1862.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
205 
climate, and locality of the orchardist, will apply. 
The demand of the market, and the varieties most 
favorable to the soil and climate, must measurably 
govern. A good apple in one place may be worth¬ 
less in another, and no man’s ipse dimt of a “best 
selection ” is worth a copper for all localities. I 
need not go into particulars to prove the truth of 
this; but if any one doubts it, let him try, and an 
experience of a dozen years will show him that he 
has fooled away a good share of both his time and 
money. I am this Spring grafting over many well 
grown trees with sure and productive kinds, in 
place of the fancy things that I was thoughtless 
enough to put in because some partial ignoramus 
made me believe they would do well with me, be¬ 
cause they were favorite kinds three hundred miles 
away. The table of “ best apples for different lo¬ 
calities ” is useful, and no doubt reliable, as founded 
on the experience of those who “voted ” them. 
[These remarks may as well be applied to pears.] 
Crinoline Flower Pots ! p. 149.—Well, what next? 
I thought the “ wimmcn” had all the crinoline to 
themselves; and if the flower pots are coming in 
for a share of the article, where will it end ? 
“ Hulled Corn."— Yes ; it used to be good in my 
boyhood, when potatoes-and-milk, bean-porridge, 
johnnycake and brown bread were every-day edibles 
on the table. But since wheat flour and rice have 
got to be plenty and cheap, our housekeepers have 
found out that it is “ too much trouble ” to make 
the “hulled corn.” Yet, it is good, I admit—if 
you can get the “ley” taste all out of it. But, as 
things go, I never expect to eat a dish of hulled 
corn again; aud I don’t know that I shall cry about 
it, cither. I don’t believe even “ Aunt Mary ” cares 
much about sweltering over a pot, with her ash- 
barrel and ley kettle lumbering up her washroom, 
for the sake of getting up a dish which the majority 
of her “ young folks ” will be inclined to turn up 
their noses at when they find out that “ poor folks ” 
lived on it fifty or a hundred years ago. 
Buckwheat—Its Place in our Agriculture. 
Buckwheat fills a place in our list of crops 
that no other plant can. It has the name of the 
lazy man’s crop, from the little preparation the 
land needs for its cultivation, and the ease with 
which it may he grown. This is perhaps the 
chief objection to the crop; it favors slack hus¬ 
bandry, and yields a remunerative crop so long 
that some lands have been entirely run out by 
cropping with it. You can skin land more ef¬ 
fectually with buckwheat than with any other 
crop. On this account, and some others, the 
crop is not a favorite one with many of our best 
farmers. It is said to poison the land for corn, 
and the cases are pretty numerous where corn 
following buckwheat has failed. The succession 
is certainly not to be recommended. The seed 
also remains in the land for a year or two after 
it is sown, and makes its appearance among sub¬ 
sequent crops more than any other grain. To 
the farmer who loves clean seed, this is a serious 
objection. It can be remedied by following it 
with a hoed crop, or by stocking down to grass. 
Buckwheat may be sown where other crops 
have failed, or could not be planted on ac¬ 
count of the wetness of the land, or lateness in 
its preparation. It is usually sown from the 
middle of June to the middle of July, the latter 
month generally being preferred, where the ob¬ 
ject is to get grain. If sown too early, there is 
danger that the grain will not fill out well in 
the hot weather of August. If too late it is lia¬ 
ble to be cut off by the early frosts. 
The yield is generous, even on soils where 
other grains would not pay. But we doubt the 
policy of growing this or any other grain with¬ 
out manure. There is no crop, not even turnips, 
to which Peruvian guano is so well adapted, and 
on which it shows such marked results. We 
have seen a heavy crop grown on exhausted 
land with only a bag to the acre. From ten to 
fifteen bushels to the acre is a common yield on 
rather poor, though not exhausted, land. With 
the guano the yield is frequently doubled. Where 
this is the case it makes a very handsome profit 
on the manure. But it is only in special emer¬ 
gencies and where there is a deficiency of farm¬ 
yard manure, that guano is to be recommended. 
The like benefit will not accrue from its use the 
second year upon the same land. 
It is an excellent cleansing crop, where land 
has become foul with charlock, wild worm-wood, 
Canada thistles, and other weeds. It grows so 
rapidly that it gets the start of all other plants, 
and keeps it. It completely shades the ground. 
It is for this reason that it is so often sown upon 
swales, and brush pasture recently cleared, 
where there are many coarse clods. The roots 
and sods are kept moist by the shade, and de¬ 
composition goes on rapidly. It is well adapted 
to newly cleared lands full of vegetable matter. 
Buckwheat stands high among the plants to 
be turned in for manure. It matures so rapidly 
that two crops can be turned under in a season, 
or a crop of clover, and a crop of buckwheat fol¬ 
lowing. It does admirably well to precede a 
crop of rye. It may be sown any time before 
the first of this month, turned in the last of 
August, and the rye sown soon after. It is claim¬ 
ed by those who have tried the experiment for 
several years, that a crop of rye may be taken 
from the land every year by this process, and 
the soil all the while improve. 
Two to four pecks are ample seed for an 
acre, the less quantity being used on rich land. 
For feeding, it is nearly equal to Indian corn. 
John Johnston, who is authority in fattening 
cattle, prefers a feed of one half buckwheat, to 
one wholly of corn, at the same price. It is 
used extensively for fattening poultry and swine, 
both whole, and ground with other grains. A 
very common provender in New-England is 
oats, corn and buckwheat mixed in equal parts 
and ground. This is mixed with potatoes for 
swine, and with hay for working horses. 
Tobacco Cultivation—No. V. 
The tobacco fields have, by the first of July, es¬ 
caped the dangers of infancy, and though many 
a plant has become a “ cast away,” or fallen in 
the field of conflict with worms, sun, and storms, 
the thinned ranks have been filled, and raw re¬ 
cruits are making up for lost time. Hot-days with 
occasional showers, cause tobacco to “ grow like 
a weed.” There is little danger of dry weather 
injuring the crop, if the ground has been well 
prepared, and the surface is kept stirred so long 
as it is possible without tearing the leaves. Af¬ 
ter this, the thick leaves so shade the ground 
that it is kept moist. 
The hawk-moths or sphinges begin to fly in 
July, or perhaps earlier, but at this time are first 
particularly noticeable. The Sphinx Carolina, 
(the hornblower moth,) is the parent of the to¬ 
bacco worm. It is a very large moth which flies 
at dusk, seeking its food, which is honey, in va¬ 
rious flowers open at night—potato blossoms, 
wild evening primrose ( (Enothera ), foxgloves, 
and other garden flowers, but particularly in the 
large funnel-shaped blossoms of the stramo¬ 
nium or Jamestown-weed, ( Datura stramonium). 
This moth is as large and has somewhat the 
flight of a small bird, hovering about here and 
there—quick in its motions, not very shy, and 
resting before the flowers into which it thrusts 
its long thread-like proboscis, which in its flight 
is curled up like a watch spring. The moth is of 
an ash-gray color; fore-wings with blackish, 
wavy lines; hind-wings, whitish in the middle, 
with four black bands, the two central ones 
narrow and jagged; fringes spotted with white; 
five orange-colored spots on each side the abdo¬ 
men; the proboscis excessively long. The spread 
of the wings is often 5 inches. The more there 
are killed of these moths the fewer will be the 
worms in the field. The eggs are deposited near 
the edge of the leaf on the underside, and hatch 
in about a week. The apple-green larvae feed 
very quietly on the undersurface for some time, 
but finally become quite active and ravenous. 
Poisoning the Hornblowers. —The moth may be 
easily killed by watching near some of the flow¬ 
ers mentioned and striking them down. If the 
common fly poison of the shops, called “ cobalt," 
(but really black arsenic, though the majority of 
druggists and other dealers do not know it,) be 
very finely pulverized, and two ounces be put 
into a half pint phial, and filled up with equal 
parts honey and water, after standing a few 
hours it makes a seductive and fatal beverage to 
the hornblowers. The best way to administer 
it is, by means of a little syringe, to drop half a 
dozen drops in each available flower of the stra¬ 
monium situated near the fields, and in case these 
are not abundant, in the blossoms of the other 
flowers mentioned. It is a good plan also to 
pick some stramonium flowers and place them, 
filled with the poisoned nectar, in the tobacco 
field at the time the moths are laying their eggs. 
In fact we think for bee-keepers the poisoning- 
should be effected by putting the bait altogether 
in plucked flowers, which would wither before 
the bees fly much. Of course since the moths 
fly only in the dusk of the evening, the poison¬ 
ing must be done at that time. There are sev¬ 
eral cases reported of this poisoning, being very 
successful, and we have therefore given the 
method in detail. 
A flock of young turkeys will make way with 
an immense number of worms, and without doing 
any special damage to the leaves, particularly if 
they visit the field in the early morning when 
most of the worms are under the lower leaves. 
It is not a very agreeable duty of the field hands 
to find and crush between the fingers as many 
of these worms as possible; but to this end the 
field must often be thoroughly searched through, 
investigation being made at every hoeing, and 
oftener, if necessary. When the plants grow 
too large to be hoed, and the large leaves form 
in the perfection of which the great value of the 
crop consists, vigilance must increase. Instead 
of crushing the worms, when they are abundant 
we advise bagging them, (each man having a 
pocket or bag at his side). It is less disgusting, 
and a supply of chicken-meat is thus obtained. 
It is in August that the greatest labor and 
care is necessary to prevent injury from the 
worms, and it is seldom necessary to “ top ” the 
plants before the middle of the same month. In 
some very forward fields, however, the plants 
will be ready for topping by August 1st. This 
is done by breaking off the tops about 2 or 2 A 
feet high, according to the vigor of the plant. 
The object of this is to throw into the leaves 
that force which would otherwise be expended- 
in producing seed. Branches will start from the 
axils of the leaves, and must be watched and 
removed continually. The plant should be top¬ 
ped before these “suckers” start, and higher 
or lower, according to the season, and the time 
left for maturing the leaves. This will form the 
subject of our next article on tobacco culture. 
