DEVOTED TO AGRICULTURE AND ALL ITS 



BUCKWHEAT. 



In many cases this is a valuable grain. It can 

 often be raised on light land, too poor for other 

 crops ; and it admits of later sowing than most other 

 kinds of grain. It does not succeed well when 

 sowed early. A good time for sowing, in this section, 

 is from the tenth to the twenty-fifth of June. We 

 should prefer from the fifteenth to the twenty-fifth. 



Some crops have ripened well in this latitude 

 ■when sowed as late as the fourth of July. In the 

 Middle States, buckwheat is sowed late, so that it 

 will have barely time to ripen before frost. The 

 object of this is to prevent injury from the hot sun 

 in August, when the plant will be in flower, if sowed 

 rather early. Perhaps the hot sun in this region has 

 injured the crop when blossoming during the heat of 

 summer, and yet the cultivator may not have been 

 aware of the cause of failure. We advise experi- 

 ments on this subject by sowing a little rather early, 

 for trial. 



Buckwheat is generally a cleansing crop, as it de- 

 stroys most kinds of weeds. The weeds start with 

 the wheat, but the wheat is so rapid and rank in its 

 growth, that it destroys the most of them. 



Buckwheat flour is valuable ; and the meal is 

 excellent for swine. The grain is fine for poultry, 

 and for feeding pigeons it is regarded as the best 

 grain. Some farmers sell their whole crop at a dol- 

 lar a bushel to those Avho insnare pigeons in nets. 



Judge Hayes, of South Berwick, distinguished for 

 his attention to agriculture, informed us that he 

 ploughed about two acres of pasture land, and ob- 

 tained a very good crop without manure, and with 

 but little labor. The straw made good fodder, and 

 the pasture land was improved by cultivation. 



CATERPILLARS. 



These insects are among the most destructive of 

 any that infest an orchard ; yet, as they may be 

 easily destroyed, the farmer is without excuse if he 

 allows his fruit and trees to be destroyed by them. 



There are numerous ways of destroying them. 

 Among the most simple and cfl'ectual, after they 



have hatched, is that of crushing them with the 

 hand as soon as they begin to form their nests ; or, 

 if too high to be reached, they may be taken oft' 

 with a pole. 



Strong whale oil soap, — one pint of soap to four 

 and a half gallons of water, — applied with a syringe, 

 or a mop of rags at the end of a pole, will destroy 

 them, and, if used towards sunset, or early in the 

 morning, or on a dull day, it will not injure the 

 foliage ; and at such times the caterpillars are at 

 home, excepting the dull weather is of long contin- 

 uance, so that necessity comijels them to go abroad 

 for food, aftgr fasting a while. 



There are various other modes of destruction, and 

 every one who pays proper attention to the subject 

 will find some v;ay to rid his trees of this nuisance. 

 The satisfaction of seeing his trees in a flourishing 

 condition will amply repay all the expense, to say 

 nothing of the superior value of the trees and fruit. 



NOTICES OF PUBLICATIONS. 



Report of the Board of AgiucultuPvE of the 

 State of Ohio. — We are indebted to friend Bateham, 

 of the Ohio Cultivator, for this third annual report. 

 It is a document of two hundi'cd and twenty-two 

 octavo pages, containing the doings of the Ohio State 

 Board of Agriculture, and of the County Agricul- 

 tural Societies, reports of the state of agriculture and 

 princijial productions of each county, lists of best 

 fruits from several fruit-growers, and various statis- 

 tical and chemical tables, embracing much valuable 

 information. The board give a very cheering ac- 

 count of the deep interest generally felt in the cause 

 of agriculture and the progress of improvement. 

 They say, — 



An increasing taste for agricultural reading is 

 making itself manifest, and the desire to profit by 

 the experience of others, and the improvements of 

 the age, is beginning to occupy, in the minds of men, 

 the place so long held by the traditions and practices 

 of their fathers. We think the spell which bound 

 our people to old habits, and to the usages of other 

 times, is partially broken, and that they are begin- 

 ning to wake up to the realization of the fact that 

 they live in an age of ijnprovement and progress, of 



