1904 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



293 



making a mistake. Can it be that all of 

 Arizona is under such a ruling? Canada 

 is not exactly our job. 



We clip the following from the Country 

 Gentleman for Nov. 26, 1903. While there 

 are probably some mistakes in regard to 

 the amount of the crop, and where it is 

 mostly raised, I think the article is, in the 

 main, substantially correct. With the pres- 

 ent price of buckwheat grain, it well be- 

 hooves bee-keeping farmers to give more at- 

 tention to this crop. 



THE CULTURE AND USES OF BUCKWHEAT. 



The lai gest buckwheat crop ever harvested is now 

 being gath-red in the two great buckwheat-raising 

 States, New York and Pennsylvania. Just how large 

 it will be can not yet be told, although the two .States 

 naratd will certainly produce more than 7,90U,000 bush- 

 els, against 6,nl()S,560 bu-hels last year. As the pro- 

 duction of the eniire country a year ago was but 

 9,566.966 bushels, valued at $5 ;S41,41;-i. grown on 6:W.930 

 acres of ground, it will be seen how important the crop 

 of these two States is to all lovers of the buckwheat 

 cake. 



Buckwheat is raised in 24 States, growing as far 

 south as Georgia and as far north as Maine. Last year 

 New York stood at the head of the column ot produc- 

 ing States with a crop of 3,280 158 bushels, with Penn- 

 sylvania a close second with 8, 188. 402 bushels. Third 

 on the list was Maine, with only 719 700 busht Is to her 

 credit, while little Delaware came trailing in at the 

 last with 3150 bushels The average price realized by 

 the farmers was 56 Cfiits per bushel, and the average 

 yield was 15 bushels to the acre. Basing their calcula- 

 tions on a comparison of crop hazards, and the cost of 

 the necessary fctilizers and labor expert agricultu- 

 ris's estimate that it is more profitable to raise buck- 

 wheat at 50 cents th^n wheat at a dollar. It is, there- 

 fore, not surprising that the farmers of the older States 

 are e'ving more and more attention to this cereal ev- 

 ery year. 



The luur counties of Armstrong. Indiana, Westmore- 

 land, and Butler, in Pennsylvania, have earned for 

 themselves the title of the "buckwheat belt." In no 

 other equal area in the United States is i-o much of 

 this crop raised, as these four counties produce proba- 

 bly four-fifths of all that raised in Pennsj Ivania. The 

 produciion of New York is greater than that of the 

 Keystone State, but is more generally distributed, and 

 not confined to a comparatively restricted area. 



The buckwheat cake is a peculiarly American insti- 

 tution — as much so as the pumpkin pie, roast turkey, 

 and other tooth.sorae delicacies dear to the heart of the 

 epicure. The crop is cultivated in many lands, but the 

 housewives of no other country have learned how to 

 prepare it in such a manner ?s to tickle the palate of 

 the lover of good living. In Great Britain it is consid- 

 ered unfit for human consumption, and is used only as 

 food for pheasants and poultry. It is cultivated in In- 

 dia, whe e it is used on " bart " or feast da\s, being 

 one of the foods that are lawful on tho.'-e occasions. It 

 is served to the Russian soldiers a^ a part of their ra- 

 tions but is prepared in such a manner that it is said 

 that no one but a Cossack or a starving man can eat it. 

 In France it is called ' sanisin." and is used as food by 

 the very poorest of the peasantry. The French name 

 is a bit of fossilised history, being a reminder of the 

 fact that the grain was int i oduced into Western Europe 

 bv the Crusaders, who obtained it from the Saracens 

 of Asia Minor. 



In Germany this giain is fed to cattle and poultry, 

 but is not highly esteemed as food for human beings. 

 Beer is there brewed from it. and it is sometimes used 

 in gin distilleries. The German name is"buchwei- 

 zen," or beech wheat, so called from the resemblance 

 of th" sharp triangular grains to beechnuts. In Japan 

 it is extensively used as an article of diet, and the Jap- 

 anese variety is one of the most highly esteemed and 



most extensively cultivated b>^ American farmers the 

 Japanese variety being considered more productive 

 and hardy than the European or " silverhull." The 

 grain is suppo.sed to be a native of the basin of the 

 Volga, the shores of the Caspian Sf a, and parts of Cen- 

 tral Asia. Probably it was introduced into China and 

 Japan by marau''ing Tartars, centuries before it be- 

 came known to Europeans. 



Not many years ago buckwheat cakes were eaten 

 only by the very poor of the rural districts. They ate 

 them, not I ecMise they liked them, but as a measure 

 of economy. There was no market for the grain or 

 flour; and where it was grown at all it was fed to live- 

 stock, or eaten only in default of any thing better. It 

 will grow on the poorest soil, where no other crop can 

 be raised It matures very quickly, and a crop failure 

 is hardly ever known. But little fertilizer is required, 

 and that of the cheapest grade, so that it is preemi- 

 nently the poor man's crop. 



Among the bee keepers, buckwheat is a favorite crop 

 because the blossoms contain a greater percentage of 

 honey than is found in the flowers of any other plant 

 of economic use aside from its value as a honey pro- 

 ducer. .'\s long as buckwheat is in flower the bees of 

 the neighborhood confine themselves entirely to it, 

 thus prodticing pure buckwheat honey. The market 

 value of this is impaired by the fact that it is of dark 

 amber color instead of the clear white demanded by 

 the fastidious city trade. In making this exaction city 

 customers show their own ignorance; and but few of 

 them who have ev« r tried genuine buckwheat honey 

 would be willing to exchanee it for the finest grade of 

 ''white clover." And surely no lover of buckwheat 

 cakes will deny that it accords with the eternal fitness 

 of things that they be well lubricated with honey made 

 from buckwheat blossoms before being started to their 

 last resting-place on the inside of a capacious waist- 

 coat. 



Buckwheat makes practically all its growth in six 

 weeks of hot weather in July and August, being the 

 most rapid growing of farm crops. For this reason it 

 is supposed to be very exhausting on the scil, so that 

 the owners of fc rtile farms will not raise it This is no 

 doubt the reason why Butler, Armstrong, Westmore- 

 land, and Indiana Counties have become pre eminent- 

 ly the buckwheat belt. Those counties are full of bald 

 knobs that have been cultivate 1 for over a century, 

 until all the natural fertility of the soil that has not 

 been extracted by the crops has been washed down by 

 the rains into the valleys below. They w 11 produce 

 nothing but buckwheat or beans and as buckwheat 

 brings in the grea'er returns with less labor, buck- 

 wheat is the crop that is preferred. Possiblv the time 

 will come when these wornout and impoverished farms 

 will no longer produce even buckwheat; but with firm 

 faith in a beneficent Providence, and in the efficacy of 

 commercial fertilizers, the farmers are losing no sleep 

 over that contingency. 



Buckwheat is sown broadcast, or drilled into the 

 ground, about the first or middle of July, find is har- 

 vested as soon as the first frosts kill the last lingering 

 blns.soms. The sheaves are allowed to stand in the 

 field a few days, until the peripatetic steam-th'asher 

 comes arotind when the cr-ip i- hauled in and thrash- 

 ed. This is reallv the most critical sfason of the year 

 for the buckwheat farmer Often a large crop is near- 

 ly ruined by a few days' wet weather after the grain 

 has been cut, but before it has been thras^ed. 



It is a busy and exacting time for the owners of 

 traction eneinesand thrashing machines, to whom the 

 whole farming conimniiity look to save their crop 

 from possible destruction. Often they work till jnid- 

 night and then travel for miles in order to be ready 

 to begin work at th» next .stopping-place by sunrise. 

 And in case heavy rains or early snows work havoc 

 with the nnth'ashed grain, it is the tardy thrasher 

 who must bear the blame. 



SOME FACTS, CRITICISMS, ETC. 



By way of introduction I will say that I am not much 

 interested in bees now, but continue to take Glean- 

 ings, partly from habit and partly for the notes on 

 travel and gardening. 



GIANT GIBRALTAR ONIONS. 



In 1902, 8 sq rods planted to Giant Gibraltar gave 

 me about 15 bush* Is of nice bulbs and a lot of trash, 

 while White Globe, under the s ime conditions, yield- 

 ed at the rate of more than 800 bushels to the acre. I 

 have no further use for the former. 



POTATO CULTURE AND FERTILIZERS. 



Mr. Terry's "adverse experience " with fertilizers 

 is a matter of interest, and his advice to " be perfectly 

 sure you are right " is good. I submit, however, that 



