82 AUSTRALIAN AGRICULTURE. 



feed, or making ensilage. For grain the same quantity of 

 seed used for oats answers for rye. Drilled in, one and 

 a-half bushel per acre is sufficient. Ergot, a kind of rust 

 to which rye is subject in Europe, has not been noticed 

 here. 



BUCKWHEAT. This, like rye, is one of the neglected 

 crops. Properly speaking, it is not a wheat, but a soft 

 heroacious plant of the botanical order polygonacecB, of 

 which sorrel is a representative. But buckwheat is a 

 heavy seed-bearer (from 30 to 60 bushels per acre with fair 

 culture), and the meal of the seed is of good color, fine, and 

 very wholesome. In various parts of Germany, and in 

 America, it is in high favor for making bread and cakes, 

 which, like rye bread, has the reputation of being easier of 

 digestion than bread made of wheat flour. It contains 

 but little sugar, and is in high repute for the food 

 of sufferers from diabetes disease. Buckwheat is one 

 of the quickest of grain crops, and one of the easiest 

 cultivated, but the soil, to give quick full crops, must be 

 rich in nitrogen and potash. In our climate it is sown, 

 grown, and reaped in ninety days. It can be sown any 

 time from June to December ; in warm localities the cooler 

 season is best ; in colder locations it may be either grown as 

 a spring crop, sown in July or August, or as an autumn 

 crop, sown at the end of February. The treatment of the 

 soil is similar to that for oats, buckwheat being even better 

 than that crop for fining down rough land. The seed is 

 sown in drills from 14 to 18 inches apart. The author 

 has grown buckwheat on new and not over-rich forest 

 land only once ploughed, and while the grass was green 

 between the furrow laps. One bushel of seed was sown 

 per acre ; the returns were nearly thirty bushels of seed 

 and seven loads of straw. In harvesting, the grain is very 

 apt to shell out, and it is well, therefore, to get it into 

 the barn before the seed cases are quite dry. It ripens 

 freely after being cut. This crop is used extensively 

 for green manuring, and is amongst the best for that 

 purpose. It grows on average soils except those that are 

 wet. It is also shy of great sun heat, and perishes from 

 frost. 



