98 BUCKWHEAT. 



On account of an increasing demand for this grain, it is 

 much more cultivated in the United States than formerly. 

 In some of the Western States the yield per acre has been 

 stated as reaching twenty-five, thirty, and even fifty bushels. 

 In New England it is often cultivated successfully. It grows 

 best on the lighter soils. Birds are apt to attack Buck- 

 wheat, and the young plants are sometimes injured by frost. 

 The seeds of the Buckwheat are given to horses, to hogs, 

 and to poultry. 



In the United States its use as a breadstuff is almost 

 entirely limited to cakes. 



BUCKWHEAT CAKES. 



Take a quart of warm water, (milk, if to be had, is better,) 

 put a little salt to it, and stir irt enough buckwheat flour to 

 make a thin batter. After it is smoothly mixed, add six 

 table-spoonfuls of home yeast, or half this quantity of brew- 

 er's yeast. Set this batter where it will be kept a little 

 warm over night In the morning stir in about a salt- 

 spoonful of soda or saleratus, and a large spoonful of sirup 

 or molasses. Put them ip just before the griddle is ready 

 for the batter. The molasses is thought to make the cakes 

 fry a delicate brown, and to crisp the edges. 



The griddle should be merely greased enough to keep the 

 cakes from sticking ; a bit of white rag is sometimes tied 

 on a fork, and from time to time wet with a little lard, or 

 the griddle may be rubbed with a piece of salt pork. Buck- 

 wheat cakes should be made very thin, and served in the 

 course of the meal, from time to time, hot from the griddle. 



These cakes are sometimes mixed without yeast, where 

 they are wanted before the batter could rise. In such cases 

 you dissolve in warm water a teaspoonful of carbonate of 

 soda, and stir it in the batter ; then dissolve in warm water 

 a teaspoonful of tartaric acid, and stir this in also. You 



