270 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



and needing moist, rich soil, it is very difficult for us to get on to 

 the land best fitted to raise it in perfection, early enough for 

 the full maturity of the grain before our dry term comes, which 

 cuts off its growth at once. Many sow oats for fodder ; but our 

 experience compels us to say it is a poor substitute for good, 

 sweet English hay. 



The amount of seed per acre depends on the soil, weight of 

 grain, and kind of oats ; therefore it is difficult even to approxi- 

 mate to a rule in regard to it. This, however, is sure : that for 

 fodder they should be sown thicker than for a harvest of grain. 



"We find some, for potato-oats as they are called, think two 

 bushels to the acre sufficient seed. Of other oats some recom- 

 mend as high as four to five bushels per acre, and sown as soon 

 as possible after the frost leaves the ground. We think this at 

 least would be high seeding. 



The character of this grain needs no discussion. In some 

 countries it is used for bread ; but it seems hardly fit for that 

 in the United States. It is especially adapted as a healthy food 

 for horses, and so natural to them that they can be fed at all 

 ages of the animal, without danger of injuring them. 



This could not be said of corn — the grain we use so exten- 

 sively to feed them. It is also, like barley, considered medicinal, 

 and hence always found among the articles of diet for the de- 

 bilitated and sick. There is a more unpretending, but not 

 unimportant plant, though not a member of the family of 

 cereals, and that is 



BUCKWHEAT. 



It readily accepts of a poor soil, a late sowing, and produces 

 a generous crop. The farmer, finding he is likely to come short 

 with his grain crop, has in buckwheat another resource. If 

 sown as late as the 25th of June it will mature finely. It does 

 not ask for much manure. To be sure it is a coarse grain, but 

 very palatable to fowls, and, in the meal, to hogs and horses. 

 Its fattening quality is not below rye or barley ; and in the 

 form of buckwheat cakes it is a luxury, when hot, upon the 

 tables of rich or poor. Hence, permitting such late sowing, 

 with so poor soil, so little manure, and such nutritious and fat- 

 tening qualities, we think it is to have a higher place in the 

 estimation of the coming farmers than among us now. 



