Ch. XVI.] ON BUCK. WHEAT. 223 



the best dressings that can be applied are said to be those made from tlie dif- 

 ferent preparations of peat*. 



The culture being late in the spring, it generally gets two ploughings ; 

 but the seed is usually sown broad-cast; no further attention being paid 

 to the crop, whicli is left to Providence, without any care being- bestowed 

 upon its weeding. AVhen intended to be ploughed-in, this is admissible ; 

 but the same negligence is commonly practised when the crop is meant for 

 grain, the excuse being, " that it will not repay the trouble ;" though, if 

 worth growing, it should assuredly be kept clean, were it only for the benefit 

 of the future crops. The land intended for the growth of buck-wheat 

 should, indeed, be highly worked and well cleansed from weeds ; its root 

 not striking in depth more than two inches into the soil, whilst the spread 

 of its numerous small fibres will entirely fill a circle of five or six inches 

 in diameter. It is one of the greatest advantages in the cultivation of this 

 crop, that the late period at which it may be sown affords ample time for 

 such a preparation as is requisite to its success. The rapidity of its 

 growth, its numerous branches, and the great shade afforded by its heart- 

 shaped leaves — which, though variable in size, are often more than three 

 inches in breadth — has a great tendency to keep down annual weeds, and to 

 render the soil extremely mellow : this is also further increased by the falling 

 of the leaves before the crop is taken from tlie ground. In this country it 

 is sown the most frequently either after turnips which liave been eaten 

 off late, or after tares and rye which have been soiled : in Flanders, 

 however, it enters regularly into all the rotations upon light, sandy loams, 

 and Von Thaer mentions his having sown it in July with rye; then having 

 cut the buck-wheat, while green, and left the rye to stand for corn during 

 the following year, as a ])lan which had perfectly succeeded f. 



The plant retains so mucli of its eastern origin, that it is destroyed by the 

 slightest frost: in this climate it is therefore never sown until the end of 

 May, and it may be deferred until the middle or even the latter part of 

 June, for it is of such rapid growth that crops sown in the beginning of 

 July have been reaped by the second week in September. It is however 

 hazardous to sow it later than Midsummer, for it may be attacked by the 

 white frosts of autumn before it ripens ; and, even should it escape that 

 danger, the produce will not be so large as when the seed is put earlier into 

 the ground J. If the crop is to be soiled, two bushels of seed will not be too 

 much ; but if meant to stand for the production of corn, the quantity 

 should not exceed five or six pecks. The seed, if sown broad-cast, is har- 

 rowed in : some farmers afterwards roll it ; but many think that operation 

 had better be omitted. 



The success of the crop depends, indeed, very much upon chance ; for 

 the seed requires dry weather immediately after it is sown ; but when the 

 plant has pushed forth its third leaf, rain is necessarv to forward its blos- 

 soming, and when in flower, it may be destroyed by a strong easterly 

 wind, while it must have hot sunshine to ripen it. A week more or less 

 in the sowing may thus occasion a sensible difference in the produce, for if 

 the season prove hot and dry, it may be too late, and if sown before the 

 last week in May, the occasional frosts in that month may effectually kill 



* See vol. i., chap. xxii. 



f Piinc. Rais. (l'A!:;iiL-., 2(le etlit. torn. iv. p. 215. 



Jin Pt'iinsjlvania, and throujfhout the midtUe and eastern states of America, buck- 

 wheat is sown hroad-cast upon once plmighing the ulieat or rye-stubbles immediately 

 after harvest ; which is there generally hy the 1st of August. — \'ancoiiver"s Hampsh. 

 p. 172. 



