I think I have stated every particular necessary to enable a novice to
make a "batch" of good bread. I will sum up the articles requisite to
produce forty-two pounds of the best quality:

Flour, 28 pounds.
Water at 100', 12 or 13 pints.
Two table-spoonfuls of salt.
Yeast, 1 pint.
Bake one hour and a half.

The quantity made was ten and a half quarterns, or four-pound loaves;
and, as I have said, supplied our family of thirteen persons for the
week. For the same number, when we were residing in town, the baker
used to leave _thirteen_ quarterns weekly.

One day, in the country, when, from the accidental absence of the
bread-maker, we had to be supplied from the baker, we were surprised
to hear that at the nursery-breakfast the children (six) and nurse
consumed more than a two-pound loaf, and then were complaining of
being "so hungry" two hours after. I thought of the words of the
Kentish hopper, "that there was no heart in bakers' bread."

The servant who has the management of the oven should be instructed to
take care that the wood-ashes are not thrown into the dust-hole with
the ashes from the grates. They are always valuable in the country;
and, as I have mentioned, the wooden articles used in the dairy should
always be scrubbed with them. Should the water which is used in the
house be hard, and any washing done at home, they should be place in a