BUCKWHEAT 
153 
Buckwheat in full bloom in Butler Co., Pa. 
slight shower with a fall in temperature 
of 11 degrees. The bees were very quiet 
the next morning until about noon; then 
when it warmed up a little they were ready 
to rob anything they could get at, and 
there were thousands trying to get into 
our honey-house around the screened win- 
dows—and we knew from past experience 
that the honey season of 1906 had drawn 
to a close. The hive on scales did not gain 
one-half pound any day after that shower 
and fall in temperature, altho there was 
considerable buckwheat in bloom. At other 
times T have noticed that when the weather 
remains warm without any rain the flow 
of nectar would last until Sept. 5.” 
In New York buckwheat can be de¬ 
pended upon almost every year to yield a 
crop of honey, but in the West it is more 
uncertain, some years yielding no honey 
and in others a fair amount. In Ohio the 
yield of nectar from buckwheat is so irreg¬ 
ular and scanty that there is seldom a 
season that much honey is obtained from 
it. Since in the East it is almost always 
very reliable, when even basswood and 
clover fail, as they do sometimes in every 
locality, the beekeeper is usually able to 
make his expenses and a fair profit. In 
New York it is seldom that he is not able 
to make a fair, living from buckwheat 
alone. 
Among cultivated crops there a re few 
which will afford a better artificial honey- 
pasture than buckwheat. The beekeeper 
who raises this cereal largely for honey 
should plant at three different times in 
order to prolong as much as possible the 
flow of nectar. On an average it will oc¬ 
cupy the land a little over 60 days. It will 
commence to yield nectar in 15 or 20 days 
from the time it is planted, and take about 
10 days to mature after the honey flow 
ceases. If the first crop is sown on the 
20th of June, the second crop on the 4th 
of July, and the third about the 18th 
of this month, the beekeeper will be as¬ 
sured of a good bee-pasturage from the 
middle of July, when basswood and clover 
are past, to the middle of September, when 
the fall wild flowers begin to bloom. 
Buckwheat seed may sometimes be given 
away profitably to farmers in localities 
where this grain is not grown. By fur¬ 
nishing the seed free for one or two years 
farmers may perhaps be induced to grow 
