BUCKWHEAT. 



72 



BUCKWHEAT. 



larger screens on the part of the millers who 

 make a business of grinding it. At the 

 present time the Japanese is grown almost 

 exclusively. The illustration shown on page 

 70 is a very excellent one of the buckwheat 

 plant in general ; and while the kernels 

 shown are a little larger than the natural 

 size (engravings usually exaggerate), yet 

 they are much larger than the old varieties 

 of silverhull and gray. 



The .Japanese is an enormous yielder, hav- 

 ing been known to produce at the rate of 

 80 bushels per acre, and the crop has become 

 so prolitable in localities favoring its growth 

 that it is not an uncommon thing for a 

 single farmer to raise anywhere from 500 to 

 1000 bushels. 



BUCKWHEAT A PAYING FARM CROP. 



We have set it down as a rule in this work 

 that it is not profitable to grow any honey- 

 plant unless the seed will pay the expense of 

 the crop. In this case buckwheat, as we 

 have shown ii, is one of the most profitable 

 grains that can be grown, and outside of any 

 honey it may yield, there is " good money in 

 it.'" In our own locality the yield of nectar 

 from buckwheat is so irregular and so scant 

 from season to season that we do not get 

 very much honey ; and yet when it does 

 yield it affords an excellent diversion for the 

 bees, keeping them out of mischief when 

 there would be an absolute dearth of honey 

 from every other source; hence even in Ohio 

 it pays to grow it. 



now TO PKEPARE THE SOIL FOR GROWING 

 BUCKWHEAT, AND WHEN TO SOW. 



Two crops of buckwheat can be grown in a 

 season, but usually they do not pay. In such 

 case the first must be sown very early— so 

 early that it is liable to be killed by frosts 

 after it comes up. Very hot weather coming 

 on while it is in bloom proves unfavorable 

 to the maturing of the seed. Buckwheat 

 ordinarily should be sown after some other 

 crop, anywhere from July I to the middle of 

 August, depending on the locality. Almost 

 any soil can be used for growing it ; but the 

 better the soil, the larger the crop, of course. 

 Some recommend loose mellow ground, or 

 clover sod turned under. Others say plow 

 immediately after sowing oats or planting 

 corn, as by thus working the soil early it be- 

 comes settled and holds the moisture which 

 buckwheat demands ; and the result is, the 

 seed fills better. After plowing, the ground 

 should be thoroughly harrowed, and then 

 the seed sown with a drill. If a fertilizer is 

 used, it should be put in at the same time 



with the seed and run through the drill. 

 One experienced grower says the sowing 

 should be done while the ground is dry and 

 dusty, and never immediately after a rain. 

 After sowing, the surface should be imme- 

 diately rolled to compact the soil, as the 

 grain sprouts more quickly, sometimes show- 

 ing above ground in less than four days. 



Mr. J. H. Kennedy, of (^uenamo, Kan., 

 tells us of a crop of 116 bushels of Japanese 

 buckwheat that cost him next to nothing. 

 After turning under his oat stubble in July, 

 as it was too early to put in wheat he sowed 

 the ground to buckwheat with a drill. This 

 came off so soon that the ground was in 

 almost as good condition, apparently, for 

 sowing wheat as it was when first prepared, 

 lie then put the drill right on to the buck- 

 wheat stubble, and next season reported 

 that the wheat sown on this stubble looked 

 exactly as well as the rest sown on other 

 ground. It is probable that a plant so dif- 

 ferent in its habits from wheat will take 

 little if any of the necessary plant food for 

 wheat from the soil ; and it is a commoir re- 

 mark that nothing fits the ground so nicely 

 for a succeeding crop as buckwheat. 



The amount of seed to the acre varies ac- 

 cording to the locality. On good land, two 

 pecks per acre is recommended as enough ; 

 on thin soil, tliree pecks. One can increase 

 the yield on thin soils by the use of 50 lbs. of 

 phosphate and 50 lbs. of plaster mixed and 

 drilled in, according to W. L. Coggshall, of 

 West Groton, N. Y., to whom we have al- 

 ready referred. The same authority esti- 

 mates that buckwheat is one of the best 

 crops to subdue rough land, and that it 

 always leaves the ground in good condition 

 for potatoes and oats, and almost any crop, 

 except corn. 



Buckwheat as a fertilizer of soil is one of 

 the best. Sometimes after late sowing, early 

 frosts nip the stalks. In such cases we would 

 always recommend plowing it under before 

 the plants wilt. It will more than pay for 

 its cost as a fertilizer, and some buckwheat- 

 growers, we understand, enrich their soil 

 every so often in this way, even when the 

 frost does rrot come in to spoil the crop. In 

 this case they wait till after the blooming to 

 get the honey and therr plow under. Indeed, 

 several prominent men recommeird plowirrg 

 iir two or even three crops of buckwheat, 

 one after another, if short of manure, when 

 it is desired to get the ground into a high 

 state of cirltivation. 



The best crop of buckwheat we ever had 

 was after plowing under a crop of red clo- 



