650 
THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 
[SEPT. 26, 
of organic acids, to be converted by heat into carbonates. | But it is not alone as an excellent article of food that 
When the burning is complete all the acetate has be- 
come carbonate of lime. Whether the result is to be 
placed as an additional advantage to the account of 
burning, or (in the case of the acetates and other or- 
ganic salts being really valuable to vegetation) to con- 
stitute a drawback on the usefulness of the system, I 
2 that it is just possible that the 
It might wholly or in part be formed 
by a species of distillation from the weeds and wood 
consumed in the slow process of burning. The fact, 
however, has not, as far as I am aware, been noticed 
before, and whatever may be the true explanation of its 
produetion it appears that the salt shows itself very con- 
en earth is burned. Mr. Arkell tells me he 
frequently. Its presence at the top of 
to be ounted for by its being driven up 
or (which is still more likely) ied up 
by the steam which issues from the 
n ilar s of solid bodies being 
vapourised in this way are known to chemists. It is 
afterwards deposited on the colder parts of the soil, but 
under no circumstances does it escape destruction as 
the process proceeds.—J. Thomas Way, Cirencester, 
Sept. 17. 
BUCKWHEAT A SUBSTITUTE FOR POTATOES, 
Havine lately read with pleasure and interest a poet- 
ical eulogy, by an American, on Buckwheat pancakes, 
in the supplement to the North British Advertiser, it 
may not be judged superfluous to add a few remarks on 
that most excellent grain, considered generally as a 
superior article of farinaceous food for man, and under 
the present defective state of the Potato crop affording, 
where it ca i 
and, generally s 
artiele of food than 
Buckwheat, Blé Sarrasin, ou Blé noir des Francois, 
is an eastern plant ; it grows readily in light sandy soils, 
and when the grain is deprived of its exterior cover- 
ings, and fully ripened by a sufficient exposure to the 
sun’s rays, it appears under the form of a dry triangular 
seed, covered with a thin brownish red cuticle, not very 
deep coloured ch is the appearance of the best or 
thoroughly ripened Buckwheat as it appears when 
brought to market by the Russian peasantry ; when, 
however, it ady undergone by passing through 
the mill a process by which each seed is divided into 
ree parts, and is thereby better fitted for the 
to be afterwards deseribed. When 
less favourable to the full maturity 
of the seed, t cle is of a pale green colour ; as it 
is met with in the seedsmen’s shops of this town the 
euticle has a light brown, and the covering immediately 
exterior to it a dark brown chestnut colour. Buck- 
wheat is grown, I ‘eve, in different parts of Eng- 
land, particularly in Yorkshire, where it is chiefly used, 
I am told, for feeding poultry, which thrive well and 
fatten upon In Seotland it is very little known, and 
seldom usec g for the purpose of feeding and 
eneouraging oding of pheasants ; our millers and 
bakers are hari ainted with it, but the said birds 
tare said to be very fond of 
ed, as brought to market 
) is fitted for culinary u 
of preparing it is the followin 
ty 
king, a more nutritious and safer 
the Potato. 
purpose ir 
the season h 
of a size corresponding to the number of persons in- 
tended to c 
filled with fres 
in an oven,* su 
| 
crust ; when | 
> dry and begins to crack, it is ready 
covered with a plate or AES 
ble in the pot as it has been pre- | 
en used, the crust should be first removed, 
daily article of food 
with the peasantry and working classes of Russia, who 
xchange it with any other article of food, 
and this, joined to prejudice, is probably the reason 
why the use of the Potato has hitherto made com- 
Paratively so little progress among the peasantry of that 
country ; with their Rye-bread, Cabbage-soup, and 
Buckwheat pottage, they feel no want ofthe Potato. 
, The Buekwheat pottage eats well with milk, or 
simply as above prepared, where the circumstances of 
the person prevent his procuring the accessories of 
milk or butter, 
Buckwheat ground into flour and made into paneakes, 
as recommended by the American, is mueh used in 
Russia by all elasses, especially in the Carnival, or 
butter week preceding the fast of seven weeks of the 
Greek Church before Easter; and I do not doubt of its 
being well adapted to the making of loaf bread, though 
I have hardly seen it used in this form, 
,." In default of an oven, heat, gradually and equably applied 
in any other way, will do, 
the writer of this would wish to direct more attention to 
Buckwheat in this country than it has hitherto re- 
ceived. "With an annually inereasing population, and 
the efforts of the country strongly directed to the means 
of affording eheap grain and bread to the population, 
it surely is the duty of both landowners and tenants, 
merehants, &e., to embrace every opportunity of af- 
fording an abundant supply of farinaceous food, and in 
some variety, to the publie, and taught by present ex- 
perience not to rely so entirely as they have hitherto 
done on the Potato as an article of food. Too much 
praise cannot be bestowed on those who are endeavour- 
ing to supply in some degree the deficiency of the Po- 
tato crop, by the introduction of Maize, and other fari- 
naceous grains, among which a more frequent and ex- 
tended use both of Rye and Millet, should not be lost 
sight of; but there is none of them superior or equal 
to Buckwheat, as an article of pleasant, substantial, 
and nutritious food, and therefore better adapted as 
such for the use of the labouring classes. I have been 
informed that it succeeds well both in the west High- 
lands of Scotland, and in Ross-shire ; and I have lately 
learnt from two different respectable persons that some 
fields have been growing this summer between Mussel- 
burgh and Portobello, near Edinburgh, and in Kyntire, 
and I do not doubt that there are many localities both 
in Scotland, England, and Ireland, where the culture of 
this most excellent article of food would prove a real 
and positive blessing to the population. I was happy to 
learn from the spectator that lately there had been a 
considerable importation of Buckwheat into Liverpool, 
I presume from America. It may also be got, I sup- 
pose, in some quantity from the ports of the Baltie and 
Black Sea, as well as from America,.—James Keir, 
M.D., Ex-Professor and Honorary Member of the 
Imperial Academy of Medicine and Surgery at Moscow. 
THE AGRICULTURAL AND MANUFACTURING 
INTERESTS MUTUALLY BENEFITED. 
As I anticipate a much more extensive cultivation of 
Flax than has hitherto obtained in this country, from 
the effect of the Potato crop being again deficient, and 
from farmers now beginning to perceive the necessity 
of change in their old systems of cultivation, I shall once 
more trespass on the columns of your Journal for the 
benefit of those who may still not be aware of the profits 
and advantages of Flax culture, and are yet averse to 
growing it, from the unfounded prejudice that it is more 
exhausting than any of the grain crops ; a fallacy that 
has been triumphantly refuted and exposed by Professor 
Sir Robert Kane, as well as by numerous practical 
farmers and extensive landowners in the north of 
Ireland. 
There are now but few landowners in the province of 
Ulster whose estates are not adorned and made more 
valuable by the increased erections of Flax spinning 
mills, bleach linen factories, and Flax breaking 
and sc , and not only does all this improve- 
itry result FROM THE INCRE 
but tenant farmers and labourers 
prosper by means of it. It cannot be otherwise when 
you consider that the manufacture of this article in that 
district of country detains in the hands of its landowners 
and farmer: spinners and manufacturers, about 
» Which must have been 
nable that whilst the English and 
and Flax spinners consider our being 
jit near eight millions sterling annually 
for FLAX, OILCAKE, and Fraxs; as matter of no mo- 
ment, and as not affecting TE terests, the landowners 
and Flax spinners. in Ireland have formed entirely 
different opinions on the subject, as their efforts to 
introduce Fiax culture in the south and western 
provinces prove ; and it is evident that in Ulster the 
sta n, the merchant, the manufacturer, and agri- 
culturist, all look upon the production of this crop in a 
national, commercial, and industrial point of view as 
f ihe highest importance, It has been a means to 
bring the noblemen and the rich and extensive mer- 
ts and mill-owners to unite (regardless of all 
al differences) because it has been their mutual 
t to remove the prejudices and improve the 
^e and condition of the farmers. Is it not then 
arly strange, with these facts before their eyes, 
that the landowners and Flax-spinners in the manu- 
facturing districts of Great Britain, say Leeds, Knares- 
borough, and Preston, Dundee, Kirkealdy, and Aber- 
deen, continue without any exertion to avert the evils 
arising from sending away their gold in millions for 
Flax, to enrich a people who (if we are to judge from 
their increased importation of our newest and best 
machinery) will soon not only spin and manufacture for 
themselves, and dispense with British goods and yarns, 
but also oppose us in every market we now supply with 
our yarns and linens. Thus, in 1830, the great portion 
of all the yarns spun in Leeds, Manchester, and Preston, 
went to Ireland, at double the price they sell for now ; 
but as Ireland increased in growing and spinning her 
own Flax, in the same ratio prices fell, and now the 
Irish people find they can dispense with the supplies of 
yarns, formerly had from Leeds, Manchester, and 
Preston spinners, and those gentlemen are now all but 
excluded from that market; and although the Conti- 
nental people are following the same course as the Irish 
did, as they are the growers of the Flax and intend to 
be the spinners also, yet the English and the far-seeing 
Seotch are quite at ease on the subjeet ; however, as it 
may happen, that the British Flax-spinners will not 
find that, a * Free trade in Corn,” will open up many 
new channels for yarns, sufficient to make up for what 
THEY MUST EVENTUALLY LOSE, BY A FREE EXPORTATION OF 
MacntwERY, I am inclined to think they will not con- 
tinue to look on with indifference at what should be an 
object of serious consideration, as the many green 
valleys in Yorkshire and Laneashire that have been 
allowed to remain for some scores of years unploughed 
and comparatively unprofitable, would if they grew 
Flax yield a profit of 107. to 157. per acre, and a. great 
chance of doubling that sum by superior management, 
Ihave been often told on the Continent that England 
is more indebted to her machinery than to the enter- 
prisé of her 1 , or her hanical and manu- 
facturing skill, for her great wealth and influence as a 
nation; but I could admit that to be only partially 
true; as, in my opinion, the great secret has been 
found, in her WELL-WoRKED mines of iron, copper, and. 
coal, from which the material of her machinery is pro- 
duced. For, in no instance, have we had to send to 
the Continent for those materials to make our 
machinery from ; and thus, the money expended on 
bringing out our numerous inventions, never left the, 
country, and, as a consequence, we are enriched thereby, 
as it only changes hands from the merchant, or im- 
porter of Continental and American produce, say, first 
tothe machine-makers; then from that class it is paid away 
to the iron-master, the Coal-mine owners, and copper- 
mine owners 3 and from each of them it next turns to 
their work-people, and from those people it is handed 
to the shop-keepers and farmers, in payment of food 
and raiment} and back it comes again from these 
classes to the merchants and landowners. Therefore, 
unless FoR Frax, and artieles that we cannot grow-— 
such as tea, sugar, drugs and spices, silk, cotton and 
wool—our riehes and greatness have been acquired 
from OUR WELL-WORKED MINES, and the produce of our 
LABOURABLE SOILS, as well as from the shill of our 
ics, and enterprise of our merchants ; and thus 
I argue in favour of producing from the soil what we 
require for our linen manufactures. We have a large 
drain on us for silk and cotton wool, which our soil and 
climate will not produce; but this cannot be obviated. 
It should, however, induce us to stop all the other drains 
that we possibly ean—it should, for instance, make us 
labour to stop that ruinous annual payment of near 8 mil- 
lions which I have so often alluded to, We can grow the 
article (Fax) ourselves, which our spinners thus pay 
for, and, lam prepared to prove, in quality equal to, 
and at an expense less than that at which our spinners 
are now supplied. I ealeulate we can furnish them 
with Flax on an average of 507. per ton, equal in quality 
to the Continental Flax, for which we pay on an ave- 
rage 677. per ton; and farmers, at that price, will 
average at least from 107. to 127, per acre clear profit, 
As it is probable some readers of your Journal may 
doubt the certainty of a clear average of 127, per aere 
being made by Flax culture, I wish to add a short 
paragraph from one of my letters that appeared in 
your Paper in April last, in order to prove the fact. E 
Shall not oceupy your space by giving the items of the 
Dr. and Cr. sides of that statement, as such can be found 
in your Journal ; but for the present I shall call their 
attention to the following, as I h given an average 
of our last six years of Flax imports, and shown the 
profits of home production. 
The Total Importations of Flax in 1840 were 62,662 Tons, 
» » » 184 p ui » 
55,113 
Toi 
Thus, the Flax Imports for the last six 8 
ivean annualaverage of 67,849 Tons, which, 
at the valuation quoted for 1840, will be about 
671, per ton, or n e. ae . .. £4,545,883 0 © 
Add a ge Annual Imports of Flax Seed for 
sowing and feeding, 616,000 qrs., valued at 4i. 
per quarter (being 205. per quarter under the 
for some years past, in Ireland) for Flax 
s Dsowing p. UNT ee) A ane 
Add av Annual Imports of Oil Cake, 
86,000 tons, valued at 9l. per ton E b 
t th appears, we have been paying annu-) — —— 
fa , and, poa dons the last» £7,783,883 0 € 
giv 
2,464,000 0 0 
774,000 0 0 
sie years, average ves e ns 
To the foregoing important facts it will only be ne- 
cess: to add, that successful results have invariably 
attended those agrieulturists who have engaged in grow- 
ing Flax. Sir Richard O'Donnell, Bart., of Mayo, Ire- 
land, states, that he has himself “had 130 stones of 
Flax from 2 acres. That one of his tenants had at the 
rate of 104 stones to the aere, which produced the 
large profit of 312. 4s. per acre, and that another small 
tenant had obtained 14 stones of Flax from 14 quarts 
of seed.” Mr. Andrews, of Comber, a gentleman well 
known to the Royal Agricultural Society in Ireland, 
communicating with the Secretary of the Flax Society 
in Ireland, says, that “he received for his Flax at the 
rate of 287. 16s. 10d, per acre, to which he adds the 
amount he received for seed, 117. 6s. 6d., giving the 
amazing result of 407, 3s. 4d. per acre, whieh, on oe 
ducting the entire expences of rent and labour of al 
kinds, leaves a clear profit of more than 302. per 2e 
being a return far exceeding anything Ae ever geen 
from land before.” Ona model farm of the Earl o 
Caledon (crop 1845), “the produce of Flax, e Ie 
seed, from 1 acre, 1 rood and 39 perches, amoun Ai 
602. 14s. 34d., the whole expenses of sowing, weeding, 
A 
pulling, rippling, steeping, taking out, spreading, lifting; 
