It is next to an impossibility to bake bread in a small oven; half the time the bread is too much or not enough baked. In cities, where good baker's bread can be bought, it comes as cheap as it can be made at home, if not cheaper, and saves a great deal of time and labor. It is not difficult to make good bread with good flour. There are several ways of making and of using yeast. Some are better than others; but many, though differently manipulated, bring about the same results. The only difficulty is the baking of it. Bakers can almost always bake bread prop-erly, having large brick ovens. If they do not bake their bread enough, which is generally the case, it is not because they cannot, but because under-baked bread is heavier, and people, especially the poorer class, buy it in preference to the other; judging by the weight, they think they have more of it for a certain sum of money. Under-baked bread is difficult of digestion. (See Food.)

The best bread is made with the best wheat-flour, all that can be said by anybody to the contrary notwithstanding. Rye, com, and barley bread are excellent, and may be partaken of by those whose constitution, occupation, etc., allow it. In every thing, bread included, the people, or what may be called "the million," are wiser than soi-di-sant philosophers; and if oat-meal or Indian-meal were better than wheat-flour, they would be dearer. To describe or discuss the innumerable methods of making bread would require several volumes. We have perused carefully hundreds of them; they nearly all differ theoretically, but practically, when practical (which is not always the case), they amount to about the same thing. We think that the only difficulty, if difficulty there be, is in the use of the yeast, the making of the same, and the baking. Chemical processes for rising will never equal the processes of nature and time. Many bakers do not use the yeast properly, their bread being sour or musty; some sweeten their bread, to disguise an inferior quality of flour, or as an antidote to sourness or mustiness.

Bread gets dry after a while, and is inferior in quality and taste. The lighter the bread the better, although many do not think so. The belief may come from the fact that the lighter bread is the more porous, and therefore the quicker it evaporates and loses its taste. Warm bread, besides being injurious to the teeth, is difficult of digestion. When perfectly cold, let it stand in a dry place, neither cold nor warm, for one or two hours, and use. We give below the best methods of making bread - French bread, or rather good light bread, for we do not see that it is more French than Chinese or American, as long as it can be made everywhere with good flour; it is certainly the best for inhabitants of a large city, and especially for those having a sedentary occupation. Let us apply the proverb to bread as well as to every thing else: "Feed me with food convenient for me." - Bible.

Mix well together one gill of good strong yeast with half a pound of flour, so that it makes a rather stiff paste. Knead so that you shape it like a ball. Make two cuts with a knife on the top, across and about one-quarter of an inch deep; then place the paste in a bowl of tepid water (milk-warm), the cuts upward. After it has been in the water for a few minutes it will float and swell; let it float about two minutes, when take off and use. Put six ounces of flour on the paste-board, and make a hole in the middle; put into it the yeast prepared as above, tepid water enough to make an ordinary dough, and salt to taste. Knead well, shape according to fancy, put in a warm place (about 78 deg. Fahr.) to rise, and bake. It requires about six hours to rise.