CULTIVATION OF PLANTS. 



to be observed, combined with good judgment. Others strong- 

 ly recommend the sowing of old seed. The Hon. TIMOTHY- 

 PICKERING says, that late sowing is an effectual remedy: and 

 Col. WOHTHINGTON, of Rensalear county, New York, con- 

 firms it. He sowed his peas on the 10th of June six years in 

 succession, and a bug has never been seen among them; 

 whereas his neighbours, who have not adopted his practice, 

 have scarcely a pea without a bug in it.* 



3. BUCKWHEAT. 



THIS plant is cultivated for the farina of its seed. It is a 

 native of Asia; whence it was carried into Africa, and thence 

 by the Moors was introduced, four centuries since, into Eu- 

 rope, from whence the species, Polygonum Fagopyrum 

 common Buckwheat, so extensively cultivated in the United 

 States, was derived. Travellers assert, that it grows wild and 

 most luxuriantly in some parts of our western country. It is 

 an annual, with upright leafy stems, and rising from one to 

 three feet in height. This plant possesses numerous excellen- 

 cies, which have been too long neglected or overlooked by 

 many farmers. 



Soil and preparation. Buckwheat flourishes best in a mel- 

 low, dry, loose, sandy soil it will, however, grow on the 

 poorest soils, and produce a crop in from three to four months; 

 but a good crop can only be expected from a soil tolerably 

 rich.t It should never be sown on wet poachy ground. The 

 soil may be prepared in different ways, according to the inten- 

 tion of the future crop; and for this there is ample time, whe- 

 ther the crop is designed for seed, or to be turned under by the 

 plough. The application of a bushel of gypsum, when that 

 manure is suited to the soil, will prove highly beneficial to the 

 crop. 



Sowing. In the latitude of Chester county, if for seed, the 

 month of June is generally preferred. The surest way is to 

 sow it sufficiently early to enable it to come to maturity before 

 the fall frosts. "In the state of New York, farmers sow it in 

 August with winter wheat. It affords them a ripe crop in the 



* Memoirs New York Board of Agriculture, vol. ii. p. 23. 



t The grain of Buckwheat affords a favourite article of food- is much cul- 

 tivated in some districts particularly those which are rough and hilly. It is 

 considered a severe crop upon the soil, and is rarely sown upon highly im- 

 proved land but it is admirably adapted to subdue new or wild lands. The 

 flowers are a favourite resort of the honey-bee. Flora Cestrica, by Dr. WM. 

 DARLINGTON, p. 253. 



