FIELD CROPS 517 



Fertilization. Stable manure is not usually applied to land 

 intended for buckwheat, but is reserved for more exacting crops. 

 Moderate applications of manure, however, on poor soils result in 

 largely increased yields. Buckwheat when grown on poor land, 

 responds well to moderate dressings of even low grade fertilizers. 



Seeding. The amount of seed used per acre in seeding buck- 

 wheat varies from three to five pecks but is usually four pecks. 

 It may be sown with the ordinary grain drill or broadcasted and 

 harrowed in. The time of seeding varies in different localities, but 

 in New York and Pennsylvania is the last week in June or the 

 first week in July. To avoid hot weather while the grain is form- 

 ing, it is desirable to sow as late as possible and have the crop well 

 developed before severe frosts occur. Buckwheat begins to bloom 

 before the plants have nearly reached full growth and continues 

 blooming till stopped by frost or the harvest. Hence there will be 

 at harvest time on the same plants mature and immature grain 

 and flowers. It is sought to cut the crop just before the first hard 

 frost. Much of the immature grain will ripen while lying in the 

 swath or gavel. 



Harvesting. Buckwheat is rarely harvested with the self- 

 binder, but may be cut with the hand-cradle or the dropper-reaper. 

 To avoid the shelling and loss of the more mature grains it is 

 preferably cut early in the morning while damp from dew or dur- 

 ing damp cloudy weather. It is usually allowed to lie a few days 

 in swath or gavel when it is set up in small independent shocks 

 or stocks. It is not bound tightly by bands as are most cereal grains, 

 but the tops of the shocks are held together by a few stems being 

 twisted around in a way peculiar to the crop. This setting up is 

 also usually done when the crop is damp to avoid shelling of the 

 grain. 



The unthreshed crop is not often stored in barns or stacked 

 but is threshed direct from the field. Formerly much of the thresh- 

 ing was done with the hand flail, in^ which case it is necessary that 

 the work be performed on a dry airy day so that the grain will 

 shell easily. If threshed by machinery, neither crop nor day need 

 be so dry. It is usual to remove from the thresher the spiked con- 

 cave and put in its place a smooth one, or a suitable piece of hard- 

 wood plank. This is to avoid cracking the grain and unneces- 

 sarily breaking the straw. The pedicels bearing the seeds are slen- 

 der and these as well as the straw, when dry, are brittle so that 

 the grain threshes much easier than the cereals. 



Rotation. Buckwheat usually has no definite place in the 

 rotation of crops. This is chiefly due to its being used as a substi- 

 tute for meadow or spring-planted crops that have failed. The 

 poorer lands and the left-over fields are usually sown to buckwheat. 

 While buckwheat seems not to be materially affected by the crop 

 that precedes it, on the other hand it is reported to affect unfavor- 

 ably certain crops when they follow it. Oats and corn are said by 

 many to be less successful after buckwheat than after other crops. 

 That this is so has not been established by any experiment station. 



