BUCKWHEAT. 



Buckwheat is the least important in respect to quantity produced of 

 the six principal grain crops of the United States. The cultivation of 

 buckwheat in the United States is practically limited to the northern 

 States that lie east of the Mississippi river. According to the statistics 

 of 1900, the North Atlantic division, together with the States of the 

 North Central division that lie east of the Mississippi, contained 89.4 per 

 cent of the total area under buckwheat and produced 90.9 per cent of the 

 total yield in 1899. By including three States of the South Atlantic division, 

 Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia, it is found that the sections 

 named contained 95.5 per cent of the total buckwheat area and produced 

 96.5 per cent of the total yield. 



I. Gexeral Account of the Buckwheat Plant 



Name and relationship. — The name "Buckwheat" seems to be a 

 corruption of the German huchiveiscn, meaning beech-wheat, a name given 

 to the plant on account of the shape of the seeds, being similar to that of 

 the beechnut, while their food constituents are similar to those of wheat 

 grains. Botanically buckwheat is not a cereal, but since its seeds serve 

 the same purposes as the cereal grains it is usually classed in market 

 reports among the cereals. The family to which buckwheat belongs 

 (Polygonacecr) includes several well-known, troublesome weeds, as sorrel 

 and dock {Rtuncx) and smartweed, knotweed and bindweed { Polygonum). 



The plant. — Buckwheat is an annual of erect habit, under ordinary 

 conditions attaining about three feet in height. The root system consists 

 of one primary root and several branches, the former extending well 

 downward to reach moist earth, but the total development of roots is not 

 large. The stem varies from one-fourth to five-eighths inch in diameter 

 and from green to purplish red in color while fresh, and changes to 

 brown at maturity. 



Only one stem is produced from each seed, — the plant, instead of 

 tillering or producing suckers, branching more or less freely, depending 

 on the thickness of seeding. It thus adapts itself to its environment even 

 more completely than the cereals, which tiller freely. The leaves are 



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