How is the grain made into flour? Instead of the little stone hand mortar used in early days, there are now great flour mills, like those that line the river front in Minneapolis. The grain comes from the prairies to these mills in hundreds of freight cars. There, in a world of humming machinery, it is cleaned, ground between rollers, and separated from all the husk. Then it is sifted through fine cloth until it is the soft, white substance that reaches our kitchens. And in order that it may always be the same, always fine and pure and nourishing, it is examined and tested at every stage.

The Indian squaw did one thing that these great mills cannot do. She mixed and baked the bread. How is that done today? In many homes bread is still baked in the home kitchen, but more and more it is being taken out of the kitchen into the factory. However much we like the odor of freshly baked bread at home, we must admit that it saves our mothers a great deal of time and work if the bread can be bought all wrapped up in waxed paper to keep it fresh and clean. Not so many years ago it was a sad thing to have to eat “baker’s bread,” but this is no longer true. In fact, there are very few cooks who can make bread as fine and light as the baker’s bread of today, and this is not because they are poor cooks, but because the modern baker has machinery and ways of testing and measuring that no home cook can have.