FARMERS' REGISTER— BUCKWHEAT. 



393 



culture, has clearly proved that buckwheat is not 

 fit to make bread alone, nor to be mixed with oth- 

 er kinds of meal, susceptible of fermentation. In 

 the countries then, in which they obstinately culti- 

 vate this plant for food for man, they should limit 

 its use to the making of pottage, for which it has 

 been observed, that skimmed milk suits better 

 than new. When cold, this pottage becomes com- 

 pact, and cut into slices is good fried or broiled. 

 They also make with the meal of buckwheat bat- 

 ter-cakes, which are baked on a plate of iron lightly 

 buttered. These cakes are the better, and easier to 

 digest, for being mixed with eggs well beaten with 

 skmimed milk, and for being well cooked. When 

 spread with fresh butter, and sprinkled with fine 

 salt, they are very agreeable, and are, in some 

 countries, the object of very gay country parlies. 



When buckwheat is intended for poultry, it 

 should be boiled to swell it, and partially break 

 the cover of the grain. Coarsely ground, and 

 mixed with barley, it forms a nourishing and sti- 

 mulating food for horses and other animals of the 

 farm. Cut green, it gives milk to the cows ; it is 

 preferable still, if it has been sowed with vetches 

 and peas, to cure the mixed forage into hay. 



The straw of buckwheat furaishes but little 

 litter, and horses eat it only moderately ; but there 

 may be drawn from its ashes a potash very valua- 

 ble for the composition of glass. 



We have yet to consider buckwheat as a ma- 

 nure, and when so useil, it may become of the 

 greatest utility. It makes, in a short time, excel- 

 lent muck, which being decomposed rapidly, is 

 very suitable for land intended for rye or wheat. 

 It is at once convenient and cheap ; it is proved 

 that 80 pounds of seed, of which the price is about 

 4 francs, can sufficiently improve 2 acres. This ma- 

 nure is very precious, especially for countries where 

 dung is scarce, and where the lands require vege- 

 table substances more than animal or mineral ma- 

 nures. To arrive at the end proposed, they plough 

 in April, give a second ploughing at the end of 

 May, and after putting the ground in good tilth, 

 sow the buckwheat in the usual manner. At the 

 end of two or two and a half months, that is to say 

 when it has arrived at its full size, and would do 

 no more except to dry in ripening, it is buried by 

 the plough. Well covered in the earth, it quickly 

 begins to ferment, and is soon reduced. We may 

 almost immediately in warm countries, sow buck- 

 wheat a second time, which is then allowed to ri- 

 pen ; and in colder countries, the better course is 

 to use this manuring as a preparation for winter 

 grain. It is easy to demonstrate that this im- 

 provement, valuable in all resj>ects, costs much 

 less than farm-yard manure, and in the proportion of 

 one to eight. It appears that this important disco- 

 very is due to the illustrious La Chalotais. We 

 read what follows in the Observations of the Agri- 

 cultural Society of Brittany : " When buckwheat 

 is in flower, they cover it by a ploughing : a few 

 days after, it is common to see a thick vapor like 

 the mists that rise from marshes." It results 

 from this manure, which in truth is less lasting 

 than the others, but which is also much cheaper ; 

 that we may spare soil the abuse of naked fallows, 

 procure a good manure without the cost of car- 

 riage, rapidly clean the soil of weeds, and make 

 up in certain cantons for the scarcity of materials 

 for enriching the lands. 



[The mills used in France for grinding other 



Vol. 1-50 



grains, are unsuitable for buckwheat, and several 

 plans and descriptions of mills are given for grind- 

 ing buckwheat, without preventing the separation 

 of the bitter bran from the flour. These are unne- 

 cessary to copy, both on account of the expense of 

 the plates, and the fact of mill machinery and ope- 

 rations being now superior in the United States to 

 those of France, at the time of the publication of 

 Rozier's Cours Compht.'] 



Besides the common buckwheat of which we 

 have spoken, there is a species considered prefera- 

 ble, which is known by the name of buckwheat 

 of Tartary, or of Siberia, and which was in 1782 

 much extolled by M. Martin. This variety which 

 has been brought from Siberia by a missionary of 

 Low Maine, is especially suitable to the north of 

 France : it is more hardy than the common kind ; 

 it is less inclined to lodge, and produces more. 

 The grain is smaller, the stalk more yellow, and 

 more solid. According to M. Curant, who calls 

 this grain Martin- Corn, (in honor of M. Martin, 

 of whom we have spoken,) the Siberian buck- 

 wheat fears neitlier hot winds, nor white frosts ; 

 it gives for one seed sown, nearly two thousand in 

 rich soils — and elsewhere, from fifty to three hun- 

 dred and more ; it makes a better meal, and can 

 be kept as well and as long as that from wheat. 

 These incontestible advantages are accompanied 

 by some inconveniences : in the first place, the 

 Siberian buckwiieat shatters in reaping still more 

 easily than the common, and consequently demands 

 an increase of precautions ; then it grinds almost 

 as slowly as rye, and it ought not to be sowed until 

 July, a time when the hay harvest draws so heavi- 

 ly on the labor of the farmer. 



That nothing may be suffered from the bitter- 

 ness which this grain might have, if the bran is 

 mixed with the meal, M. Turmelin teaches the 

 following process, by means of which the meal is 

 perfectly separated from the skin which encloses it: 

 " The upper millstone is raised so that the grain 

 may be only rubbed, and the skins be thrown 

 whole, with the meal, into the receptacle, such as 

 corn appears in the granary, after the ravages of 

 mice. We should not be surprised if many of 

 these skins are full of pulverized meal, which how- 

 ever will be completely separated by the shaking 

 of the sieve : then we will have a pure, good, and 

 well flavored flour, without bitterness, very dry, 

 and for that reason, taking much more water than 

 the common buckwheat flour, which constitutes 

 the superiority of its quality." 



M. Turmelin, who resided near St. Bfieux, as- 

 sures us that he has obtained two crops of Siberian 

 buckwheat in the same year. He had at first sow- 

 ed in March, and reaped at the end of June; then, 

 on the same ground, sowed again in July, and 

 reaped in the last days of October. This va- 

 riety ought to be sowed thinner by one third than 

 the common buckwheat: its straw is not fit to 

 serve as forage for cattle, but however, may be 

 used for their litter. 



A third variety of buckwheat deserves also to 

 be cultivated : it is that which is designated by the 

 name of emarginatum. It grows as high as the 

 foregoing kinds, produces abundantly, and ripens 

 early. 



M. Parmentier cites still other varieties of Si- 

 berian buckwheat, which are cultivated in Swe- 

 den ; and among others, a kind from Finland, 

 more forward than the others, more hardy, which 



