AGRICULTURAL TEXT-BOOK. 141 



8,2 per cent, of fibrous starch granules; and 11.8 per cent, of 

 gluten, bran, and a small quantity of light starch. In India, 

 a fermented intoxicating liquor called arrack is prepared from 

 it. When damaged, it is occasionally used for feeding hogs and 

 fowls, and though deficient in oil, the large amount of starch 

 which it contains enables it to fatten. The refuse from rice- 

 mills is probably more fattening than the clean grain. 



331. Microscopic examination of the soil of rice fields shows it to be 

 filled with minute animal forms and shells capable of supplying a large 

 amount of phosphoric acid, the chief inorganic ingredient of this grain. 



332. BUCKWHEAT ( derived from the German Bucluveitzen 

 &quot;Beech-wheat,&quot; from the resemblance of the seeds to the Beech 

 mast) is not properly a grain, but belongs to the family of 

 Icnotweeds, of which there are twenty species in the Northern 

 United States. It is probably a native of China. There are 

 three cultivated species ; (a,) Common Buckwheat, Polygonum 

 Fagopyrum; (b,) Tartarian Buckwheat, P. tataricum, and 

 (c,) Notch-seeded Buckwheat, P. emarginatum. There do not 

 appear to be any varieties. 



In the Trans. N. Y. State Agricultural Society, 1848, p. 572, mention 

 is mude of a Blue Buckwheat, grown in Sullivan county. Its peculiari 

 ties are, 1. It is less injured by the sun. 2. Can be sown earlier. 3, 

 Weighs heavier ; and 4. Makes from 3 to 5 Ibs. per bushel more flour 

 of a better quality, than common buckwheat- The flour sold for 25 

 cents per 100 Ibs. more in the New York Market. In one instance it 

 vielded 41 bushels per acre. Whether this is a variety, or one of the 

 above mentioned, we are unable to decide. 



The first is chiefly cultivated in America, the second in Italy, 

 the last in China. In Europe it is grown for food from Russia 

 to Italy, Great Britain excepted; and being a very short time 

 in the ground, can be adapted to great differences of climate, 

 In the United States it can be grown in every section, but is 

 chiefly cultivated north of North Carolina and Tennessee. The 

 total crop in 1840, was 7,291,743 bushels, and in 1850, 

 8,956,916 , New York (3,183,955 bushels) and Pennsylvania 



