Buckwheat

“ A field of ripening buckwheat has a charm of warm colour that gladdens the eye, especially when the morning or evening sunshine is upon it. But this glow of many tints was a sure sign of approaching autumn; so, too, were the reddened stalks of persicaria, filling the dry ditches by the wayside.
The valley narrowed, and upon its rocky sides was many a patch of purple heather—little gardens for the wild bees, but not for man. Neither peasant nor local Nimrod ever sets his foot there. ”

“ He would have to seek the depths of Brittany, the heart of the Cantal, the wastes of the Lozère, to find some faint image of the world he knew. There, indeed, save for the frequent crops of potatoes and buckwheat, which he would not recognise, he would find little changed; the one-toothed wooden plough still scores its furrow on the steep hillside; the thud of the flails is loud in the dusk of autumn evenings; in the fields the women stoop and gather the buckwheat into stooks and bind it standing, even as the reapers cut the stalks from the ground ”

“ With some farmers it is the practice to sow buckwheat for the purpose only of ploughing it into the ground, as a manure for the land. Whilst green, it serves as food for sheep and oxen; and, mixed with other provender, it may also be given, with advantage to horses. The blossoms may be used for dyeing a brown colour.
The principal advantage of buckwheat is, that it is capable of being cultivated upon land which will produce scarcely any thing else, and that its culture, comparatively with that of other grain, is attended with little expense.
CLASS IX.—ENNEANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. ”

“ The wheat hides the channel completely, and as the wind blows, the tall ears bend over it. At the edge of the bank pink convolvulus twines round the stalks and the green-flowered buckwheat gathers several together. The sunlight cannot reach the stream, which runs in shadow, deep down below the wheat-ears, over which butterflies wander. Forget-me-nots flower under the banks; grasses lean on the surface; willow-herbs, tall and stiff, stand up ”

“ Buckwheat crops, in white and fragrant bloom, are lying on half the farms; the long leaves of the maize are still brilliantly green, and its yellow flowers unblighted; late oat-fields here and there show their own pallid green beside recently-cut stubble, which still preserves the golden color of the ripe wheat. In several meadows of the valley mowers were busy, hay-cocks stood about the fields, and loaded carts were moving about, carrying one back to the labors of midsummer, but these
were doubtless crops of seed grass, timothy and clover, and not hay for fodder. ”

“ The cultivation of buckwheat, in one or other of its species, is principally confined to Great Britain, France, Switzerland, Italy, Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Russia, China, Tartary, Japan, Algeria, Canada, and the middle and northern portions of the United States.
In America from 30 to 45 bushels per acre may be considered as an average yield in favorable seasons and situations, but 60 or more bushels are not unfrequently produced. ”

“ Ground into meal, the buckwheat yields the staple of our diet; the bourriol—a large, thin, soft, round crumpet, which, eaten hot with butter, or cold with clotted cream, or a nugget of cheese, or dipped in new milk, is not to be despised. Every morning, the housewife’s earliest care is to fill the pail of bourriols which stands in every kitchen; next she warms the milk until the cream clots and rises. Besides the buckwheat, we grow oats for the cattle and rye for bread and straw. ”

“ This crop is grown to best advantage in climates where the nights are cool and moist. It matures more quickly than any other grain crop and is remarkably free from disease. The yield varies from ten to forty bushels an acre. Buckwheat does not seem to draw plant food heavily from the soil and can be grown on the same land from year to year.
In fertilizing buckwheat land, green manures and rich nitrogenous fertilizers should be avoided. These cause such a luxuriant growth that the stalks lodge badly. ”

“ The fiber (bran) is in large quantity and the starchy matter abounds. As a food buckwheat is less strengthening but somewhat more fattening than wheat. The popular notion that buckwheat when eaten regularly will induce a feverish state of the system and eruption of the skin, is probably well founded. The plant belongs to a family, many members of which have peculiar medicinal principles, and doubtless there is some oil or other substance present in the buckwheat that does not appear in a chemical analysis, though active upon the animal system. ”

“ The sifting cloths used in the bolting of buckwheat flour are somewhat coarser than those for wheat, and this allows some of the dark particles of the inner hulls to pass into the flour, which gives it a dark color on baking. It is quite possible to make a buckwheat flour as white as that from wheat, but in this country the public taste requires a darker product, so that the white flour does not readily sell. The requisite degree of darkness is secured by using bolting cloths which will allow a part of the inner hulls (middlings) to pass into the flour. ”

“ When the land is wanted for oats or corn, a jointer should be used on the plow to insure burying all the crop.
Buckwheat.—An excellent crop for green-manuring is buckwheat. It has such unusual ability to grow in a poor soil that the farmer who makes free use of it as a grain crop never boasts of acreage planted, assuming that his land will not be highly regarded if known to be devoted chiefly to buckwheat. It does not withstand heat well, especially from period of blossoming to maturity, and therefore is restricted to cool latitudes. ”

“ Buckwheat is grown in Great Britain only to supply food for pheasants and to feed poultry, which devour the seeds with avidity. In the northern countries of Europe, however, the seeds are employed as human food, chiefly in the form of cakes, which when baked thin have an agreeable taste, with a darkish somewhat violet colour. The meal of buckwheat is also baked into crumpets, as a favourite dainty among Dutch children, and in the Russian army buckwheat groats are served out as part of the soldiers’ rations, which they cook with butter, tallow or hemp-seed oil. ”

“ As compared with the principal cereal grains, buckwheat is poor in nitrogenous substances and fat; but the rapidity and ease with which it can be grown render it a fit crop for very poor, badly tilled land. An immense quantity of buckwheat honey is collected in Russia, bees showing a marked preference for the flowers of the plant. ”

“ Whether whole or in meal, the maize should be scalded, that the swelling may be done before it is eaten. The yellow-coloured maize is not so good as that which is reddish or rather reddish-brown.
Buckwheat is about equal to barley in flesh-forming food, and is very much used on the Continent. Mr. Wright has "a strong opinion that the enormous production of eggs and fowls in France is to some extent connected with the almost universal use of buckwheat by French poultry-keepers." It is not often to be had cheap in this country, but is hardy and may be grown anywhere at little cost. ”

“ In the United States buckwheat is sown at the end of June or beginning of July, the amount of seed varying from 3 to 5 pecks to the acre. The crop matures rapidly and continues blooming till frosts set in, so that at harvest, which is usually set to occur just before this period, the grain is in various stages of ripeness. ”

“ Polygonaceæ—The buckwheat, knotweeds, common dock, and many other genera. Sepals often colored white or pink so the flowers are sometimes at least insect-pollinated. Flowers small and crowded in various clusters, often in a spike. Fruit an achene, a dry fruit familiar enough in the buckwheat. About 40 genera and over 800 species, mostly herbs or vines here, but often trees in the tropics. ”

“ Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) is a grain of minor importance, its flour being used as human food, mostly in the form of griddle cakes. The plant is esteemed for plowing under in summer, to supply humus, and its blossoms for the honey bee. Most of it is grown in New York and Pennsylvania, and it does well in soils too poor for most other crops. It is sensitive to frost, and used as a sort of catch crop, sown generally about the beginning of July, broadcast. Forty bushels, weighing forty-eight pounds per bushel, is a maximum yield. ”

“ We returned to St. Thégonnec. The peasants along the road were threshing their buckwheat on the open ground; women as well as men were at work. They threshed in a circle, keeping good time with their strokes, and laughing merrily while they flourished their flails,—they appeared a most joyous party,—
“Ho! batteux, battons la gerbe,
Compagnons, joyeusement.” Buckwheat, their "blé noir," is the Breton's chief food, and is cultivated to a large extent. With its coral-red stalks and snowy flowers it has a very pretty appearance growing, and is the first care of the Breton farmer—
“Ah! ”

“ Buckwheat Sticks.—One cup pastry flour, one cup buckwheat flour, one half teaspoonful salt, two and one half tablespoonfuls vegetable fat, two tablespoonfuls brown sugar, scant one half cup water, or barely enough to mix the flour to a stiff dough. Mix all the dry ingredients, add the fat, and rub between hands to distribute the oil evenly. Add the water very slowly, stirring meantime; and as soon as the flour can be worked together by sufficient moisture, lay on the board, and work for a few moments ”

“ In the preparation of the so-called highest grade of buckwheat flour, that is, that which is most carefully ground and thoroughly bolted, the process employed is as follows: During the process of milling the buckwheat grains pass to a receiving separator which removes all the coarse particles, stones, straws, etc., by means of a series of sieves. At the same time [220] any dust which they contain is blown out by a current of air. The sifted grains pass next to the scouring machines, in which they are thoroughly scoured, cleaned, and polished. ”

“ Sow and encourage the sowing of Alsike clover and silver-leaf buckwheat in your neighborhood. Be sure that your wife, children and bees, can often repair to a large bed of the new giant or grandiflora mignonette, and remember that it, with cleome and borage, blooms till frost. Study the bee plants of your region, and then study the above table, and provide for a succession, remembering that the mustards, rape and buckwheat may be made to bloom almost at pleasure, by sowing - 245 - at the proper time. Don't forget that borage and the mustards seem comparatively indifferent to wet weather. ”

“ The growing of buckwheat in California is an exceedingly small affair. The local market is very limited, as most California hot cakes are made of wheat flour. There is no chance for outward shipment, and the crop itself, being capable of growing only during the frostless season, has to be planted on moist lands where there is not only abundant summer moisture but an air somewhat humid. Irrigated uplands, even in the frostless season, are hardly suitable for the common buckwheat, although they may give the growth of Japanese buckwheat for beekeepers who use dark honey for bee feeding. ”

“ Because it's made from buckwheat flour?"
"Land no. Because it's from the sweet juices of the buckwheat flowers. Lots of people say buckwheat honey is too strong for 'em, but we all like it better than clover, which is made from clover blossoms. Buckwheat seems to have a sort of 'whang' to it, dad says."
"Wa'al, boys, how ye makin' out?" asked a deep voice from the doorway, and Mr. Kimball entered the storeroom.
"All right, I guess," answered Roger. ”

“ The Japanese buckwheat is well suited for this because it keeps blooming and produces a scattered crop of seed, but this characteristic makes it less suitable for a grain crop, and it has therefore never become very popular in this State. We consider buckwheat as not worthy of much consideration by California farmers. ”

“ Ordinarily our farmers sow buckwheat only for this purpose, and to plough down as a green crop for manure. Very few of our farmers, in fact, will grow buckwheat for a crop, and consider it beneath the dignity of the quality of their fat lands to raise buck{142}wheat as a crop. That man partakes of the nature of the soil, is, perhaps, to most persons at first thought an anomaly, but yet it is so. Where the soil grudgingly gives to the husbandman a very moderate living, his hospitality in a certain sense partakes of the nature of his lands. ”

“ Cultivation hardly extends above 7000 ft., except in the valleys behind the great snowy peaks, where a few fields of buckwheat and Tibetan barley are sown up to 11,000 or 12,000 ft. At the lower elevations rice, maize and millets are common, wheat and barley at a somewhat higher level, and buckwheat and amaranth usually on the poorer lands, or those recently reclaimed from forest. Besides these, most of the ordinary vegetables of the plains are reared, and potatoes have been introduced in the neighbourhood of all the British stations. ”

“ Buckwheat is cultivated in the west and east of the continent—in the west from the Pyrenees to Jutland, in the east throughout southern and middle Russia. The potato is very largely cultivated in western, northern and central Europe, but has made comparatively little progress in Russia. The cultivation of lentils is most largely pursued in the west and south-west of Germany and in the south and north of France. ”