._ 6_d._ If the tax were taken off, this _pernicious monopoly_ would be destroyed.

61. The reader will easily see, that, in proportion to the quantity wanted to be brewed must be the size of the utensils; but, I may observe here, that the above utensils are sufficient for three, or even four, bushels of malt, if stronger beer be wanted.

62. When it is necessary, in case of falling short in the quantity wanted to fill up the ale cask, some may be taken from the small beer. But, upon the _whole brewing_, there ought to be no falling short; because, if the casks be not _filled up_, the beer will not be good, and certainly will not _keep_. Great care should be taken as to the _cleansing_ of the _casks_. They should be made perfectly _sweet_; or it is impossible to have good beer.

63. The cellar, for beer to keep any length of time, should be cool. Under _a hill_ is the best place for a cellar; but, at any rate, a cellar of good depth, and _dry_. At certain times of the year, beer that is kept long will ferment. The vent-pegs must, in such cases, be loosened a little, and afterwards fastened.

64. Small beer may be tapped almost directly. It is a sort of joke that it should _see a Sunday_; but, that it may do before it be two days old. In short, any beer is better than water; but it should have some strength and some _weeks_ of age at any rate.

65. I cannot conclude this Essay without expressing my pleasure, that a law has been recently passed to authorize the general retail of beer. This really seems necessary to prevent the King's subjects from being _poisoned_. The brewers and porter quacks have carried their tricks to such an extent, that there is _no safety_ for those who drink brewer's beer.

66. The best and most effectual thing is, however, for people to _brew their own beer_, to enable them and induce them to do which, I have done all that lies in my power. A longer treatise on the subject would have been of no use. These few plain directions will suffice for those who have a disposition to do the thing, and those who have not would remain unmoved by any thing that I could say.

67. There seems to be a _great number of things to do_ in brewing, but the greater part of them require only about a _minute_ each. A brewing, such as I have given the detail of above, may be completed in _a day_; but, by the word _day_, I mean to include the _morning_, beginning at four o'clock.

68. The putting of the beer into barrel is not more than an hour's work for a servant woman, or a tradesman's or a farmer's wife. There is no _heavy_ work, no work too heavy for a woman in any part of the business, otherwise I would not recommend it to be performed by the women, who, though so amiable in themselves, are never quite so amiable as when they are _useful_; and as to beauty, though men may fall in love with girls at _play_, there is nothing to make them stand to their love like seeing them at _work_. In conclusion of these remarks on beer brewing, I once more express my most anxious desire to see abolished for ever the accursed tax on _malt_, which, I verily believe, has done more harm to the people of England than was ever done to any people by plague, pestilence, famine, and civil war.

69. In Paragraph 76, in Paragraph 108, and perhaps in another place or two (of the last edition,) I spoke of the _machine_ for brewing. The work being _stereotyped_, it would have been troublesome to alter those paragraphs; but, of course, the public, in reading them, will bear in mind what has been _now_ said relative to the _machine_. The inventor of that machine deserves great praise for his efforts to promote private brewing; and, as I said before, in certain confined situations, and where the beer is to be merely _small beer_, and for _immediate use_, and where _time_ and _room_ are of such importance as to make the _cost_ of the machine comparatively of trifling consideration, the machine may possibly be found to be an useful utensil.

70. Having stated the inducements to the brewing of beer, and given the plainest directions that I was able to give for the doing of the thing, I shall, next, proceed to the subject of _bread_. But this subject is too large and of too much moment to be treated with brevity, and must, therefore, be put off till my next Number. I cannot, in the mean while, dismiss the subject of _brewing beer_ without once more adverting to its many advantages, as set forth in the foregoing Number of this work.

71. The following instructions for the making of _porter_, will clearly show what sort of stuff is sold at _public-houses_ in London; and we may pretty fairly suppose that the public-house beer in the country is not superior to it in quality, "A quarter of malt, with these ingredients, will make _five barrels of good porter_. Take one quarter of high-coloured malt, eight pounds of hops, nine pounds of _treacle_, eight pounds of _colour_, eight pounds of sliced _liquorice-root_, two drams of _salt of tartar_, two ounces of _Spanish-liquorice_, and half an ounce of _capsicum_." The author says, that he merely gives the ingredients, as _used by many persons_.

72. This extract is taken from a _book on brewing_, recently published in London. What a curious composition! What a mess of drugs! But, if the brewers _openly avow_ this, what have we to expect from the _secret practices_ of them, and the _retailers_ of the article! When we know, that _beer-doctor_ and _brewers'-druggist_ are professions, practised as openly as those of _bug-man_ and _rat-killer_, are we simple enough to suppose that the above-named are the _only_ drugs that people swallow in those potions, which they call _pots of beer_? Indeed, we know the contrary; for scarcely a week passes without witnessing the detection of some greedy wretch, who has used, in making or in _doctoring_ his beer, drugs, forbidden by the law. And, it is not many weeks since one of these was convicted, in the Court of Excise, for using potent and dangerous drugs, by the means of which, and a suitable quantity of water, he made _two buts of beer into three_. Upon this occasion, it appeared that no less than _ninety_ of these worthies were in the habit of pursuing the same practices. The drugs are not unpleasant to the taste; they sting the palate: they give a present relish: they communicate a momentary exhilaration: but, they give no force to the body, which, on the contrary, they enfeeble, and, in many instances, with time, destroy; producing diseases from which the drinker would otherwise have been free to the end of his days.

73. But, look again at the receipt for making porter. Here are _eight_ bushels of malt to 180 gallons of beer; that is to say, twenty-fire gallons from the bushel. Now the malt is eight shillings a bushel, and eight pounds of the very _best hops_ will cost but a shilling a pound. The malt and hops, then, for the 180 gallons, cost but _seventy-two shillings_; that is to say, only a little more than _fourpence three farthings a gallon_, for stuff which is now retailed for _sixteen pence a gallon_! If this be not an abomination, I should be glad to know what is. Even if the treacle, colour, and the drugs, be included, the cost is not _fivepence a gallon_; and yet, not content with this enormous extortion, there are wretches who resort to the use of other and pernicious drugs, in order to increase their gains!

74. To provide against this dreadful evil there is, and there can be, no _law_; for, it is _created by the law_. The _law_ it is that imposes the enormous tax on the _malt_ and _hops_; the _law_ it is that imposes the _license tax_, and places the power of granting the license at the discretion of persons appointed by the government; the _law_ it is that checks, in this way, the private brewing, and that prevents _free and fair competition_ in the selling of beer, and as long as the _law_ does these, it will in vain endeavour to prevent the people from being destroyed by slow poison.

75. Innumerable are the benefits that would arise from a repeal of the taxes on malt and on hops. Tippling-houses might then be shut up with justice and propriety. The labourer, the artisan, the tradesman, the landlord, all would instantly feel the benefit. But the _landlord_ more, perhaps, in this case, than any other member of the community. The four or five pounds a year which the day-labourer now drizzles away in tea-messes, he would divide with the farmer, if he had untaxed beer. His wages would _fall_, and fall to his _advantage_ too. The fall of wages would be not less than 40_l._ upon a hundred acres. Thus 40_l._ would go, in the end, a fourth, perhaps to the farmer, and three-fourths to the landlord. This is the kind of work to _reduce poor-rates_, and to restore _husbandry to prosperity_. Undertaken this work _must_ be, and _performed too_; but whether we shall see this until the estates have passed away from the _present race_ of landlords, is a question which must be referred to _time_.

76. Surely we may hope, that, when the American farmers shall see this little Essay, they will begin seriously to think of leaving off the use of the liver-burning and palsy-producing _spirits_. Their _climate_, indeed, is something: _extremely hot_ in one part of the year, and _extremely cold_ in the other part of it. Nevertheless, they may have, and do have, very good beer if they will. _Negligence_ is the greatest impediment in their way. I like the Americans very much; and that, if there were no other, would be a reason for my not hiding their faults.

No. III.

MAKING BREAD.

77. Little time need be spent in dwelling on the necessity of _this_ article to all families; though, on account of the modern custom of using _potatoes_ to supply the place of _bread_, it seems necessary to say a few words here on the subject, which, in another work I have so amply, and, I think, so triumphantly discussed. I am the more disposed to revive the subject for a moment, in this place, from having read, in the evidence recently given before the Agricultural Committee, that many labourers, especially in the West of England, use potatoes _instead_ of bread to a very great extent. And I find, from the same evidence, that it is the custom to allot to labourers "_a potatoe ground_" in part payment of their wages! This has a tendency to bring English labourers down to the state of the Irish, whose mode of living, as to food, is but one remove from that of the pig, and of the ill-fed pig too.

78. I was, in reading the above-mentioned Evidence, glad to find, that Mr. EDWARD WAKEFIELD, the best informed and most candid of all the witnesses, gave it as his opinion, that the increase which had taken place in the cultivation of potatoes was "_injurious to the country_;" an opinion which must, I think, be adopted by every one who takes the trouble to reflect a little upon the subject. For leaving out of the question the slovenly and beastly habits engendered amongst the labouring classes by constantly lifting their principal food at once out of the earth to their mouths, by eating without the necessity of any implements other than the hands and the teeth, and by dispensing with everything requiring skill in the preparation of the food, and requiring cleanliness in its consumption or preservation; leaving these out of the question, though they are all matters of great moment, when we consider their effects in the rearing of a family, we shall find, that, in mere quantity of food, that is to say of _nourishment_, bread is the preferable diet.

79. An acre of land that will produce 300 bushels of potatoes, will produce 32 bushels of wheat. I state this as an average fact, and am not at all afraid of being contradicted by any one well acquainted with husbandry. The potatoes are supposed to be of a _good sort_, as it is called, and the wheat may be supposed to weigh 60 pounds a bushel. It is a fact clearly established, that, after the _water_, the _stringy_ substance, and the _earth_, are taken from the potatoe, there remains only one _tenth_ of the rough raw weight of nutritious matter, or matter which is deemed equally nutritious with bread, and, as the raw potatoes weigh 56lb. a bushel, the acre will yield 1,830lb. of nutritious matter. Now mind, a bushel of wheat, weighing 60lb. will make of _household bread_ (that is to say, taking out only the _bran_) 65lb. Thus, the acre yields 2,080lb. of bread. As to the _expenses_, the seed and act of planting are about equal in the two cases. But, while the potatoes _must_ have cultivation during their growth, the wheat needs none; and while the wheat straw is worth from three to five pounds an acre, the haulm of the potatoes is not worth one single truss of that straw. Then, as to the expense of gathering, housing, and keeping the potatoe crop, it is enormous, besides the risk of loss by frost, which may be safely taken, on an average, at a tenth of the crop. Then comes the expense of _cooking_. The thirty-two bushels of wheat, supposing a bushel to be baked at a time, (which would be the case in a large family,) would demand _thirty-two heatings of the oven_. Suppose a bushel of potatoes to be cooked every day in order to supply the place of this bread, then we have _nine hundred boilings of the pot_, unless _cold potatoes_ be eaten at some of the meals; and, in that case, the diet must be _cheering_ indeed! Think of the _labour_; think of the _time_; think of all the peelings and scrapings and washings and messings attending these _nine hundred boilings of the pot_! For it must be a considerable time before English people can be brought to eat potatoes in the Irish style; that is to say, scratch them out of the earth with their paws, toss them into a pot without washing, and when boiled, turn them out upon a dirty board, and then sit round that board, peel the skin and dirt from one at a time and eat the inside. Mr. Curwen was delighted with "_Irish hospitality_," because the people there receive no parish relief; upon which I can only say, that I wish him the exclusive benefit of such hospitality.

80. I have here spoken of a large quantity of each of the sorts of food. I will now come to a comparative view, more immediately applicable to a labourer's family. When wheat is _ten_ shillings the bushel, potatoes, bought at best hand, (I am speaking of the country generally,) are about _two_ shillings (English) a bushel. Last spring the average price of wheat might be _six and sixpence_, (English;) and the average price of potatoes (in small quantities) was about _eighteen-pence_; though, by the wagon-load, I saw potatoes bought at a _shilling_ (English) a bushel, to give to sheep; then, observe, these were of the coarsest kind, and the farmer had to fetch them at a considerable expense. I think, therefore, that I give the advantage to the potatoes when I say that they sell, upon an average, for full a _fifth_ part as much as the wheat sells for, per bushel, while they contain four pounds less weight than the bushel of wheat; while they yield only five pounds and a half of nutritious matter equal to bread; and while the bushel of wheat will yield _sixty-five pounds of bread_, besides the ten pounds of bran. Hence it is clear, that, instead of that _saving_, which is everlastingly dinned in our ears, from the use of potatoes, there is a _waste of more than one half_; seeing that, when wheat is _ten shillings_ (English) the bushel, you can have _sixty-five pounds of bread for the ten shillings_; and can have out of potatoes only five pounds and a half of nutritious matter equal to bread for _two shillings_! (English.) This being the case, I trust that we shall soon hear no more of those _savings_ which the labourer makes by the use of potatoes; I hope we shall, in the words of Dr. DRENNAN, "leave Ireland to her _lazy_ root," if she choose still to adhere to it. It is the root, also, of slovenliness, filth, misery, and slavery; its cultivation has increased in England with the increase of the paupers: both, I thank God, are upon the decline. Englishmen seem to be upon the return to beer and bread, from water and potatoes: and, therefore, I shall now proceed to offer some observations to the cottager, calculated to induce him to bake his own bread.

81. As I have before stated, sixty pounds of wheat, that is to say, where the Winchester bushel weighs sixty pounds, will make sixty-five pounds of bread, besides the leaving of about ten pounds of bran. This is household bread, made of flour from which the bran only is taken. If you make fine flour, you take out pollard, as they call it, as well as bran, and then you have a smaller quantity of bread and a greater quantity of offal; but, even of this finer bread, bread equal in fineness to the baker's bread, you get from _fifty-eight to fifty-nine_ pounds out of the bushel of wheat. Now, then, let us see how many quartern loaves you get out of the bushel of wheat, supposing it to be fine flour, in the first place. You get thirteen quartern loaves and a half; these cost you, at the present average price of wheat (seven and sixpence a bushel,) in the first place 7_s_. 6_d._;[5] then 3_d._ for yeast; then not more than 3_d._ for grinding; because you have about thirteen pounds of offal, which is worth more than a 1/2_d._ a pound, while the grinding is 9_d._ a bushel. Thus, then, the bushel of bread of fifty-nine pounds costs you _eight shillings_; and it yields you the weight of thirteen and a half quartern loaves: these quartern loaves _now_ (Dec. 1821) sell at Kensington, at the baker's shop, at 1_s._ 1/2_d._; that is to say, the thirteen quartern loaves and a half cost 14_s._ 7-1/2_d._ I omitted to mention the salt, which would cost you 4_d._ more. So that, here is 6_s._ 3-1/2_d._ saved upon the baking of a bushel of bread. The baker's quartern loaf is indeed cheaper in the country than at Kensington, by, probably, a penny in the loaf; which would still, however, leave a saving of 5_s._ upon the bushel of bread. But, besides this, pray think a little of the materials of which the baker's loaf is composed. The _alum_, the _ground potatoes_, and other materials; it being a notorious fact, that the bakers, in London at least, have _mills_ wherein to grind their potatoes; so large is the scale upon which they use that material. It is probable, that, out of a bushel of wheat, they make between _sixty_ and _seventy_ pounds of bread, though they have no more _flour_, and, of course, no more nutritious matter, than you have in your fifty-nine pounds of bread. But, at the least, supposing their bread to be as good as yours in quality, you have, allowing a shilling for the heating of the oven, a clear 4_s._ saved upon every bushel of bread. If you consume half a bushel a week, that is to say about a quartern loaf a day, this is a saving of 5_l._ 4_s._ a year, or full a sixth part, if not a fifth part, of the earnings of a labourer in husbandry.

82. How wasteful, then, and, indeed, how shameful, for a labourer's wife to go to the baker's shop; and how negligent, how criminally careless of the welfare of his family, must the labourer be, who permits so scandalous a use of the proceeds of his labour! But I have hitherto taken a view of the matter the least possibly advantageous to the home-baked bread. For, ninety-nine times out of a hundred, the fuel for heating the oven costs very little. The hedgers, the copsers, the woodmen of all descriptions, have fuel for little or nothing. At any rate, to heat the oven cannot, upon an average, take the country through, cost the labourer more than 6_d._ a bushel. Then, again, fine flour need not ever be used, and ought not to be used. This adds six pounds of bread to the bushel, or nearly another quartern loaf and a half, making nearly fifteen quartern loaves out of the bushel of wheat. The finest flour is by no means the most wholesome; and, at any rate, there is more nutritious matter in a pound of household bread than in a pound of baker's bread. Besides this, rye, and even barley, especially when mixed with wheat, make very good bread. Few people upon the face of the earth live better than the Long Islanders. Yet nine families out of ten seldom eat wheaten-bread. Rye is the flour that they principally make use of. Now, rye is seldom more than two-thirds the price of wheat, and barley is seldom more than half the price of wheat. Half rye and half wheat, taking out a little more of the offal, make very good bread. Half wheat, a quarter rye and a quarter barley, nay, one-third of each, make bread that I could be very well content to live upon all my lifetime; and, even barley alone, if the barley be good, and none but the finest flour taken out of it, has in it, measure for measure, ten times the nutrition of potatoes. Indeed the fact is well known, that our forefathers used barley bread to a very great extent. Its only fault, with those who dislike it, is its sweetness, a fault which we certainly have not to find with the baker's loaf, which has in it little more of the _sweetness_ of grain than is to be found in the offal which comes from the sawings of deal boards. The nutritious nature of barley is amply proved by the effect, and very rapid effect, of its meal, in the fatting of hogs and of poultry of all descriptions. They will fatten quicker upon meal of barley than upon any other thing. The flesh, too, is sweeter than that proceeding from any other food, with the exception of that which proceeds from _buck wheat_, a grain little used in England. That proceeding from Indian corn is, indeed, still sweeter and finer; but this is wholly out of the question with us.

83. I am, by-and-by, to speak of the _cow_ to be kept by the labourer in husbandry. Then there will be _milk_ to wet the bread with, an exceedingly great improvement in its taste as well as in its quality! This, of all the ways of using skim milk, is the most advantageous: and this great advantage must be wholly thrown away, if the bread of the family be bought at the shop. With milk, bread with very little wheat in it may be made far better than baker's bread; and, leaving the milk out of the question, taking a third of each sort of grain, you would get bread weighing as much as fourteen quartern loaves, for about 5_s._ 9_d._ at present prices of grain; that is to say, you would get it for about 5_d._ the quartern loaf, all expenses included; thus you have nine pounds and ten ounces of bread a day for about 5_s._ 9_d._ a week. Here is enough for a very large family. Very few labourers' families can want so much as this, unless indeed there be several persons in it capable of earning something by their daily labour. Here is cut and come again. Here is bread always for the table. Bread to carry a field; always a hunch of bread ready to put into the hand of a hungry child. We hear a great deal about "_children crying for bread_," and objects of compassion they and their parents are, when the latter have not the means of obtaining a sufficiency of bread. But I should be glad to be informed, how it is possible for a labouring man, who earns, upon an average, 10_s._ a week, who has not more than four children (and if he have more, some ought to be doing something;) who has a garden of a quarter of an acre of land (for that makes part of my plan;) who has a wife as industrious as she ought to be; who does not waste his earnings at the ale-house or the tea shop: I should be glad to know how such a man, while wheat shall be at the price of about 6_s._ a bushel, _can possibly have children crying for bread_!

84. Cry, indeed, they must, if he will persist in giving 13_s._ for a bushel of bread instead of 5_s._ 9_d._ Such a man is not to say that the bread which I have described is _not good enough_. It was good enough for his forefathers, who were too proud to be paupers, that is to say, abject and willing slaves. "Hogs eat barley." And hogs will eat wheat, too, when they can get at it. Convicts in condemned cells eat wheaten bread; but we think it no degradation to eat wheaten bread, too. I am for depriving the labourer of none of his rights; I would have him oppressed in no manner or shape; I would have him bold and free; but to have him such, he must have bread in his house, sufficient for all his family, and whether that bread be fine or coarse must depend upon the different circumstances which present themselves in the cases of different individuals.

85. The married man has no right to expect the same plenty of food and of raiment that the single man has. The time before marriage is the time to lay by, or, if the party choose, to indulge himself in the absence of labour. To marry is a voluntary act, and it is attended in the result with great pleasures and advantages. If, therefore, the laws be fair and equal; if the state of things be such that a labouring man can, with the usual ability of labourers, and with constant industry, care and sobriety; with decency of deportment towards all his neighbours, cheerful obedience to his employer, and a due subordination to the laws; if the state of things be such, that such a man's earnings be sufficient to maintain himself and family with food, raiment, and lodging needful for them; such a man has no reason to complain; and no labouring man has reason to complain, if the numerousness of his family should call upon him for extraordinary exertion, or for frugality uncommonly rigid. The man with a large family has, if it be not in a great measure his own fault, a greater number of pleasures and of blessings than other men. If he be wise, and _just_ as well as wise, he will see that it is reasonable for him to expect less delicate fare than his neighbours, who have a less number of children, or no children at all. He will see the justice as well as the necessity of his resorting to the use of coarser bread, and thus endeavour to make up that, or at least a part of that, which he loses in comparison with his neighbours. The quality of the bread ought, in every case, to be proportioned to the number of the family and the means of the head of that family. Here is no injury to health proposed; but, on the contrary, the best security for its preservation. Without bread, all is misery. The Scripture truly calls it the staff of life; and it may be called, too, the pledge of peace and happiness in the labourer's dwelling.