064 
BUCKWHEAT. 
agriculturists speak cautiously and even dispar- | latest growth. Instances are on record of land 
agingly of buckwheat as green fodder, alleging 
that it is greedily eaten by cattle and sheep only 
when they cannot obtain a sufficiency of better 
food, and that, when eaten in any considerable 
quantity, it has a stupifying and even intoxicat- 
ing effect; and Banister says that he has seen 
hogs, after they had fed heartily on it, thrown 
into astate of such violent intoxication that they 
could not walk without reeling. The plant it- 
self, however, is so variable in chemical constitu- 
tion according to the kind of soil on which it is 
|| grown, the stage of growth at which it is cut 
down, and the state of comparative wetness or 
dryness, freshness or exsiccancy in which it is 
used, that the conflicting accounts of it have 
probably arisen from observations upon it in 
| widely different conditions; and were it always 
grown upon warm and well-drained land, and cut 
and used in the manner recommended by Dr. 
Hunter, it would perhaps, in every instance, 
| prove not only an unobjectionable but a decid- 
edly desirable summer fodder. 
When buckwheat is designed to be ploughed 
in as a green manure, it ought to be sown toler- 
ably thick ; and, in consequence of its very rapid 
_method of growth, it will become speedily avail- 
_ able, and can be sown with minute calculation 
_of the time at which it shall be ploughed in. 
When it arrives at the first flush of full bloom, it 
| possesses its maximum of succulency and weight, 
and is in prime condition for its proposed use; 
' and it ought then to be first laid flat by the 
_ roller, and next turned neatly into furrows and 
completely covered by means of a plough with 
the addition of a skim coulter. When the plough- 
ing is finished, the seams between the furrows 
should be closed with a-roller ; and when more 
days than one are consumed in the ploughing, 
| the seams of the portion ploughed each day 
ought to be closed by rolling towards the even- 
ing. The land should now remain untouched 
till the approach of the time for sowing the 
wheat ; and, during the interval, the buckwheat 
will fully ferment by the action of the sun upon 
its own juices, and will form a much richer man- 
ure than any belonging to a farm-yard dunghill 
exposed to the play and wash of the rain. But 
when the soil into which the buckwheat is 
ploughed has a light and friable texture, it ought 
to be consolidated by rolling, else the decaying 
stems of the buckwheat will render it exceed- 
ingly loose and hollow; and when it is naturally 
clayey and tenacious, and requires the very op- 
posite process to consolidation, it receives much 
benefit, and in particular is mellowed and made 
porous by the mechanical mixture with it of the 
buckwheat. In either case, the land was so bro- 
ken and pulverized by the preceding operations, 
and is now so freshened with the buckwheat man- 
ure, that it requires no further preparation for 
the sowing of the wheat upon it, than a single 
harrowing to remove the few light weeds of the 
manured in this manner producing 36 bushels of 
wheat per acre, though it had formerly produced, 
in the ordinary way, only 28 bushels. Mr. Bal- 
lingal of Trenton, in Scotland, made, in 1826, an 
experiment in ploughing in buckwheat as man- 
ure, which, though not measured in its results, 
proved quite satisfactory. “The buckwheat,” 
says he, “was sown at the rate of 24 bushels or 
little more per Scottish acre, so late as the 21st 
day of July, and cut down and ploughed in on 
the 16th of September. But the sowing of the | | 
common wheat was protracted, for want of mois- 
ture, until the 2d of October. The crop of wheat 
raised from this vegetable manure was of excel- 
lent quality, and equally bulky in straw as the 
other crops of that grain produced by a suffi- 
ciency of farm-yard dung. Not feeling sanguine 
as to the success of the experiment, I had nearly 
one half of the buckwheat driven home, and 
mixed with straw as food for cattle, it being 
universally predicted that the ensuing winter 
would be one of scarcity of fodder. It may be 
mentioned, that the cattle consumed the mixed 
straw with avidity. The portion of ground left | 
was not measured in this first experiment, and, | 
for this reason, the produce was not exactly as- 
certained; but the result fully warranted ano- 
ther trial.” A second experiment, accordingly, 
was made by Mr. Ballingal in 1827; and, though 
still not so accurately marked as could have been | 
wished, brought out results which very power- 
fully recommend buckwheat manuring to Scot- 
tish farmers. The field selected for the experi- 
ment had a soil of dry gravelly loam, comprised 
an area of 18 Scottish acres, and was equally 
divided between an unmanured summer fallow 
of buckwheat ploughed green into the sgil, and 
a fallow crop of potatoes both preceded and fol- 
lowed by ample doses of farm-yard dung. The 
whole cost of the buckwheat fallow up to the 
time of sowing with winter wheat was £1 4s. 
103d. per acre, and the whole cost of the farm- 
yard manure upon the potato portion was £5 10s. 
per acre, a proportion of which, amounting in 
value to £2, was supposed to be consumed by the 
potato crop, having a cost of £3 10s. per acre of 
manurial preparation for wheat, or an excess of 
£2 5s. 14d. per acre over that of the buckwheat 
fallow. Yet the produce of wheat from the buck- 
wheat half of the field was 9} bolls, while that 
from the potato half was only 7 bolls, 3 bushels, 
2 pecks; and the weight of the former was from 
15 stones 10 lbs. to 16 stones per 4 imperial 
bushels, while the weight of the latter was 15 
stones 6 lbs. per 4 imperial bushels. The value 
of the potato crop obviously ought to be added 
to the results of the potato-side of the field; yet 
this, though not stated in Mr. B.’s report, can 
be pretty proximately calculated by any ordina- 
rily experienced farmer. Let us, however, im- 
press upon persons who have not paid much atten- 
tion to agricultural chemistry, that green buck- 
ee 
