398 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 



self-binder. Cut when the dew is on, or a little 

 d;irap, as it shells less. Set it up, one bundle in a 

 place, to cure. When thoroughly dry, haul direct 

 to the machine, and thrash, as every time you han- 

 dle it it will shell some. I have sown early, for the 

 bees to work on, and one year we had cool weather 

 when it was filling, and the yield was good. But 

 early sowing is not advisable, as buckwheat will not 

 till well in hot sultry weather. There is a large 

 quantity raised here every year, and it is considered 

 a paying crop. We often get a crop of this grain, 

 when the insects destroy all other kinds. 

 Eau Claire, Wis., April 19, 1889. C. 15. Jackson. 



BUCKWHEAT A FAVORITE CROP FOR BRUSHY LAND. 



I see in Gleanings you ask about buckwheat. 

 I have lived in a buckwheat country all my life, 

 and know something about it. It is a favorite crop 

 for brushy land, the crop growing so rank as to 

 subdue briers and brush. We sow from the first to 

 the 12th of July; if earlier, the sun burns it; if lat- 

 er, the frost is apt to catch it. Ground which is 

 too light for corn will raise good buckwheat. No 

 crop will better respond to a good fertilizer. We 

 gather tons of honey from it. It can be thrashed 

 readily by hand if dry, but it is impossible if damp. 

 We always thrash by machine. 



JAPANESE BUCKWHEAT TO TAKE THE PLACE OF 

 CORN. 



The Japanese buckwheat I got from you beats 

 any I ever saw. If it continues as well it will sure- 

 ly take the place of corn, to a great extent. 



Meshoppen. Pa., Apr. 27, 1889. C. A. Dean. 



BUCKWHEAT IN TH E " CORN-BELT ; " BUCKWHEAT 

 TO EXTERMINATE WEEDS. 



In this latitude, or, rather, in this corn-belt, 1 

 think the best results are generally obtained by 

 sowing about the first week in June. Land should 

 be plowed a week or two beforehand, to give weeds 

 a chance to start; then work thoroughly, and sow 

 V 2 bushel, or a little more, per acre. I sow broad- 

 cast. Land which is so soddy as to be almost use- 

 less to plow in fall or early spring for other crops, 

 can be subdued with buckwheat; and it is good to 

 sow in a young orchard which is to be cultivated. 



Speaking of corn-belts, one might be surprised at 

 the crookedness of isothermal lines. A very good 

 corn-belt map, showing mean temperature during 

 the growing season, can be found in the seed cata- 

 logue of J. C. Vaughn, Chicago. 



HARVESTING. 



If you do not use a grain-cradle, it can be mown 

 carefully with a scythe. If not convenient to draw 

 it to a thrashing-machine, a good way is to build an 

 open rack of slats across a wagon-box. Some put 

 the box on a sled, so as to have it low down. Drive 

 into the field, and pitch a few forkfuls of buck- 

 wheat on to the rack, and hit it a few sharp blows 

 with the pitchfork. The grain will rattle down into 

 the box, when the straw can be pushed off, and a 

 new supply put on. Two men can do this rapidly, 

 and I have heard of good-sized fields of buckwheat 

 being thrashed in this way. B. HASSETT, 



Howard Center, Howard Co., la. 



EARLY AND SELF SOWN BUCKWHEAT. 



I have never sown buckwheat in April or May, 

 but this 1 know: Buckwheat that comes up from 

 last year's crop always fills well in this latitude. 

 Only last week I was talking with James Malary 

 (a successful farmer) upon this very point, and he 



said he never knew self-sown buckwheat fail to 

 fill well, and that last year (a very dry one) he had 

 a patch that would have made quite a crop had it 

 been left to mature. I also find that many are 

 more successful in seeding with buckwheat than 

 oats or wheat. As I expect to sow 20 acres of Jap- 

 anese buckwheat this season, at different periods, 

 from early to late, I may know more about it next 

 fall than now. Geo. E. Hilton. 



Fremont, Mich. 



The above articles cover the whole 

 ground, pretty nearly. Friend Kennedy, it 

 I understand him correctly, suggests a plan 

 of getting a crop of buckwheat without any 

 extra expense, except the cost of the seed, 

 and drilling it in ; that is, the ground is pre- 

 pared for wheat in July instead of at the 

 usual time. Then after the crop of buck- 

 wheat is removed, the wheat is drilled in, 

 without any further preparation of the soil. 

 While such a course might occasionally give 

 us as good a crop of wheat as if no buck- 

 wheat had been on the ground, I can hard- 

 ly think it possible that it would invariably 

 turn out in this way. It is true, buck- 

 wheat may take little or nothing from the 

 soil that would be wanted for the wheat 

 crop. Unless, however, the season were 

 one where rains were very plentiful, I 

 should feel quite certain that the buckwheat 

 would rob the ground of some of the moist- 

 ure needed by the wheat ; at least, my expe- 

 rience has been that a crop of almost any 

 kind takes the moisture from the soil to a 

 much greater extent than where the ground 

 is harrowed frequently, without allowing it 

 to bear any crop at all. I once plowed un- 

 der a heavy turf of very hard stiff wild 

 grass. After turning over the sod 1 raised 

 a tolerable crop of buckwheat. Thinking 

 the sod was rotted and the grass dead, after 

 the buckwheat was taken off I turned it 

 over again, to put on rye. To my great as- 

 tonishment, the grass that had been turned 

 over more than two months before, started 

 to grow almost all over the field ; and after 

 letting it lie all winter, and turning it over 

 again, I had a hard time in breaking the 

 sod up in the spring. From this I judged 

 that a crop of buckwheat might be taken 

 from the ground without the roots going 

 down more than a few inches, and also 

 without taking very much if any thing from 

 the fertility of the soil. 



Some allusion has been made in the arti- 

 cles above, in regard to breaking the grain 

 in thrashing; and several have stated that 

 a machine breaks the grain much more than 

 thrashing by hand. Where it is tramped 

 out by horses on a barn floor, much of the 

 grain will be crushed if you are not very 

 careful. I strongly favor the idea of raising 

 the grain up from the floor by rails, or some- 

 thing of the sort, letting the grain rattle 

 down through where it will not suffer in- 

 jury by walking over the floor. I am in- 

 clined to think, also, that flails will do bet- 

 ter execution when the grain is raised up on 

 rails. 



I think it is quite true, that black bees 

 take to buckwheat honey rather more than 

 the Italians do. Our best colonies for gath- 

 ering buckwheat honey for several different 

 seasons seemed to be hybrids. 



