No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 7 



in March or early April, for with such conditions barley, being more 

 able to endure hot and dry weather, will usually do better than oats. 



BUCKWHEAT 



Of the 17,549,000 bushels of buckwheat raised in the United States, 

 Pennsylvania raised 6,373,000 bushels, or 36.31 per cent. The State 

 had a larger acreage in 1911 than any state in the Union, and 

 according to the census of 1910, with an acreage of 292,728 acres, 

 which is about 6,000 acres greater than that of New York, her 

 closest competitor, she had a yield of 4,797,350 bushels, worth |3,262,- 

 000. This is a crop that can be introduced into a rotation in the 

 thinner soils when one of the winter crops fail, such as hay or 

 wheat, as was the case with wheat and hay this year. Where there 

 was hay or wheat worth cutting for forage, these could have been 

 harvested early, the ground put in proper condition and sown with 

 buckwheat, and the buckwheat harvested and the ground again sown 

 with wheat or rye. Or, what might have been a still better plan, 

 grass seed could have been sown with the buckwheat, and after the 

 buckwheat was harvested the grass sod would have been there and 

 in good condition for the following year. 



CORN 



Pennsylvania had a reported acreage of 1,435,000 acres of corn 

 in 1911, and in the census of 1910 an acreage of 1,380,671 acres for 

 the year 1909 ; giving a reported yield for 1911 of 63,858,000 bushels 

 and for the year 1909, which was the crop taken by the census, a 

 j-ield of 41,494,237 bushels. This represents an increase in two 

 years of 22,363,763 bushels, which is no doubt correct, for, as I have 

 already indicated in the report on weather conditions, there Fas a 

 sufficient rainfall during the corn growing season, July and August, 

 except in limited areas of the State, to make such an increase 

 possible. 



At the midwinter fair of the three agricultural organizations of 

 the State, the State Livestock Breeders' Association, the State Dairy 

 Union and the State Horticultural Society,. held at Duquesne Garden, 

 Pittsburg, January 15th to the 19th, 1912, the annual corn show, 

 awarded prizes for the best ten exhibits of ten ears each of Yellow 

 Dent Corn and the best ten exhil)its of ten ears of White Cap Yellow 

 Dent, six prizes for the best exhibits of ten ears of White Dent, eight 

 prizes for the best eight exhibits of ninety day varieties, eight prizes 

 for the best eight exhibits of ten ears of southeastern Pennsylvania 

 varieties, and ten prizes for the best ten exhibits of ten ears of 

 flint varieties. Awards were also given to Granges for Grange ex- 

 hibits and to individuals for the best half-bushel of corn, for the 

 champion ten ears, for the largest and longest ears, and for the 

 champion ear. Several Congressmen awarded prizes of ten dollars 

 for the best exhibits from their Congressional Districts. These corn 

 exhibits and the awarding of prizes have created a wide spread inter- 

 est in the State in corn growing and have stimulated the public 

 educational agencies of a number of counties to organize boys' corn 

 growing clubs to have an annual display where prizes are awarded 

 for meritorious work. At a number of Farmers' Institutes, move- 

 ments were started during the last season to organize corn growing 



