94 AGRICULTURE FOR COMMON SCHOOLS 



bushels of seed each year for human food, and in India thirty- 

 five to forty milHon acres of millet are grown annually. The 

 kinds of millet and their culture will be described in the chap- 

 ter on forage crops. 



. Buckwheat. — Buckwheat is a native of the Old World, 

 where it has been cultivated in nearly every country for cen- 

 turies. It is not properly a cereal, but because its seeds are 

 used for human food it is spoken of in this chapter. It is 

 closely related to such plants as rhubarb, sour dock, and 

 smartweed, and if the seeds of these plants be compared with 

 the buckwheat seed it is easily seen that they resemble each 

 other very much. The name buckwheat seems to come from 

 a German word, bitchweizen, meaning beech- wheat, a name 

 given to it because the seed looks so much like a beech-nut. 



Only about fifteen million bushels of buckwheat are raised 

 in the United States. New York and Pennsylvania grow 

 about two-thirds of this amount. Buckwheat grows best in 

 a cool, moist climate, although warm weather is helpful dur- 

 ing the first few weeks of growth. Hot weather and showers 

 at flowering time are almost sure to cause a failure, because 

 the seed does not form well from the blossoms. Buckwheat 

 ripens seed in a shorter time than any other grain crop, eight 

 or ten weeks being enough time to grow a crop of buckwheat. 



Buckwheat grows best on light, well-drained soil. It does 

 well also on poor land, or land poorly farmed. Buckwheat is 

 usually not manured or fertilized, but it will respond to appli- 

 cations of manures and fertilizers as well as any crop. It 

 leaves the land in good shape for wheat or potatoes. It is 

 said that oats and corn do not do well after buckwheat. The 

 land should not be heavily fertilized. Also, farmers should 

 not attempt to grow buckwheat on very rich land, for it will 



