He tells us that the farther North you go the less wheat is grown, but there is more towards the South, the Swedes having plenty of wheat but more rye. ‘But the Goths, both East and West, who feed on barley and oats, have an infinite abundance given them by the mercy of God. Yet there is use made of all these sorts of corn in both places. But the Swedes provide most of rye, where their women know so well how to winnow rye, that for colour, taste, and for health it surpasses the goodness of wheat.’ [Illustration: EARLY SCANDINAVIAN BAKERIES.] In order to preserve their corn they carefully dried it. ‘On the hottest days, when the sun shines strong, they spread cloths like ships’ sails, or else the sails themselves, upon the ground, or on the tops of mountains where there is no grass, and they lay the corn out to dry for six, or more, or fewer days, as the sun shines hot; then when it is cleaned they lay it up in vessels of oak, or else they grind it, and so lay it up safe, and when it is so dried it will last good for years. But if it be not ground meal, but corn, it is convenient once a year to set it in the sun to be again dried, and thus new-dried corn may be mingled with it prudently. But the meal thrust into the oaken vessels, or tuns, by strong ramming it in with wooden mallets, and laid up in a dry place, will last many years, and never be worm-eaten.’ [Illustration: EARLY SCANDINAVIAN BAKERIES.] He also discourses on the variety of mills for grinding corn in use. How there was the windmill, that turned by running water, by horse-power, by hands and feet—backwards and forwards, like the pre-historic mealing stones, and also the quern; but he mostly extols the windmills of Holland. The grain being ground, it was ready for making into bread, and he minutely describes the operation—how it was kneaded into a round shape, then rolled very thin, and finally baked on a sheet of iron, like a warrior’s shield, supported by a tripod, and heated by a slow fire—in fact, the griddle, or girdle, cakes of North Britain. But there was other bread which was baked in an oven; and here the artist seems to have drawn somewhat upon his imagination for his cockroaches and blackbeetles. It seems that bread was not sold by weight, and that they were in the habit, about Christmas time, of making what we should call dough babies, about the size of a five-year-old child, of which they made presents, and similar, but smaller, babies of wheat-flour, which they sold.