BUCKWHEAT. 331 



it is full of kernals. It is not only a food for man, but is as 

 good for stock, fattening horses, cattle and hogs. It is 

 nearly as nutritious as oats, can be raised as cheaply, and 

 the yield is about the same, ranging from 25 to 40 bushels 

 per acre. 



It yields on grinding about 33 1-3 pounds of flour per 

 bushel. The flour is used extensively in the United States 

 for making breakfast cakes, but in Europe it is used for 

 bread. East Tennessee has devoted a considerable portion 

 of land to its culture for many years. A gentleman in 

 Greene county sowed it the 6th of July, and harvested about 

 30 bushels per acre, on the 9th of October. 'Two quarts 

 sown one year made four bushels of the grain. It does not 

 succeed well on rich land from its disposition to lodge, but 

 on poor, thin land, especially with a good proportion of 

 clay, it does exceedingly well. It would, no doubt, be 

 a remunerative crop for the uplands of Tennessee, espe- 

 cially the Cumberland table lands. It is exceedingly 

 sensitive to cold, the slightest frosts destroying it, but it 

 requires so short a time to mature that it can be successfully 

 grown in our shortest summers and in the highest latitudes. 

 It does not seem to injure the land on which it grows, and 

 consequently can be raised successively for many years on 

 the same soil. This is due to the fact that it derives its 

 principal nourishment from the atmosphere, and for this 

 reason it is that poor soil will make good crops. The flow- 

 ers are abundant and abound in honey, though of an infe- 

 rior quality, and from the time of inflorescence it is covered 

 with bees. Some apiarians sow it solely for the use of their 

 bees. 



There are several varieties, each receiving a local name, 

 and each having its defenders, as the best quality. There 

 is the rough, the smooth, the gray, the Scotch gray, and the 

 silver hull, or serrazin argente, & French variety with a 

 grayish colored hull. This last is named from the Saracens ; 

 who were supposed to have introduced it into Spain in the 



