wheat may be sown about the middle of June; but in the north of England, and especially in Scotland, the climate would, I fear, prove too cold for it, excess of cold or heat proving equally injurious to its growth. Throughout Poland, Germany, Muscovy, and in some parts of France, buck-wheat is used as food for man, especially by the peasantry and artisans. For this purpose, the wheat is first thoroughly dried in an oven, after which it is passed through a small handmill. It is then put into large flat baskets or sieves, which are moved quickly up and down, in a strong current of air, in order to separate the bran from the grits. Some use a small handwindmill for this purpose. The grits, as a meal, are prepared in the following manner: When a quart of water is boiling strongly, a quart of grits is added, with salt in proportion, and then boiled over a slow fire, till the whole becomes about as thick as a rye pudding. This sort of pudding they eat with meat when there is plenty of gravy, or with butter, or bacon, cut in small square pieces, fried and spread over it, or with warm milk. With warm milk, it is usually given to children for breakfast and supper. This pudding, when boiled thick, is not at all watery, but resembles bread or good potatoes, and is generally preferred to the latter.

The flour of buck-wheat is very little used, and

this only for a sort of pancake, which is eaten in summer with cream; bread is never made of it.

Some boil the buck-wheat for a short time, dry it afterwards in an oven, and make grits of it, as described above; these grits are called parboiled grits, and when boiled to the consistency of pudding, the whole has the appearance of a sago pudding, which is very much relished, and has the most nourishing qualities. The bran is used for fattening pigs.

XXXIX. DESCRIPTION OF THE ART OF WAX-BLEACHING.

The extensive consumption of wax-produced by an adherence to those numerous festivals and ceremonies, either of religious or political tendency, that have flourished in the middle ages, appropriated and modified from the remnants of paganism, greatly augmented with inventions and establishments suggested by local or public religious and political événements, by those predominating minds who strove to dazzle and subdue the vulgar by external worship of pompous appearances, rather than by the increase of the comforts and luxuries of private life—has led, as was proved under Sect. XXXVI., not only to the more extensive establishment of apiaries, but also to the manufacture of wax candles, and the art of bleaching the yellow wax on a large scale.

Should the hints given in the first and second Parts of this volume effect a greater production of honey, wax would become more common, and with the fall in its price, the consumption of wax candles would increase, the importation of foreign tallow proportionally decrease, and then, the following description of Plate IV. would be, perhaps, more necessary than we possibly can anticipate at present. We therefore add it to make this volume more interesting and complete as a Manual of this important branch of husbandry.

Fig. I. represents the Melting Furnace. The boilers (A), as used in the bleaching-garden in Poland, we are describing, are 25 inches in diameter at top, 3 feet 5 inches in depth, and are made of copper, tinned in the inside; their form resembles that of a sugar-loaf. Each of those boilers is bricked up as far as line (B); from this line to the bottom of the boiler (C) is a space 10 inches deep; this part (C) of the boiler only is exposed to the fire, and when used, is always filled with water, to prevent the wax from being burned. (D) is the floor of the room; (E) is a trench about 2 feet wide, and 18 inches deep, which prevents the falling of coals, ashes, or sparks on the floor, and promotes the cleanliness of the room; (F) are small doors, through which the fuel is put under the boilers;