Weihaiwei, Oct. 8—I have always felt that the Chinese farmer lacks anything in the nature of an aesthetic sense; he is a materialist, pure and simple, because urgent necessity forces him to drag every possible ounce of nourishment from the soil: yet even he has an eye for beauty as you may witness if you watch his fields just at this time of year, bordered with rows of tiny white flowers growing on a foot-long stalk with leaves shaped like a spearhead—or a reversed heart. This is Buckwheat (Polygonum fagopyrum) made famous in America by Buckwheat cakes, known in France as "ble noir," where it is used, as in England, for the feeding of Pheasants: in North China it is called Ch'iao Mai and is one of the little luxuries which the farmer allows himself. Soon he will take the little seeds, like miniature beechnuts—but with four ridges—and by grinding
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.