200 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



machinery needed for the business can ordinarily be had for 

 twenty-five or thirty dollars, and a very short apprenticeship 

 will enable one of any mechanical skill, to learn the trade. I 

 think that in a month one ought to be able to do a full day's 

 work and do it well. Five to six dozen common-sized brooms 

 are counted a day's work. When brooms are made by 

 machinery the work is not severe, and can be done by women, 

 and I wonder that there are not more of them engaged in this 

 work, which opens to them an avenue to an independent living, 

 as from six to ten dollars a week can be made at it, and I think 

 the labor less severe than bending over the wash-tub. 



Buckwheat. In our best grain growing States buckwheat 

 holds an insignificant place. In Ohio, for example, we grow 

 more than three hundred dollars' worth of wheat for each dol- 

 lar's worth of buckwheat, and the average yield per acre 

 is about twelve bushels. The Southern States do not grow it at 

 all, and New York and Pennsylvania produce nearly two-thirds 

 of all grown in the United States, New York alone producing in 

 1880 over five million bushels in a total of less than fifteen 

 million. I find that buckwheat will not fill till the nights are 

 cool, and so defer sowing as late as is prudent, and in my latitude 

 I have grown the best crops when sown the first of July. The 

 land should be in good condition, free from weeds, and mellow." 

 From two to three pecks of seed are sown to the acre, covered 

 lightly and rolled. When cut, we stand it up in small bunches, 

 with the tops twisted together, and do not bind it. We thresh 

 by tramping with horses. There are some incidental advantages 

 connected with the crop, as it furnishes bee pasture at a season 

 when other bloom is scarce, and it has a good mechanical effect 

 on stiff soils, and like clover, by its dense growth and shade, 

 smothers out all other growth. I have succeeded in getting 

 a good stand of grass when sown with it on thin soils, but on 

 rich land it grows so rank as to smother out all the grasses. 

 I do not think it an exhaustive crop, but corn usually does not 

 succeed well, when following it. 



Pumpkins. I know that the chemist places a low feeding 

 value on pumpkins, but I find them a crop of considerable 



