536 THE HOME, FARM AND BUSINESS CYCLOPEDIA, 



The ground may be stirred when the plants first show themselves. This 

 is most economically done with the cultivator or light plough, and if the 

 operation be frequent and thorough, there will be little use for the hoe. 

 Hilling or heaping the earth around the plants should always be avoided, 

 except with very heavy soil, or such as is liable to an excess of moisture ; 

 in all other cases it should remain flat. Stirring the ground in dry wea- 

 ther is peculiarly beneficial to corn and all hoed crops. Some omit it then 

 from fear of the escape of moisture, but its effect is precisely the reverse, 

 as nothing so certainly produces lightness, porosity and unevenness in the 

 soil, which, under the head of soils and draining, we have shown facili- 

 tated the admission and escape of heat, that inevitably secures the deposit 

 of large quantities of moisture, even in the driest and most sultry wea- 

 ther. Corn and other crops, which were withering from excessive 

 drought, have been at once rescued from its effects by a thorough use of 

 the plough and cultivator. Well drained, dark coloured and rich porous 

 soils will be found to suffer much less in drought than others which lack 

 these characteristics. 



HARVESTING. If there be no danger of early frost, the corn may bo 

 suffered to stand until fully ripe ; though if the stalks are designed for 

 fodder they are better to be cut when the grain is well glazed, and this 

 should be done in all cases where frost is expected. Scarcely any injury 

 occurs either to the leaf or grain if the corn be stocked, when both would 

 be seriously damaged from the same exposure if standing. 



BUCKWHEAT (Polygonum fagopyrum). 



Is a grain much cultivated in this country. It grows freely on light 

 soils, but yields a remunerating crop only on those which are fertile. 

 Fresh manure is injurious to this grain. Sandy loams are its favourite 

 soils, especially such as have lain long in pasture and these should be well 

 ploughed and harrowed. It may be sown from the first of May to the tenth 

 of August, but in the North this ought to be done as early as June or July, 

 or it may be injured by early frosts, which are fatal to it. It is sown 

 broadcast at the rate of two to four pecks per acre, and harvested when 

 the earliest seed is fully ripe. The plant often continues flowering after 

 this, and when the early seed is blighted, as is often the case, the plant 

 may be left till these last have matured. As it is liable to heat, it should 

 be placed in little stooks, of the size of a two bushel basket, over the field 

 and as soon as dry, taken in and threshed out. If riot perfectly dry, the 

 straw may be stacked with layers of other straw. 



