BUCKWHEAT. When the first frosty days of autumn come, how delicious are the fresh buckwheat cakes, dripping with golden maple syrup and flanked with spicy sausages! The buckwheat flour with which the cakes are made comes from the seed of the buckwheat plant, which is a native of Asia, but cultivated in most countries and to quite a large extent in the United States. Its name comes from the German word Buchweisen, meaning beechwheat, so called because of the resem blance of the three-sided grain or seed to the nut of the beech tree.
Buckwheat is cultivated in China and other eastern countries as a food plant, but in Europe it is used principally as stock and poultry food, although in France a dark heavy bread is made from buckwheat flour, and in Germany and Poland a buckwheat gruel is sometimes eaten. Buckwheat meal is baked into cookies as a dainty for Dutch children, and in the Russian army buckwheat groats are given out as part of the soldiers' rations, and are cooked with butter or tallow. The flowers of the plant are rich with honey, and buckwheat is sometimes grown by bee farmers.
Buckwheat honey is dark and has a characteristic flavor very pleasing to many people.
Buckwheat is extensively grown in the United States east of the Mississippi, and from Pennsylvania northward. The three leading states in the order of their production are New York, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. Light well-drained soils are best suited to its production, but the plant is very hardy and grows well on poor soil with little cultivation. For this reason it has been called the poor farmer's crop, and the term " buekwheaters" is sometimes applied to un skilled farmers. Buckwheat is sown as late as possi ble to secure a crop before the severe frosts.
Scientific name, Fagopyrum esculentum. The plant has smooth branching stems. one to three feet high, green leaves with dark veins, and clusters of pale reddish flowers.
population reflects the various racial elements of the nation.
Situated on the banks of the Danube River, just where that stream makes a sharp bend to the south, the city is made up of the two old towns, Buda and Pest. The first was founded by the Romans in the 2d century A.D. ; they, however, called the place Aquincum from the old Celtic name meaning "rich waters," which referred to the numerous mineral springs in the surrounding region. It was the Huns
under Attila, in the 5th century, who, at the time of their settlement in the plains of the Danube, revived the names Buda and Pest, the meanings of which are uncertain. The former, on the right bank of the river, today straggles over a series of small steep hills, while Pest occupies the low flat plain on the left bank.
In the old section of the city (Buda) are the royal castle, the government offices, and the homes of the old Magyar or Hungarian families. The newer town of Pest is, on the other hand, the commercial and industrial center of the city. In it are some of the largest electric works in Europe, in which were planned the first successful underground trolley lines.
Large flour-milling establishments are there, and fac tories for the making of machinery, chemicals, car riages, and cutlery. From its warehouses are shipped by rail or by the Danube the exports of the country— grain, wines, wool, cattle, and flour. It is believed that Pest has always been an industrial center, for the name is the Russian word for "oven" and prob ably refers to the great lime kilns which were formerly an important feature of the place.
In Pest, too, is located the University of Hungary, which has been so successful in its efforts to foster the language and literature of the Magyars or native Hungarians.
The progress of Budapest dates entirely from the 19th century. The union of the two towns, in 1873, did much to aid the cause of civic improvement, especially in the removal of slums and the reconstruc tion of the two towns. Population likewise increased rapidly. At the beginning of that century the two towns contained about 54,000 people. Before the World War of 1914-18 the population was 880,000, of whom nearly 600,000 were Magyars and 110,000 Germans, with the remainder a mixture of the various Balkan races.
Although Budapest was affected by disorders inci dent to the revolutions of 1918, it did not suffer as did some other cities. Even when the Bolshevists, under Bela Kun, gained possession of the city, prog ress in civic improvements continued.