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Bruce Herald, Volume VI, Issue 363, 12 April 1871, Page 7

Beetroot Sugar. — The cultivation of this important article of commerce is being gradually extended— first on various parts of the Continent, next in America, Australia^ and our own country, and, lastly, we hear of its being raised in California, recent advices from which place mention that the first ton of perfectly crystallised sugar from beets grown in that State has just been produced. The machinery, which was home-made, is said to have" worked charmingly, and the various processes were entirely successful. The triumph I was so complete that California now counts on this industry as a permanent institution, soon to he multiplied, until in a few years it will probably be independent of foreign supplies, and may be seeking outlets abroad for its surplus. — Morgan's Trade Journal. The 'Wanganui Chronicle' says: — Messrs Taylor and Watt had a beautiful ten-acre field of wheat at Westmere this season, and its fruition, wa are. glad to say, has not belied its promise. The wheat is now threshed and brought into the store, and the yield turns out to be fifty-four bushel 5 ; to the acre, which is probably as high a return as has ever been realised in this part of the country. Forty bushels to the acre is considered a very good average. It has recently been decided in the English Bail Court "(Mr Justice Mellor and Mr Baron Pigott sitting) that a baker must not only sell his bread by weight, but tbat the act of weighing must take place when it is sold, and not when ifc is made. It came ont, in the course of the proceedings, that the appellant, a baker of Daventry, was in the habit of weighing the dough and making an allowance for evaporation ,- but the Court declared any such practice insufficient and illegal. The following letter appears in the * Press' :— '" I was sorry to see in your columns that there was' a great deal of sprouted grain in different parts of the province, occasioned by the long continuance of wet weather. This must, no doubt, be a very serious loss to the farmers, and I should think the following information would be of service : — v I was a visitor at a farm house within ten miles of Derby ; every sheaf of wheat was sprouted * it would not make bread, chemical remedies were resorted to in vain, hands could not make, the oven could not bake a loaf; ten or twelve hours in a hot oven did set the dough. I mention this as a proof of the very bad quality of the flour. The farmers wife at length tried the experiment of boiling the flour, and then pounding it ; and admirably it succeeded, more beautiful bread, cakes, and pikelets than this flour produced were never eaten. I now give the plan adopted and pursued. The quantity for a week's consumption was put into a clean bag and then into the brewing copper of boiling water ; four or five stones of flour were boiled as many hours ; the bag was then placed on a drainer^ over a tub, until the next day, when a boy with a wooden mallet pounded the flour in the bag until rather small. It was pounded fine, with the rolling-pin on the table— it •is double trouble j but my friend was amply repaid for this by most excelled bread."