CHAPTER XXV 

 BUCKWHEAT 



BUCKWHEAT is a crop comparatively small in acreage and pro- 

 duction in the United States, occupying less than one million acres 

 annually. Less than four farmers out of every 100 report buck- 

 wheat as grown, while 50 farmers report wheat, and 80 farmers 

 report corn. About four acres of buckwheat are grown on each farm 

 reporting, while twenty-five acres of common wheat and twenty 

 acres of corn is the average. 



Buckwheat Production. There is no available information 

 regarding the world's crop of buckwheat, but it is cultivated in 

 Japan, North Asia, and North Europe. In the United States buck- 

 wheat production reached its height in the sixties, then rapidly 

 declined in the seventies, but has again gradually increased since, 

 though it has not reached the production of 1866. 



While the production of all other cereals has very largely shifted 

 from the eastern States to the Middle West since 1850, buckwheat 

 is the one cereal that has remained principally in the East (Fig. 73). 

 For 50 years New York has been the leading buckwheat State, with 

 Pennsylvania a close second. These two states produce about two- 

 thirds of the buckwheat crop. Michigan, Maine, and West Virginia 

 follow in the order named. 



Buckwheat Production, 5-Year Average, 1906-1910 



Average yield 



Production, per acre, 



Bushels Bushels 



United States 15,896,600 19.6 



New York 6,302,000 21.0 



Pennsylvania 4,971,000 19.0 



Michigan 814,000 14.3 



Maine 607,000 29.3 



W. Virginia 451,000 20.0 



Virginia 351,000 16.9 



The average price per bushel is about 53 cents. 

 Origin and History. Buckwhent appears to have originated 

 from certain wild forms found in Central Asia. It was not culti- 

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