404 THE CEREALS IN AMERICA 



and common gray. The grain of the silver hull is smaller and 

 plumper than the Japanese. In the latter variety there is a 

 tendency for the angles or edges of the hull to extend into a 

 wing, making the faces of the grain more concave. The plant 

 is also stronger and somewhat larger, and its flowers less liable 

 to blast from hot weather. Each of these varieties has given 

 the largest yield of grain in single tests at different stations. 

 At the Ontario Agricultural College the average yield of grain 

 during seven years has been Japanese, twenty-one ; silver hull, 

 eighteen, and common gray, sixteen bushels; of straw, 2.9, 2.8 

 and 2.6 tons respectively.^ At the North Dakota Station two 

 introduced varieties, Russian No. i and Orenburg No. 6, gave 

 the best results.^ The Japanese is sometimes mixed with a 

 smaller growing variety. It is thought that more blossoms 

 develop and that the Japanese in shading the smaller variety 

 prevents its flowers from blasting. The desirability of this 

 practice has not been experimentally demonstrated. 



577. Climate. — Buckwheat is auapted to a moist cool climate ; 

 and while it will germinate in very diy soil the yield is very 

 easily affected by drouth and hot weather. It grows at a higher 

 altitude and its center of production is farther north than any 

 other cereal in America. Under favoralie conditions it will 

 mature a crop of seed in eight to ten weeks, thus making it the 

 shortest season cereal crop. 



578. Soil. — Buckwheat does best on a rather sandy well- 

 drained soil. It is possible to mature buckwheat on poor soil, 

 and it is frequently grown on soil that is both poor and badly 

 tilled. While apparently the soil has less effect upon yield than 

 climate and season, nevertheless buckwheat will respond to a 

 good soil, and no unfavorable results will follow from a high 

 state of fertility. As in the other small grains, the proportion 



1 Ont. Agr. Col. and Expt. Farms Rpt. 1902, p. 119. 

 * N. Dak. Rpt. 1900, p. 59. 



