s
article of food to a large portion of the human race. It also serves
as excellent fodder to milch cows, and the straw, when cut green and
converted into hay, and the ripened seeds, are food for cattle,
poultry, and swine.

It is raised most abundantly in Central Asia and the Himalaya. In the
latter country the different varieties are grown at various
elevations, between 4,000 and 12,000 feet. The finest samples
exhibited in 1851 were from Canada, but some of excellent quality was
also shown by the United States, Russia, and Belgium. The common
variety grown in Europe is the _Polygonum fagopyrum_, and _P.
emarginatum_ is grown in China and the East. In this country the
produce varies from 2 to 4 quarters per acre. The quantity of seed
sown is 5 to 8 pecks the acre. Vauquelin found 100 parts of its straw
to contain 29.5 of carbonate of potash, 3.8 of sulphate of potash,
17.5 of carbonate of lime, 13.5 of carbonate of magnesia, 16.2 of
silica, 10.5 of alum, and 9 of water.

It is believed to be a native of Central Asia, as it is supposed to
have been first brought to Europe in the early part of the twelfth
century, at the time of the crusades for the recovery of Syria from
the dominion of the Saracens; while others contend that it was
introduced into Spain by the Moors, four hundred years before.

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.

According to the census returns of 1840, the annual quantity raised in
the United States was 7,291,743 bushels; of 1850, 8,950,916 bushels.

The average annual imports of buckwheat into this country have not
exceeded 1,000 quarters, until last year (1852), when they reached
8,085 quarters. A small quantity of the meal is also annually
imported.

MAIZE.

Maize (_Zea Mays_), is the common well-known Indian corn forming one
of the most important of the grain crops, and has a greater range of
temperature than the other cereal grasses. It was found cultivated for
food by the Indians of both North and South America, on the first
discovery of that continent, and thence derived its popular