314 HANDY-BOOK OF HUSBANDRY. 



than when sown broadcast, and that they are better adapted to light 

 than to heavy lands. They are an exhausting crop, but for some 

 years they have borne so high a price that their cultivation is suffi- 

 ciently profitable to enable us to buy manure to repair the damage. 

 Perhaps it is not exactly correct to attribute their injurious effect 

 entirely to the exhaustion of the land, as some of the injury that 

 they cause is no doubt due to the fact that their roots bind the soil 

 together in clods which it is difficult to reduce. 



Oat straw is more valuable than any other for fodder for 

 domestic animals. If the crop is harvested as it should be, before 

 the grain is fully mature, the straw will be but little inferior to 

 common hay, especially if fed in connection with roots. 



Barley may be sown somewhat later than oats, and it is best 

 suited to rather heavier soil than these prefer. On any soil, how- 

 ever, that is in good condition, provided it is sufficiently drained, 

 it is, at the usual prices, a profitable crop, though the straw is less 

 valuable for feeding purposes than is that of either oats or wheat. 



BUCKWHEAT. 



I can say but little concerning this crop, save that it will grow 

 better than almost any other will on poor, thin, light soils ; that it 

 should not be sown in the latitude of New York before the lOth 

 of July, and that it must be harvested before the frost. 



Planted early in the season, it makes a luxuriant growth of 

 stem, but produces but little grain. It is sometimes so planted to 

 be plowed in as a green crop on land intended for wheat or rye, 

 but it is much less valuable for this purpose than is clover, its 

 only advantage being that much less time is required for its pro- 

 duction. 



It is especially important, as a green crop, on foul land, as it 

 fully occupies the ground to the exclusion of every thing else, and 

 as three crops may be grown and plowed under during a single 



