BUCKWHEAT. 



70 



BUCKWHEAT. 



piece of ground on both sides of the road. 

 So immense are tlie fields that the atmos- 

 phere seems to be he:ivily charged with tiie 

 aroma of the bloom, and if one is not a lover 

 of bnekwlieat honey the odor is somewhat 

 sickening. 



One bee-keeper in the heart of the buck- 

 wheat country (W. L. Coggshall, of West 

 (Jroton), will) lives near Cayuga Lake, har- 



lina and Texas. But it is in Eastern New 

 York, on the hillsides, that it seems to 

 thrive best. Stalks of the celebrated Japan- 

 ese variety that would measure two feet 

 high in Ohio will reach five or six feet in 

 length in the more favf>red locations in New 

 York. There is something in the climate 

 and soil of those great hills that makes the 

 growing of this plant much more profitable 



JAPANESE BUCKWHEAT. 



vested one year with his 1000 colonies 78,000 

 ll)s. of honey: another year 50,000 lbs. ; and 

 for a good many years his crops have ranged 

 along into the carloads. While this is not 

 all buckwheat honey by considerable, yet a 

 good l)ig portion of it is. 



But the growing of buckwheat is by no 

 means confined to the East. It is grown in 

 small acreages, of, say, one to live acres, in 

 most of the North Central States. It also is 

 a paying crop foi- seed and honey in the 

 South, being grown largely in South Caro- 



in the East than in the West, although it is 

 always a paying crop for the grain in nearly 

 every locality where ordinary grain crops 

 can be grown. 



THE QUALITY OF BUCKWHEAT HONEY. 



Buckwheat honey itself is of a deep dark 

 purplish tint, and looks very much like New 

 Orleans or sorghum molasses. It is usually 

 of lieavy body ; and the flavor, to one who is 

 a lover of clover and basswood, and who lias 

 never been accustomed to buckwheat honey, 



