Though not exactly the recipe for _saw-dust biscuits_ which I have heard
of, there is an account of the process of making bread from bark in Laing's
"Norway" (Longman's _Traveller's Lib._), part ii. p. 219., where, on the
subject of pine-trees, it is stated:
"Many were standing with all their branches dead, stripped of the bark
to make bread, and blanched by the weather, resembling white
marble,--mere ghosts of trees. The bread is made of the inner rind next
the wood, taken off in flakes like a sheet of foolscap paper, and is
steeped or washed in warm water, to clear off its astringent principle.
It is then hung across a rope to dry in the sun, and looks exactly like
sheets of parchment. When dry it is pounded into small pieces mixed
with corn, and ground into meal on the hand-mill or quern. It is much
more generally used than I supposed. There are districts in which the
forests suffered very considerable damage in the years 1812 and 1814,
when bad crops and the war, then raging, reduced many to bark bread.
The Fjelde bonder use it, more or less, every year. It is not very
unpalatable; nor is there any good reason for supposing it unwholesome,
if well prepared; but it is very costly. The value of the tree, which
is left to perish on its root, would buy a sack of flour, if the
English market were open."
Now, if G. D., or any enterprising individual, could succeed in converting
saw-dust into wholesome food, or fit for admixture with flour, somewhat
after the above manner, it would indeed be a "happy discovery," considering
the present high price of "the staff of life." Bread has also been made
from the horse-chesnut; but the expense of preparation, removing the strong
bitter flavour, is no doubt the obstacle to its success. What could be done
with the Spanish chesnut?