1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



45l 



per pound as a feed for sheep and poultry. We can 

 buy the middlings at $14 per ton, so the grain is 

 sold and the middlings fed. 



BUCKWHEAT AS A HONEY-PRODUCER. 



T have said nothing about the honey-producing 

 qualities of this plant, leaving it to the close-observ- 

 ing specialist to state how many pounds one acre 

 will secrete. Buckwheat has never failed to give 

 us a good jield of honey here, sometimes an aver- 

 age of 50 lbs. surplus comb per colony. Some years 

 this comb honey has sold as low as six cents per 

 pound. 



Buckwheat has a use besides producing honey, 

 grain, and straw. It will, if sown rather thick, sub- 

 due almost any of our common and troublesome 

 weeds; and, if sown for a succession of years on 

 the same piece, completely eradicate them. To 

 raise a profitable crop of buckwheat, as well as any 

 thing else, requires some brains as well as good 

 soil. Chas. Chapman. 



Watkins, N. Y. 



HINTS FROM ONE WHO HAS GROWN IT FOR 40 

 YEARS. 



1 have been growing buckwheat for forty years, 

 on a small scale. I plow and drag the ground a 

 month or more previous to seeding, which is, in 

 our latitude, from the first to the middle of July. 

 If the land is clean, sow the seed one heaping half- 

 bushel per acre of the common varieties (I have 

 not had sufficient experience in the Japanese to 

 say how much seed per acre), cultivate it in, and 

 thoroughly harrow. If it should be wet it won't 

 matter whether the cultivating is done before or 

 after. This cultivating is a new idea taken from 

 an article of yours in Gleanings, on plowing in 

 turnips. As buckwheat is sown about the same 

 time, when the ground is usually dry and hot, I 

 have no doubt but that is the way to do it. I put 

 mine in that way last year, and I raised about three 

 times as much per acre as my neighbors who har- 

 rowed in. The ground must be put in good con- 

 dition, to insure a good crop. The time for sowing, 

 no one can tell. It wants to be sown as late as 

 possible, to escape frost. 



NOT PAYING TO SOW EARLY. 



My experience in sowing early for bees is that it 

 doesn't pay. It is out of the proper season ; blooms 

 in the heat of summer; bees get but little out of it, 

 and it doesn't make grain enough to pay expenses. 



TO THRASH IT. 



If the crop is small, lay boards on the ground; 

 build a rail pen two or three feet high; cover over 

 with rails; beat out with forks. I got my Japanese 

 almost ruined last year in thrashing with a ma- 

 chine. It cracked the grains of the Japanese, but 

 did not damage the other varieties. The most of 

 the broken grains can be taken out with a sand- 

 sieve, but I didn't find it out until I had nearly 

 sold out. R. Robinson. 



Laclede, Fayette Co., 111., May 6, 1889. 



RAISING BUCKWHEAT IN TEXAS; THE OLD SET- 

 TLER AND THE LAWYER. 



As Gleanings finds its way clear off into parts 

 where some of the readers have never seen cotton 

 grow, it may be equally interesting to them to know 

 that it finds its way into parts where we have never 

 seen buckwheat grow. I planted some a few weeks 

 ago; and the other day, when I was busy with my 

 hoe, weeding it out, an old settler (been in Texas 52 

 years) leaned over the fence and called out to me: 



" Risien, what's the matter with your cotton ? it's 

 not getting off right somehow." 



When I told him that it was buckwheat, he said it 

 was the flr6t he ever saw. You see that, when 

 buckwheat first comes up— in fact, till it commences 

 to bloom— it looks like cotton. This circumstance 

 reminded me of two of our good citizens (one a law- 

 yer and the other a merchant) who became enthusi- 

 astic about farming. Each one bought a large 

 farm. The merchant planted him a little patch of 

 buckwheat broadcast; so when it was up well, so as 

 to attract the attention of the lawyer, " Well," says 

 the lawyer, " you may as well give it up right now ; 

 who ever heard tell of planting cotton broadcast?" 

 I am real glad that you have asked your readers 

 for further information about it. I was just on the 

 eve of suggesting it to you. E. E. Risien. 



San Saba, Tex., May 13, 1889. 



TWO CROPS OF BUCKWHEAT IN A SEASON IN KAN- 

 SAS. 



I have raised several acres of nice buckwheat 

 every year for my bees, for quite a number of 

 years. I generally sow my seed about the first of 

 May. By the 10th or 15th of July it is ripe. After 

 it is cut and out of the way 1 cultivate and harrow 

 the ground thoroughly, but do not sow any seed, 

 for what is shelled out from the first crop will be 

 plenty for seed. I have sown broadcast, and drill- 

 ed in with a two-horse drill. I prefer the drill. As 

 to harvesting, a self-rake machine is the best to cut 

 it with. To cut with a mower, and rake it up, 

 wastes too much. Last year I took my self-binder, 

 left off the elevator canvases, and put on the bot- 

 tom canvas; then I took out the roller that runs 

 the lower elevator canvas; that let the buckwheat 

 run off on the ground without elevating it. I had 

 it in swaths six feet apart; that worked to perfec- 

 tion. If I had a small quantity I would thrash it 

 it out with a flail, fork, or a stick; if I had a large 

 quantity I would have it thrashed with a machine. 

 This year I shall put in 12 acres after the fall wheat 

 is cut. I can not see any difference in yield here, 

 between the first and second crop. C. Gehring. 



Barnes, Washington Co., Kan., May 8, 1889. 



BUCKWHEAT MORE FOR THE HONEY THAN SEED. 



We scarcely ever sow a large crop of buckwheat, 

 but we expect to sow a larger crop this season. We 

 have been in the habit of sowing more for the hon- 

 ey than for the seed. We generally sow our seed 

 the first of July, then the seed has ample time to 

 get ripe before frost catches it. When the seed is 

 ripe we cut it down and let it dry, then we drive 

 along with a wagon that has a tight bed, and it is 

 piled on the wagon, flailed out, and the straw is 

 piled out on the field; it is then taken to a fan, 

 cleaned, and put in bags or barrels. We have never 

 had two crops of buckwheat in one season. This 

 season our crop will be after the oats are cut. 



Clermont, Ind., May 14, 1889. T. Tansel. 



BUCKWHEAT IN PENNSYLVANIA. 



I never raised 1000 bushels of buckwheat in one 

 year. The most in one year was 402 bushels, ma- 

 chine measure, in 1887. Hundreds of bushels are 

 raised around here. The most successful way with 

 us is to plow the ground the last of May or first of 

 June, and harrow it. From the 20th of June till the 

 6th of July we drill, using a little over l A bushel to 

 the acre (it will take 3 pecks of Japanese), and from 

 75 to 150 lbs. of phosphate. Harrow the ground 



