BROOM-CORN 



BUCKWHEAT 



217 



where the crop is largely produced, buyers are 

 usually on hand to purchase it ; elsewhere, commu- 

 nications should be addressed to large users of the 

 crop for quotations. The price varies with the 

 quality of the crop and the production, usually 

 running from $50 to $100 per ton. An acre of 

 dwarf broom-corn should produce at least 400 

 pounds of brush ; an acre of standard 600 to 700 

 pounds. 



As special equipment for the handling of this 

 crop is needed in the matter of drying sheds, 

 thresher and baler, as well as a considerable force 

 at harvest^time, the business of growing it should 

 be a fairly permanent one, and farmers are not 

 justified in growing broom-corn for a single year 

 only. 



Literature. 



Farmers' Bulletin No. 174 of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture, "Broom-Corn," by C. 

 P. Hartley, gives very concise treatment of this 

 crop. Several experiment station publications 

 have also been devoted to it. For further account 

 of broom-corn in its botanical relations, see the 

 article on Sorghum. 



BUCKWHEAT, Fagopyrum esculentum, Mcench 

 and F. Tataricum, Gsertn. Polygonacece. Pigs. 

 310-314. 



By /. L. Stone. 



The true or common buckwheat is of one species, 

 Fagopyrum esculentum. Figs. 310, 311 (F. emargi- 

 natum is a variant form characterized by a notched 

 akene), but the India-wheat (,F. Tataricum), Fig. 

 313, is sometimes known as buckwheat. The buck- 

 wheat is .an annual, grown for the flour that is 

 made from the contents of the 3-cornered akene, 

 native of Europe and northern Asia. Leaves tri- 

 angular or hastate in outline ; flowers white, fra- 

 grant, in dense terminal panicles or clustered 

 racemes. 



Buckwheat is of erect habit, under ordinary con- 

 ditions attaining about three feet in height. The 

 root system consists of one primary root and sev- 

 eral branches, the former extending well downward 

 to reach moist earth ; but the total development of 

 roots is not large. The stem varies from one-fourth 

 to five-eighths of an inch in diameter and from 

 green to purplish red in color while fresh, chang- 

 ing to brown at maturity. 



Only one stem is produced from each seed ; the 

 plant, instead of tillering or producing suckers, 

 branches more or less freely, depending on the 

 thickness of seeding. It thus adapts itself to its 

 environment even more completely than the cereals 

 which tiller freely. The leaves are alternate, tri- 

 angular-heart-shaped, slightly longer than broad, 

 varying from two to four inches in length, and 

 borne on a petiole varying from very short to 

 four inches in length. The flowers are white, tinged 

 with red or pink, and are borne on the end of the 

 stem or on a slender peduncle springing from the 

 axil of the leaves. They are without petals, but 

 the parts of the calyx have the appearance of 



petals and the bloom is so abundant that fields of 

 buckwheat make a beautiful appearance. There 

 are eight stamens and one three-parted pistil. On 

 threshing the ripened grain, the calyx remains 

 attached at the base of the seed. Two forms of 

 flowers are produced : one with long stamens and 

 short styles, and the other with short stamens and 

 long styles. Though each plant bears but ene f erm 

 of flower, the seeds from either form will produce 

 plants bearing both forms. This arrangement is 

 thought to facilitate crossing by means of insect 

 visitation. The grain of buckwheat consists of a 

 single seed enclosed in a pericarp which in botany 

 is known as an akene. The pericarp or hull is 

 thick, hard, smooth and shining, and varies in color 

 from a silver gray to a brown or black. It sepa- 

 rates readily from its contents. In form the grain 

 is a triangular pyramid with a rounded base. The 

 usual length of the grain is three-sixteenths to 

 three-eighths of an inch, and the width one-eighth 

 to three-sixteenths of an inch. In states of chief 

 production the legal weight of buckwheat is forty- 

 eight pounds per bushel. In some others it varies 

 from forty to fifty-six pounds. 



The name " buckwheat" seems to be a corruption 

 of the German biLchweisen, meaning beech-wheat, a 

 name given to the plant because of the shape of 

 the seeds, being similar to that of the beech-nut, 

 while their food constituents are similar to those 

 of wheat grains. Botanically, buckwheat is riot a 

 cereal, but since its seeds serve the same purposes 

 as the cereal grains it is usually classed in market 

 reports among the cereals. The family to which 

 buckwheat belongs (Polygonacese) includes several 

 well-known trouble- 

 some weeds, as sorrel 

 and dock (Rumex) and 

 smartweed, knotweed 

 and bindweed (Poly- 

 gonum). 



The notch - seeded 

 buckwheat (Fagopy- 

 rum emarginatum, no 

 doubt only a form of 

 F. esculentum) is not 

 known to have been 

 grown in this country 

 but is reported as cul- 

 tivated in India and China. It is distinguished by 

 having the angles of the hull extended into wide 

 margins or wings. 



The Tartary buckwheat or India-wheat (Fagopy- 

 rum Tataricum, Figs. 312, 313) is cultivated in the 

 cooler and more mountainous regions of Asia 

 and to some extent in Canada and Maine. It is 

 recommended for superior hardiness. It has been 

 tried in Pennsylvania but without satisfactory 

 results. The grain is smaller than the common 

 buckwheat, the plants are more slender and the 

 leaves arrow-shaped. The flowers are small and 

 greenish and are borne in axillary mostly simple 

 racemes along the stem, so that a field of it does 

 not have the white and floriferous appearance that 

 a field of buckwheat does. It is earlier than com- 

 mon buckwheat. It has been sold as duckwheat. 



Fig. 310. Plan of buckwheat 

 blossom {Fugopyrwm escu- 

 lentum). Enlarged, 



