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Agriculture is the most healthful, the most useful, and the most 
noble employment of Man. — Washington. 
VOL. II. 
NEW YORK, OCTOBER, 1843. NO. VII. 
A. B. Allen, Editor. 
Saxton & Miles, Publishers, 205 Broadway. 
BUCKWHEAT STRAW, 
As this is the month when buckwheat is usually 
cut and threshed at the north, we have thought 
that a word or two as to the value of its straw 
might not be amiss. It is customary with many 
to burn this straw, because, on account of its 
coarseness, they think it quite worthless. This 
is a great mistake. Properly cut, cured, and 
stacked, we have found it of considerable value as 
fodder in the middle of the day in winter, when 
cattle are turned out of their stables for exercise. 
At this time they will usually eat up a moderate 
quantity of the straw with considerable relish. 
In stacking buckwheat straw, it should be care¬ 
fully capped with some other straw—rye we think 
the best, for left in stack without some protection 
of this kind, it is so coarse of itself, that the water 
easily percolates through to its injury. Of course 
it makes good bedding in the stable, and excellent 
manure, and will quickly and easily decompose if 
made one of the materials of the manure-heap, as 
recommended in the new method on page 164 of 
our last number. Another useful purpose to 
which it may be put, is to let it stand in stack till 
the following hay-harvest, and then mix it in 
equal parts with clover, in alternate layers as it is 
packed away in the barn. In this way, clover can 
be put up with much less curing, and the straw 
will become impregnated with its juices, and all 
will be eaten with avidity the following winter. 
Salt should always be added to the clover and 
buckwheat straw in packing it away, at the rate 
of four to six quarts at least per ton. Perhaps 
eight quarts might be still better. 
’ KEEPING APPLES. 
The ordinary method of stowing apples away in 
the bins of cellars is a very good one for family pur¬ 
poses, especially if the cellars be cool and dry in 
the warmer months, and of a temperature above 
the freezing point in winter. The best method, 
however, which we have found of keeping apples, 
is to pick them by hand from the trees in dry 
weather, as soon as sufficiently ripe, and pack 
them in clean barrels, being very careful at the 
same time to prevent their getting bruised in so 
doing. Head them up tight from the air immedi¬ 
ately, and place them in any cool, dry place, with 
the temperature as near 40 or 45 degrees as pos¬ 
sible. In this way we have known them to re¬ 
main perfectly sound for more than a year, and it 
is thus packed that they best bear transportation 
