"'There are persons who assert--for we have heard them--that there is no economy in baking at home. An accurate and constant attention to the matter, with a close calculation of every week's results for several years--a calculation induced by the sheer love of investigation and experiment--enables us to assure our readers, that a gain is invariably made of from 1-1/2d. to 2d. on the 4 lb. loaf. If _all_ be intrusted to servants, we do not pretend to deny that the waste may neutralise the _profit_; but, with care and investigation, we pledge our veracity that the saving will prove to be considerable.' These are the observations of a lady well known to me." In the natural history of barley the most remarkable fact is, the high northern latitudes in which it can be successfully cultivated. Not only does it ripen in the Orkney and Shetland and Faroe Islands, but on the shores of the White Sea; and near the North Cape, in north latitude 70°, it thrives and yields nourishment to the inhabitants. In Iceland, in latitude 63° to 66° north, it ceases to ripen, not because the temperature is too low, but because rains fall at an unseasonable time, and thus prevent the filling ear from arriving at maturity. The oat is distinguished by its remarkable nutritive quality, compared with our other cultivated grains. This has been long known in practice in the northern parts of the island, where it has for ages formed the staple food of the mass of the population, though it was doubted and disputed in the south so much, as almost to render the Scotch ashamed of their national food. Chemistry has recently, however, set the matter at rest, and is gradually bringing oatmeal again into general favour. We believe that the robust health of many fine families of children now fed upon it, in preference to wheaten flour, is a debt they owe, and we trust will not hereafter forget, to chemical science. On oatmeal Mr Stephens gives us the following information:--