no BUCKWHEAT 



advantage. After it has lain in the swath for a few days 

 it can be bound loosely and set up in shocks. Usually it 

 is not stored away in barns to go through the sweat but 

 is hauled directly from the field to the threshing machine. 

 An ordinary grain thresher is used, but it is supplied 

 with blank concaves or concaves with all but two or three 

 of the teeth removed, so that the buckwheat will not be 

 hulled or damaged. After threshing, buckwheat should be 

 stored in bins where it can be shoveled over to facilitate 

 drying. Only good dry buckwheat can be used for flour. 



Enemies. Buckwheat is usually free from insects 

 and disease enemies. It is a great weed destroyer and 

 is known as one of our cleaning crops. It grows rapidly, 

 and the many broad leaves shut out the sunlight, and 

 make it almost impossible for weeds to thrive in the 

 same field. 



Uses. Buckwheat is used in making pancake flour for 

 human consumption and as a ground feed for farm ani- 

 mals. The straw is of little value except for bedding. 

 Buckwheat is a prolific flowering plant and bees feed greedily 

 upon it. The honey made from it is inferior to that made 

 from white clover and is darker in color. 



Rotation. Little attention is paid to putting buckwheat 

 in any definite rotation. It is usually sown on lands where 

 other crops have been destroyed. Occasionally it is used 

 merely as a cleaning crop on weedy lands or grown on hard 

 soils and turned under to add humus to the soil. 



EXERCISES 



i. Judge samples of buckwheat. The score card and direc- 

 tions given for wheat may be used in judging buckwheat. (See 

 pages 76-78.) 



