266 FIELD CROPS 



331. Varieties. The most common varieties of the 

 ordinary buckwheat are the Japanese and the Silver hull. 

 These differ mainly in size and color. Silverhull is smaller 

 and plumper and lighter in color than Japanese. Opinions 

 differ as to which produces the more grain and the better 

 quality of flour. Tartary buckwheat is smaller than the 

 ordinary type and, according to growers in Maine, is some- 

 what hardier. It probably yields less than Japanese and 

 Silverhull. 



Fig. 87. Grains of the two most common varieties of buckwheat; Japanese 

 at the left, Silverhull at the right. 



332. Importance. The entire area devoted to buck- 

 wheat in the United States is only about 800,000 acres 

 annually, so that this is one of the minor crops. About 

 three-fourths of the crop is grown in New York and Penn- 

 sylvania. The average production of the United States for 

 the ten years from 1902 to 1911 inclusive was 15,317,000 

 bushels, of which New York grew 6,667,000 bushels and 

 Pennsylvania 5,143,000 bushels. No other state produced 

 more than a million bushels, the states of largest production 

 being Maine, Vermont, West Virginia, and Virginia. Except 



