548 Transactions of the American Institute. 



" come back," "come back," has its advantages, being an invariable 

 sign of approaching cliange of weather, and frightening tlie hovering 

 hawkj and thus protecting the whole feathered anny of the harem. 



Mascall says "they require great attendance, and yee must make 

 their court somewhat hye, set also with hordes agaynst the walles, 

 round about the court in the length, and their perch made to sit 

 where the sunne, and each bird his place." Tlie hens, says the same 

 old autlior, sit thirty days, and the infant brood must be managed 

 like young turkeys, as they are equally if not more tender. 



Plowinq Under Buckwheat. 



Mr, Joseph Lodge, New York, writes as follows : " In this hasty 

 note I desire to give reasons for plowing under buckwheat as a green 

 crop, in preference to any other as a fertilizer, in any or all lands 

 where hmnus or vegetable matter has been exhausted. First, it is 

 done at so small experse ; secondly, it can be matured for the use 

 required, in from six to eight weeks, according to the strength and 

 fertility of the soil ; and by this mode of assisting the soil, two or 

 more crops of buckwheat may be put under before sowing wheat in 

 the autumn. For years I have plowed under buckwheat prerious to 

 planting or sowing grass for lawns or pleasure grounds, with good 

 results. I do not discard manure whenever I can get it. But the 

 ground is kept moist and light with the assistance of buckwheat, and 

 ^11 who would practice this method, would iind great and beneficial 

 results in wheat, grass and rye." 



Mr. S. Edwards Todd. — I must enter a protest against this state- 

 ment, on acconnt of the pernicious influence which buckwheat exerts 

 on the productiveness of the land. We cannot tell why, but it is a 

 fact, which every farmer of extensive experience will admit, that even 

 good land, unless it is heavily manured, will not yield half a crop of 

 wheat, barley, oats or Indian corn after buckwheat had been grown 

 upon it, and I am bold to denounce it as one of the crops whicli the 

 husbandman can best afford to do without. Experienced farmers all 

 over the country, in our grain growing regions, understand that a 

 crop of buckwheat exerts a pernicious influence on the productive- 

 ness of a fertile soil. Some agricultural chemists have assumed that 

 the roots of bnckwheat throw off a poisonous excrementitious mate- 

 rial that operates unfavorably on the next crop. But there is the fact, 

 whether it can or cannot be explained. 



Mr. A. ,S. Fuller. — This is the first time that I have ever heard 



