CULTIVATION OF BUCKWHEAT. 69 



We saw large breadths of it, on our way up the valley, 

 during the remainder of this day's journey ; and, sub- 

 sequently, in nearly all parts of the province. Colonel 

 Coomb assured us that at least three-fourths of all the 

 bread consumed in this district was made of buckwheat. 

 It is used chiefly in the state of thin cakes, called pan- 

 cakes. These are generally small, and, when nicely 

 made and browned, very much resemble our English 

 crumpets, with half their thickness. They are eaten 

 hot, and generally with butter and molasses, or maple 

 honey. All over Northern America these pancakes are 

 seen at the breakfast and tea table, and are really very 

 good. As to the nutritive quality of this grain, I find 

 by analyses, which I have since had made, that buck- 

 wheat flour possesses about the same value, in this 

 respect, as our best varieties of British-grown wheat. 



Potatoes yield here 250 bushels an acre, and oats 30 

 bushels. Wheat used to yield 25 bushels. Newly 

 cleared upland will yield 20, and old upland 10 to 15 

 bushels of wheat, when this crop succeeds ; but for the 

 last seven years Colonel Coomb's had not raised enough 

 for his own family. 



I found that in this valley, as I subsequently found in 

 Lower Canada and in the north-eastern parts of this 

 province, the oat is generally disliked as food by the 

 natives of French extraction. This is one reason why 

 they live so much on buckwheat cakes, and on bread 

 made of mixed buckwheat, barley, and rye. The oats 

 of New Brunswick are very good, and are said sometimes 

 to weigh as much as 50 lb. a bushel. They form one of 

 the most certain crops of the province ; and hence both 

 the cultivation and the use of the oat for food has, of 

 late years, been greatly extending. 



The oat is a kind of grain which difters much in qua- 

 lity and in palatableness, according to the variety raised^ 

 the climate in which it is grown, and the way in which it 



