To one looking down under the clover and 
seeing how little straw there is—hardly enough 
now so he could find it—it floes not seem that 
so little could make any difference one way or 
the other. I had the grea pleasure of a call 
from the directors of the experiment stations 
in six States, lately. They were shown this 
mulched spot as one of the most 4 wonderful 
things I had on the farm. I suppose Prof. 
Roberts referred to it in his article, when he 
tells of what he saw in Ohio. Now I hope 
these gentlemen will try straw this winter 
on some of the poor, exposed spots on their 
grounds, and study into the matter for us 
farmers. I intend to put considerable on my 
wheat, as soon as the ground freezes so a team 
can be taken on without injury to it. I do 
not know whether it will pay on the best 
land. I do not know whether the straw will 
decay so as not to be raked up in the hay the 
year after next. I wish I did; but I shall put 
it on exposed and poor spots any way and take 
the chances. The straw will lie so closely on 
the ground that I think I can get the hay 
without the straw, even if the straw does not 
decay, by setting the rake a little high. 
Where one is growing clover to be plowed un¬ 
dergo bring up poor land,a coat of straw seems 
to me to be just the best possible thing; for if 
it is turned under it will insure a heavy stand 
of clover. 
Summit Co., Ohio. 
BUCKWHEAT. 
Gross exaggeration in yield ; official figures-, 
where most is produced ; production in 
Pennsylvania; the later it is sown the bet¬ 
ter if frosts keep off ; nearly insect-proof \ 
pays on poor land but better on rich; soil 
for the best results ; uses and botanical 
classification-, varieties-,production should 
increase instead of decreasing -, it has no 
place in crop rotation. 
I do not know who wrote the letter in a late 
issue of the Rural Nkw- Yorker, stating that 
70 bushels of buckwheat can be raised per acre 
on good soil. It was probably a mis-print, 
the writer having written 17 instead of 70. If 
he really wrote 70, then it is evident that he 
has the ability and the inclination to beat 
Artemis Ward in exaggeration, and could do 
i< £iooh hotter lecturing through the cities and 
large towns than writing in the agricultural 
papers for tne instruction of farmers in the 
country. In the report on buckwheat in the 
census of 1880, it is said of the yield: “While 
frequently falling as low as five bushels, it 
also frequently rises above 30, and sometimes 
to 40 or 50 bushels per acre. In those States 
that produce the most of the crop, 30 bushels 
per acre are considered a rather large yield, 
although in favorable seasons, this is not by 
any means uncommon.” A handful of seed 
sown in a garden-bed, is no just criterion by 
which to estimate the number of bushels 
which can be raised per acre by the best field 
cultivation. The man who told the census- 
taker that sometimes 50 bushels are raised per 
acre, was either a premium guesser, who de¬ 
pends on his imagination for his facts,or a farm¬ 
er who has no faith in surveyors’ chains, scales, 
or naif-bushels, keeps no accurate farm ac¬ 
counts, but trusts entirely to his skill in 
mathematics, his expertness in making esti¬ 
mates,and his knowledge of compound guess¬ 
work. 
The average number of bushels per acre 
raised in the United States in the census year 
of 1879 was 13.9 bushels. The average in the 
State of New York was 15.3 bushels. The 
average in Pennsylvania was 15.09 bushels. 
Albany County produced more than any other 
county in New York, the number of bushels 
being 211,225; average per acre, 14.2 bushels. 
Bradford County produced more than any 
other county in Pennsylvania or any other 
county in the United States, the number of 
bushels being 424,168 and the average over 18 
bushels per acre. New York is the Empire 
State in raising buckwheat, as it is in com¬ 
mercial and financial affairs, having produced 
37 per cent, of the whole crop raised in the 
United States in the year 1879. Pennsylvania 
comes next, having produced in the same year 
about 31 per cent, of the whole crop. The 
Middle States and New England together 
produced 80 per cent. 
The best crop of buckwheat I ever raised 
was 75 bushels on 2j^ acres, or at the rate of 
30 bushels per acre. The land was an alluvial 
soil, composed of sand and loam, deposited by 
floods in the Susquehanna river. The field 
was a light Timothy sod plowed under about 
six or seven inches deep in the latter part of 
June, harrowed once, sown broadcast on July 
1, at the rate of one bushel per acre, harrowed 
twice after it was sown, with the square, 
straight-tooth harrow. The season was favor¬ 
able for buckwheat, and especially for this 
crop, in having no heavy storms to beat it 
down before it was ripe. It was the tallest 
buckwheat that I ever saw, and it stood up 
till it was harvested. 
In Northern Pennsylvania, and especially in 
Bradford county,the soil and climate are favor¬ 
able for this crop, and a field of it can be seen 
every year on nearly every farm. It is a great 
pleasure to drive through the country when 
so many fields are clothed with a white man¬ 
tle of living bloom, and the air is filled with 
a delightful perfume, as sweet as the scent of 
new-made honey. 
If Robert Burns had ever inhaled the deli¬ 
cious ' odor from the buckwheat fields of 
Bradford county, he never would have sung 
of “The sweet hawthorn blossoms.” The 
smell of the hawthorn blossoms is sickly and 
insipid in comparison to the grateful perfume 
which floats in the air from every buckwheat 
field. In northern Pennsylvania it is usually 
sown in the latter part of June, or the fore 
part of July, according to the altitude of the 
hills and the greater or lesser danger of early 
frosts. The later it can be sown, provided it 
can get ripe before frost comes, the better 
will be the crop. I have known it sown on 
the first day of August on rye stubble, and it 
got ripe and yielded well, but the frosts of 
autumn did not come so early as usual. It 
is not safe in this latitude to sow later than 
July 10. Dry weather, with a hot sun at 
the time the kernels are beginning to form, 
is apt to “blast” it and cause a poor yield. 
When the kernel is in the process of forma¬ 
tion, and the shuck very thin|and transparent, 
the heat of the sun, if great, drives out, or 
evaporates the moisture, and causes the inci¬ 
pient kernel to shrivel and shrink. Buck¬ 
wheat is not much subject to the attacks of 
insect enemies. It seems to have but few, if 
any, foes, and is sometimes thought to have 
power, by repeated sowings on the same field, 
to starve out the insect pests and drive them 
away. 
It is chiefly grown in the cooler'parts of the 
United States, in regions that are hilly or 
mountainous, and where the soil is usually 
light and thin; not because it requires a light, 
thin soil to produce the best results, but be¬ 
cause it is a hungry feeder and will search 
every particle of the soil to obtain its 
nourishment and produce a paying crop 
where wheat, corn, and some other grains 
would make but a feeble growth and scarcely 
reproduce the seed. Buckwheat, like beans, 
will grow on poor land, but greatly prefers 
that which is good, and will respond quickly 
and with evident gratitude when placed in a 
better soil. The only danger of sowing on 
rich land is its liability of growing too rank 
and lodging before it gets ripe. The best 
results are usually obtained when sown on 
land that is fairly good, but not lately man¬ 
ured, or too full of vegetable matter and ni¬ 
trogenous substances which will cause too 
great a growth of straw. The field on which 
I raised 30 bushels per acre, was good enough 
to have produced an average crop of corn. 
Buckwheat is not much used as a bread-plant 
1q the Old World except in Russia. In 
England and on the Continent it is sparingly 
cultivated as a food for poultry and game. 
The name buckwheat is derived from the 
Herman word Buck-weizen, or Beech wheat, 
from the kernels being shaped like beech-nuts. 
The French name is Ble-Sarassin, or Moorish 
wheat, probably because it was first.introduced 
by the Moors, or because it is dark-colored 
like the Moore. Buckwheat is a cereal only in 
the sense that it is a bread-plant. Botanists 
place it in the older Polygonaceae and the 
genus Polygonum, the genus to which our 
smart-weeds belong, and the species which 
have three-cornered seeds. The Silver hull is 
the variety that is generally raised in the 
locality in which the writer is acquainted, and 
is the kind that probably constitutes the bulk 
of the crop, and is in most favor in this coun¬ 
try. The “ Rough ”, the “ Nigger”, or, prop¬ 
erly, the Tartarian, yield well, but the flour is 
dark-colored and has a slightly bitter taste. 
The production of buckwheat in the United 
States is continually declining relatively to 
populat on, which ought not to be the case, 
for in regions in which it can be successfully 
raised and which are of great extent, it is 
more profitable than wljeat or corn, is quickly 
grown, finds a rare, welcome market, and 
sells readily for cash as soon as thrashed. 
There is one objection to raising buckwheat, 
—it does not seem to fit naturally into any 
regular rotation of crops so that the same 
field is sometimes sown for several years in 
succession. I have sown rye after buckwheat, 
and got a good crop and seeded to clover and 
had a good catch. Oats are frequently sown 
after buckwheat; but the scattered grains will 
come up and grow with the oats in consider¬ 
able quantities, and although it does not in¬ 
jure the oats for home use, it lessens the’r 
value in market. j. w. x. 
Sugar Run, Pa. 
FLAX NOTES. 
Last year a large part of the flax grown in 
this county was destroyed or badly damaged 
by rain, after it was cut. This year I cut 
mine with a sweep-rake reaper, letting every 
other rake, rake off. This made small, thin 
bunches that laid up lightly on the stubble. 
The stubble was left quite tall. We had re¬ 
peated rains, but the bunches were so small 
that they dried out without having been 
turned, and suffered no apparent damage. 
When ready to stack it was quickly gathered 
in shape for hauling with a one-horse rake. 
Two rows were raked at once, so that neither 
the horse nor the wheels ran over my flax; 
each row of bunches dropped from the rake in 
a separate pile, i. e., the windrows left by the 
rake were composed of distinct piles (one for 
each reaper cut) of a convenient size to handle 
nicely with a fork. a. c. carpenter. 
Dakota Co., Minn. 
“WHO GETS THE MELON?” 
Encouraging suggestions for farmers ; in pro¬ 
portion to the numbers engaged in agri¬ 
cultural,and all other gainful occupations 
and to the labor and capital invested, the 
farmers do not get a fair share of the 
country's profits; necessity for organiza¬ 
tion; evils of Trusts; unwise discontent on 
the farm; advantages of agriculture ; un¬ 
certainty of other vocations; changes in 
Eastern farming-, money should not be 
the only aim. 
The farmer produces, to a large extent, the 
world’s wealth, and yet more money is made 
by those who are not engaged in agriculture, 
by handling and manipulating what the farm¬ 
er produces, than the farmer realizes after all 
his hard work and self-denial. Are there too 
mauy middlemen—too many steps between 
the producer and the consumer, every one of 
which is a loss to the two extremes? The 
Rural’s cartoon in the issue of September 1, 
suggests that there are, and very forcibly. 
Very many farmers are of this opinion, and it 
was to obviate this needless surplus of middle¬ 
men that the Grange and some other farmers’ 
organizations have been formed. If farmers 
generally will not co operative to protect 
themselves, who is to blame? There are some 
things that are beyond their control; which 
have contributed to make farming less profit¬ 
able in the past few years, but these will come 
right in time. There are others which, if the 
farmers of the country will make a united and 
persistent effort, can be by them throttled and 
suppressed, and they owe it to themselves, 
their families and their interests to organize 
for this purpose. Those engaged in agricul¬ 
tural pursuits are nearly as many as those 
engaged in all other trades and callings com¬ 
bined. [According to the Census of 1880, the 
number of all ages and classes engaged in 
agricultural pursuits was 7,670,493; while 
the number of those engaged in profes¬ 
sional and personal services, in trades and 
transportation as well as in manufacturing, 
mechanical and mining industries combined 
that is, in all other gainful occupatioos— 
amounted to only 9,721,596. The number in 
each class has, of course, increased since 1880; 
but the proportion remains about the same. 
Eds.] But what signifies mere numbers 
without harmony of purpose and unity of ac¬ 
tion? Unorganized, the farmers are an easy 
prey to all who are smart enough to combine 
to fleece them. The huge “Trusts” that are 
being formed with such rapidity all over our 
land to control the products of the soil as well 
as other necessaries, are as powerful as they 
are needless, and they will not be suppressed 
unless those who are injured by them organ¬ 
ize and stay organized and move with deter¬ 
mination and persistency to their utter de¬ 
struction. They are organized simply and 
only to hold and control the products of the 
laborer, especially those of the farmer, for the 
one purpose of making money. They are the 
enemies of both the producer and the con¬ 
sumer. Unnecessary, illegitimate and un¬ 
righteous, they ought to be destroyed. Have 
these combinations nothing to do with the 
present low price of some farm crops? It is 
to their interest to buy as low as possible, and 
they have a way of their own (a kind of low 
cunning), of crowding the farmer to the wall 
while they are dealing with him. Unscrupu¬ 
lous as to their methods, they do not care who 
is injured so long as they secure what they 
seek—wealth by oppression. 
Having touched on the subject of organiza¬ 
tion, I will say,’further, that the farmer should 
organize not only to resist oppression; but to 
build up and advance his noble calling; and 
to elevate himself and his family in social and 
educational matters. There are questions of 
general interest occurring every day on the 
farm, in the solution of which most farmers 
will secure some aid if they will bring them 
before the Grange or farmers’ club for dis¬ 
cussion. It is wise and right to try within 
proper limits to improve one’s condition; with 
this purpose before him the farmer should 
seek a remedy for existing evils. The folly 
of neglecting to do so will put him outside 
the sympathy of friends. At present, the 
farmer in the matter of money, it may be, 
receives a smaller return for the labor and 
capital invested in his business, than is receiv¬ 
ed by those engaged in many other occupa¬ 
tions, and this is leading to widespread dis¬ 
content on the farm. Farmers are trying to 
sell out and get into some other business which 
they hope will pay them better. Farmers 
sons and daughters, too, are looking to clerk¬ 
ships in the city or country town. Farms 
ana farming are at a discount. It will be 
quite safe, I am quite sure, in most cases to 
advise farmers to hold on to their farms and 
the boys and the girls to continue at home on 
the farm until they can enter houses of their 
own. It is not always safe to judge from out¬ 
side appearances. The farmer may dispose 
of his farm at what he thinks a fair price, 
and invest the proceeds in a city business that 
DEVICE FOR WATERING CATTLE. Fig. 347. 
