294 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
Thrashing 1 Buckwheat 
As this is the month in which buckwheat is 
usually gathered and thrashed, we have a word 
or two to say on the latter branch of this labor. 
it is a long-time custom with some farmers to 
thrash their buckwheat in the field where it is 
grown. The reasons for it, as they say, are, 
that it is “handier than to cart it to the barn ; it 
shells out less, and therefore wastes less ; and 
the work is so quickly done that it is altogether 
better— provided the weather is good. We will not 
stop to enumerate the mishaps which this provi¬ 
so is occasionally subjected to in long storms, by 
which the entire crop is damaged, or lost, but 
confine the objection to a single item, or two. In 
the first place, if the ground is hard enough to 
make a thrashing floor without carrying boards, 
or plank for the purpose, and barricading to keep 
ihe grain from flying out by the action of the flails 
upon it, the grain gets full of grit and dirt, from 
which it is almost impossible for the fanning mill 
to clean it. And.this, with the extra labor laid out 
upon it, with loss of straw, costs quite as much 
as to haul the cut grain to the barn and then do 
the job up tidily, saving the straw, and getting a 
good yield of clean seed. 
In the second place, if you have a barn, the 
harvested crop, when sufficiently dry, can be 
hauled in, and there lay for bad out-of-door weath¬ 
er, in which you may thrash it without prejudice 
to other work which must have fair weather. 
We prefer a thrashing machine for buckwheat, 
to the flail, provided the straw is not so long, or 
stout as to clog it. The grain is much cleaner, 
and for flouring purposes altogether better, as a 
good deal of the grain is partially hulled by the 
teeth of the thrasher. Besides this, it is thrash¬ 
ed perfectly clean, and none is left in the straw. 
After thrashing, let the grain be thinly spread 
over a floor, till dry. It will yield double the 
flour, and that of a better quality than when at 
all moist, besides occasionally getting musty. 
Save all the straw. It is the best of cattle bed¬ 
ding, besides a make-shift fodder. 
Hewly Seeded Meadows and Pastures. 
Let the season be as it may, there will usually 
be some spots in newly seeded grass grounds 
where the Spring or Autumn seeding for some 
reason has not yet taken well, and they conse¬ 
quently are bare. The month of October, when 
the September rains revive the withered and 
feeble growing grass that has suffered in the Sum¬ 
mer drouth after the Spring sowing, will show 
such places where the seed has failed; and now 
is the time to re-seed them, particularly with 
timothy, or red top. 
One method is this : Examine the field closely 
by walking carefully over it with a bag of seed 
thrown over the shoulder, taking along a boy with 
a bundle of small sharpened sticks. Wherever 
a bare spot is found, strew a sufficient quantity 
of seed, and let the boy drive, a stick five or six 
inches into the ground so that the next Spring’s 
thawing of the Winter frost will not throw it out. 
The seed will come up this Fall and make growth 
enough to hold in the ground for the Winter. 
When the snow goes off in the Spring, as early 
as possible, go over the land again with a bag of 
clover seed—if you wish the clover added to the 
timothy, or red top—and sow that, letting the boy 
follow and pull up the sticks as he goes. The open¬ 
ing and shutting of the surface of the land by the 
Spring frosts, will cover the clover seed, and 
when the growing season arrives, a fine young 
growth of the grasses will appear, and the future 
meadow, or pasture be uniformly covered with the 
young crops of grass. The young growth will 
probably give but little crop the first season, but 
will be sure for the year following. 
It is quite too common a thing for farmers to 
turn over their newly seeded fields for another 
crop of small grains, and a re-seeding of grass, 
because the young grass has apparently failed, 
when it is only feeble, and has made little growth 
by reason of drouth, or otherwise; when, with a 
little patience, and coaxing, the coming mid-sum¬ 
mer would show a beautiful sod, and a late har¬ 
vest of excellent hay. 
Fall Pasture—October Butter- 
We don’t like to tetl too many secrets ; but 
when we say that October butter, rightly made, 
is the very best for Winter use of the whole sea¬ 
son, we know what we are talking about. We 
say “ rightly made.” And that is not simply in 
setting the milk, skimming off the cream, churn¬ 
ing and working it, and then packing it down, 
but depends, also, on beeping the cow properly 
while yielding her milk for the purpose. Some 
have a notion that mowing grounds should nev¬ 
er be Fail pastured. Such may be, or may not 
be. We assume, however, that after the hay is 
carried off, and the meadow has Jain open to the 
after showers of the season, provided it has a 
thick, close bottom, and not been top-dressed 
since haying, and the grass has again got a good 
stocky growth, none so good use can be made of 
that grass, or the ground it grows on, as to feed it 
off with some sort of farm stock, which it will 
be ready to have done, if at all, by the first of 
October. Then, if you have a lot of butter dairy 
caws, turn them in. Their milk is then richer 
in cream than earlier in the season, although 
the quantity of milk is less. The grass is fresh, 
clean, solid and rich. Turn them in after the 
frost is off the grass in the morning, and not be¬ 
fore. If it is late in the morning before the frost 
melts or evaporates, give the cows a snip of hay 
in the stables or sheds before they go out, and 
keep them in all night, with a bite of hay be¬ 
fore them. Don’t leave them in the field, for 
they will not eat in a frosty night, and their 
milk will secrete less in the chilly air than when 
under shelter. Then your cows are in capital 
health and condition ; their secretions of milk 
uniform, and the quality of the best ; and such 
milk must make good butter, if properly treated 
afterwards. 
So into November, and through it, you make 
abundance of butter. As the season advances 
give them pumpkins, good cured corn-stalks, or 
anything nutritious and milk-yielding. When 
December comes, dry them off, if they calved 
early in the Spring. A good dairy cow should go 
dry about three months of the year, for she will 
bring you a better calf, and give more and bet¬ 
ter milk, on the average, for not being over¬ 
worked. 
“Hungarian Grass.” 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist i 
I would like to hear from the correspondents of 
the Agriculturist the results of their sowing this 
season ; the quantity raised per acre ; its value, 
compared with millet and other forage crops. I 
raised a small quantity by the side of millet, and 
found it a distinct variety, and more even, and 
of heavier growth. Its comparative value for 
stock, as well as absolute quantity, as compared 
with other grasses, clover, Indian coin, &c., 
will greatly oblige, not only me, but 
Many Reaokks. 
Westchester Co., Sep. 10, 1858. 
What makes Young Forest Trees Grow ? 
We have tried, in several previous articles on 
the subject of the growth of forest trees, both in 
standing woods and ornamental parks, to show 
the necessity of proper and timely training, thin¬ 
ning, and pruning of the young trees which are in¬ 
tended to stock them ; and the subject will bear, 
in its profits and pleasures, a frequent reference 
in our columns. 
Planted at a distance apart at which the trees 
should stand when fully grown, in grass grounds, 
they require a deal of spade, or fork cultivation 
for many years to promote their growth, which 
is expensive, and troublesome, for the growing 
grass binds their roots closely, admitting neither 
sufficient air nor moisture, while the crop draws 
from them the' limited amount of moisture re¬ 
ceived from the falling rains, to their great disad¬ 
vantage. Any one who will observe the strong 
and vigorous growth of young trees—with no 
thick standing old trees to overshadow them— 
will see, at once, how rapidly they push forward 
beyond those which stand out singly, and alone, 
until they have arrived at a hight to make shade 
enough to protect their own roots from the grow¬ 
ing grass beneath. The secret of this lies in the 
shadow made by the thickly standing young trees, 
suffering nothing else to grow but themselves; 
and so long as not smothered by their own crowd¬ 
ing, and over-growth, they push onwards to early 
and vigorous maturity. So with widely planted 
shade trees ; when once their trunks attain a 
size of six or eight inches in diameter at the 
ground, they shoot forward with increased vigor, 
and in good soil, with fair usage, rapidly extend 
their shadows to a broad circumference. 
It is thus that thickly planted trees, either in 
single rows, or in compact masses, for lawn, or 
park purposes, have a decided advantage in get¬ 
ting a quick growth, and making a dense shade, 
over those planted, only at the distances apart 
which they may be required at an advanced age 
The way, therefore, to best succeed in obtaining 
the most shade at the earliest possible time, un¬ 
less the planter prefers the expensive method of 
digging, and mulching them at the root, is to have 
a surplus number of trees at planting, and set 
them close together so as to cover the ground, 
and keep it soft, as soon as possible. There are 
many cheap and rapidly growing varieties which 
may be used for this purpose, as the willows, 
poplars, abeles, &c., which may be planted around 
the maples, elms, lindens, and others, thus pro¬ 
tecting them for a few years, and then be cut 
away, or otherwise removed when the outspread¬ 
ing roots and branches become inconvenient to 
those which are to remain. These we say, are 
cheap, because they will grow from the slip, as 
well as the root, and need little care, if not in¬ 
jured by cattle. Or, cheap shrubbery may he 
substituted equally to the advantage of the young 
shade trees. For street planting we do not name 
them, as they would be subject to all sorts of 
depredation, and the protection they would re¬ 
quire costs quite as much as the extra cultivation 
needed by the tree without them. 
Of course, this thick planting contemplates fu¬ 
ture removal of the surplus, and requires a great¬ 
er outlay and labor at first; but when an early 
effect in shade, or protection by the trees is the 
object, the extra cost in the beginning is cheaper 
than the extra cultivation in the end. The super 
fluous trees, as they are removed by digging out 
