912 



GLEANINGS l^ BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 



80WU, without manure. The yield from silverhull 

 was 9.J bushels, or about 19 bushels per acre; from 

 the Japanese, S'i bushels, or at the rate of 38 bush- 

 els per acre. Both kinds suffered from frost, the 

 Japanese most, as the large straw will have green 

 kernels after the smaller silverhull is all dried up. 

 We have 9'/a bushels. None of it is for sale. 

 McClure, N. Y., Nov. 21, 1887. R. B. Fletcher. 



.JAPANESE YIELDING OVER TWICE AS MUCH BUCK- 

 WHEAT AS THE SILVERHULL UNDER THE 

 SAME TREATMENT. 



I sowed a peck (purchased of you) side by side 

 with about ten quarts of silverhull. The soil and 

 preparation were the same for both, and both were 

 sown on the same day, and also cut on the same 

 day. I could not see that tlie Japanese ripened any 

 sooner than the silverhull. I did not receive half a 

 crop of either. When thrashed, the silverhull yield- 

 ed 3'/i bushels, and the Japanese over Qhi bushels. 

 This, 1 think, proves pretty conclusively that it is 

 superior to what we formerly considered best. 



Sherman, Pa., Nov. 38, 1887. Willis Early. 



THE MOST PRODUCTIVE. 



The Japanese buckwheat is the most productive 

 buckwheat that ever came under my notice. I sent 

 to you for three flve-cent packets last winter. I let 

 a neighbor have one; the other two I sowed on four 

 square rods of land, about the first of July. It was 

 very dry here last summer, and the seed did not 

 start until we gota little rain, about three weeks aft- 

 er. The yield was 1% bushels. As a honey-plant I can 

 not say much about it. The bees worked on it but 

 little; but then they did not work on clover or bass- 

 wood as they did last year. The honoy crop was 

 very poor this year. The average is about 35 lbs. of 

 comb honey per colony. E. Woolley. 



Kimble, Minn., Nov. 30, 1887. 



JAPANESE YIELDING AT THE RATE OF 80 BUSHELS 



TO THE ACRE, THE COMMON BUCKWHEAT 



LESS THAN 6 BUSHELS. 



You sent me 14 lb. of Japanese buckwheat. I 

 drilled it six inches apart in rows, on just 235 square 

 feet of ground. I had a deal of trouble to save any, 

 on account of the chickens; but I saved 20;4 lbs. of 

 clean seed, and a few quarts in the chaff. I clean- 

 ed it in the wind, which came in gusts, but I gather- 

 ed it chaff and all. Now please figure: 1 have fully 

 half a bushel all together, on less than one square 

 rod. That means 80 bushels per acre. I had 23'/^ 

 bushels of common buckwheat, on four acres, or 

 about 514 bushels per acre, and none was any better 

 in the neighborhood. To say the least, I am highly 

 delighted with the Japanese. John E. Dodge. 



Little Cooley, Pa., Dec. 1, 1887. 



JAPANESE YIELDING FIVE TIMES AS MUCH AS THE 

 COMMON BUCKWHEAT. 



I sowed the 1 lb. of Japanese on 3H rods of 

 ground. It ought to have been on H or 10 rods. It 

 was much too thick. It was sown early in the sea- 

 son, on fair loam land, heavily top-dressed with 

 hog-manure harrowed in. The ground was then 

 raked over, and the buckwheat put in with a gar- 

 den drill. It was hoed twice and weeds pulled out 

 of the rows. Bees worked well on it, but it was so 

 very dry and hot that it did not fill much until rain 

 came late in the season, but more even then 

 than the other buckwheat. After the rains came 

 It filled very full, and I thrashed 61 lbs. of nice 

 clean buckwheat. I might have had much more if 



I had put it on more ground. I think it yielded five 

 times as much as the common buckwheat, but that 

 was sown broadcast on not quite so good land, and 

 neither top dressed nor hoed. E. Green. 



Montague, Mich., Nov. 21, 1887. 



862 kernels COUNTED ON ONE STALK. 



I got 14 pound of Japanese buckwheat from you. 

 I sowed it in the last days of June, and it was su 

 dry that it did not come up till about the last of 

 July. I almost gave up all hopes of it: but as a 

 constant dropping will wear a stone, at last it 

 came. I watched it almost daily. It grew very 

 large, with leaves almost as large as my hand, and 

 I believe nearly 4 feet high. When it blossomed it 

 made me think of a " snowball," such as we have 

 in our dooryard. I never saw the like, the way it 

 filled out. I had ray neighbors look at it, and they 

 said the same. To my great disappointment, the 

 frost came while it was yet in bloom, and destroy- 

 ed it almost completely. Yet with all the draw- 

 backs, I had one good rounding bushel. I don't 

 call that bad for Vi pound, and a poor buckwheat 

 year. Even at that rate, 48 pounds, or one bushel, 

 would have yielded 193 bushels. When I was 

 gathering it I took one stalk, and counted all the 

 kernels. I thought it would make good seed. 

 They numbered 862. I have no doubt but that if 

 the frost had held otf a little longer there would 

 have been some stalks holding as many as 1000 or 

 even 1200 kernels. S. D. Keller. 



Winterburn, Pa., Nov. 29, 1887. 



If you will turn to page 874 of Nov. 15th 

 issue you will see that one of the friends 

 counted 1153 kernels from one stalk, so 

 your estimates are pretty close. 



TWO BUSHELS AND THREE PECKS OF JAPANESE, 

 AGAINST ONE AND ONE-HALF OF THE COM- 

 MON BUCKWHEAT, WITH THE SAME 

 TREATMENT. 



It seems as if the Japanese buckwheat frightened 

 everybody, since they did not report. Perhaps they 

 have been shocked so bad by its productiveness 

 that they have not overcome it sufliciently so that 

 they could not write any sooner. I will give you 

 my report. I sowed 1 lb. on a strip 65 small steps 

 long and seven steps wide. When thrashed I had 2 

 bushels of nice clean buckwheat, and aibout 3 pecks 

 of light grains that did not get ripe, in front of the 

 grain-fan. This was the second cleaning. At the 

 first cleaning I can not say how many light grains 

 blew out. About the 6th of July I turned the rye 

 stubble to sow it on. It was so dry that I could not 

 sow it until about the 12th or 13th of July. 

 The late sowing and the dry season and early frost, 

 are what made so many light grains; but what was 

 full and ripe were very nice. I really think it is 

 larger in the grain than what the seed was; I was 

 surprised when the grains began to hang on. It 

 luing in clusters. I think it should be called the 

 cluster buckwheat. I sowed a strip one side of this, 

 the same length, and witdh and at the same time of 

 the buckwheat I have been raising for some time, 

 and which I thought did well. That gave me, when 

 thrashed and cleaned, only three half-pecks. That 

 settles that kind of buckwheat for me. The bees 

 worked on one as much as on the other. 



Those vegetable-seeds I got of you in the spring 

 came up to the mark. I shall want more next 

 spring. Wm. H. Weiser. 



York, Pa., Dec 3, 1857. 



