acre on which only one bushel of seed has been bestowed.

This plant is more generally cultivated for the sake of its green fodder, and then the seed is strewn much thicker, as much as three or four bushels being allotted to the acre. If the season is forward, and the weather continues warm, buck-wheat may be sown for this purpose in April, and will bear cutting twice during the summer; but the slightest degree of frost will destroy it entirely. When it is thus intended to apply the plant as green meat, a sufficient quantity should be cut one day for the consumption of the next. The state most proper for cutting is when the blossoms are making their appearance.

All animals are fond of this food, and will thrive upon it. When given to cows it causes them to yield an abundance of excellent milk, which makes good butter and cheese. The stalk and leaves will continue green during the driest weather, even when all the grasses in the meadows are burnt up. The straw or haulm is sometimes given in a dry state to cattle, but is not then so useful as when green.

Buck-wheat is also sometimes sown in order that the plants may be ploughed into the ground, and serve as manure in the process of bringing lands into proper order for other crops. The time most proper for this ploughing is when the blossoms are full upon the plants, as they are then in their most succulent state. The land is then left at rest for some months, during which time the vegetable matter of the buckwheat becomes fermented and decomposed. The variety known as Tartarian buck-wheat-Polygonum tataricum,-being of more luxuriant growth than the common sort, fagopyrum, has been preferably recommended for this object.

Birds are exceedingly fond of the seeds, and one of the principal uses made of them in this country is

to feed pheasants during the winter, in spots set apart for the preservation of that species of game. With this object, the grain is sometimes sown in these preserves, and left standing to afford both cover and food to the birds; at other times, the straw is taken unthreshed, and left in heaps at intervals throughout the places where the birds resort. Such an abundance of their favourite food will not only prevent pheasants from rambling, but frequently al lures others from spots where an equally comfortable

provision is not made.

it is

Horses are fond of the seeds, which are some times given to them in conjunction with oats; proper, however, in such case, to subject the buckwheat to the previous operation of crushing. Pigs are often fattened upon buck-wheat, and it is said that if this food be given to them in great quantity at first, it will occasion the animals to exhibit symp toms of intoxication, so that they run squeaking and tumbling about in a grotesque manner. become habituated to the use of the grain, such an It is necessary to crush the seeds for

effect ceases.

this purpose also.

As they

Buck-wheat is sometimes used by distillers, it being capable of yielding a considerable quantity of good spirit. This use is made of it to a great extent at Dantzig, where an extensive manufacture of cor dial waters is continually carried on.

The poor of

some countries mix the meal of buckI wheat with a small proportion of wheat-flour, and Imake a kind of bread of the compound, which is

of nourishment. In Brabant it is not unusual for persons who derive a profit from keeping bees to som this grain near to their dwellings, they being opinion that no plant is equal to it for affording to those insects a proper supply of materials whence

their sweet store is elaborated.

of

CHAPTER VI.

THE POTATO-Solanum tuberosum.

POTATOES now form so valuable an article of food in many countries, as to be classed almost among the necessaries of life, and to be ranked next in importance to the cerealia.

The common and very general culture of the potato in this kingdom at the present day renders it difficult of belief, that so comparatively short a period should have elapsed since its introduction, and that the time when this vegetable was served up in small quantities as a rarity should be in the present recollection of aged persons.

There is strong evidence for believing that this plant was first introduced into England by the colonists adventuring to North America under the auspices of Sir Walter Raleigh, who had obtained a patent in 1584 from Queen Elizabeth "for discovering and planting new countries not possessed by Christians." Thomas Heriot, afterwards known as a mathematician, was among these voluntary exiles; who, however, all returned within two years after they had first gone forth for the purpose of founding a colony. These voyagers most probably brought home the potato, since in Heriot's report of the country, which is printed in De Bry's collection of Voyages, he describes (vol. i. p. 17), under the article Roots, a plant called openawk, which there is little doubt is identical with the potato. "The roots of this plant," says he, "are

round, some as large as a walnut, others much larger-they grow in damp soils, many hanging together as if fixed on ropes. They are good food either boiled or roasted." The introduction of this plant into Ireland by Sir Walter Raleigh, on his return from Virginia, is indeed well authenticated by corroborative testimony. In the manuscript minutes of the Royal Society we find that Sir R. Southwell distinctly stated to the fellows, that his grandfather was the first who cultivated the potato in Ireland, and that for this valuable root he was indebted to Sir Walter Raleigh. Among the anecdotes told of this enterprising voyager, it is said that when his gardener at Youghall, in the county of Cork, had reared to the full maturity of "apples" the potatoes which he had received from the knight, as a fine fruit from America, the man brought to his master one of the apples and asked if that were the fine fruit. Sir Walter having examined it, was, or feigned to be, so dissatisfied, that he ordered the "weed" to be rooted out. The gardener obeyed, and in rooting out the weeds found a bushel of potatoes.

In contradiction to the above account, Dr. Campbell, in his Political Survey, states that this plant was not introduced into Ireland until the year 1610; while some writers affirm that the people of that country were in possession of the potato at a period prior to the one just assigned. One supposition is, that this root was brought from Santa Fe into Ireland in the year 1565; and another, that it is of so very a date in that island as to make it equally probable that it is a native vegetable of the country. It is found, however, that the plant carried to Ireland by Captain Hawkins, in 1565, was the Spanish batata, or sweet potato. The claim to its greater antiquity in that country was made by Sir Lucius O'Brien,

ancient

who stated to Mr. Arthur Young that the venerable Bede mentioned this plant as being in Ireland about the year 700. Sir Lucius did not, however, point out the passage containing any proof of his assertion; and the potato, largely as it is cultivated in that country, has not yet made out its title to a place in the indigenous flora of Ireland.

Gerarde mentions in his Herbal, published 1597, that he cultivated this plant in his garden, where it succeeded as well as in its native country. He gives a drawing, which he distinguishes by the name of Virginian potato, having, as he states, received the roots from Virginia, otherwise called Nozembega. It was, however, considered by him as a rarity, for he recommends that the root should be eaten as a delicate dish, and not as common food.

From the authority of more than one writer, it would appear that the potato was brought into southern Europe through a different channel, and at an earlier period than the introduction of the root from Virginia into this country. Clusius relates

that he obtained this root at Vienna in 1598, from the governor of Mons in Hainault, who had procured it in the preceding year from Italy, where, in common with the truffle, it had received the name of taratouffli. Peter Cieca, in his Chronicle, printed in 1553, chap. xl. p. 49, relates that the inhabitants of Quito and its vicinity, besides producing maize, cultivated a tuberous root which was used as food under the name of papas: this, it is affirmed, is the same plant which had been transplanted to the south of Europe, and which Clusius received from Hainault.

Humboldt rather doubts if sufficient proof can be produced of this root having been indigenous to South America Upon the interesting subject of