581. Preparation of Seed Bed.-Since a great deal of buckwheat is sown because of the failure of some other crop or be

cause the delay

in farm work has prevented the preparation of the land in time for an earlier sown crop, the preparation of the seed bed usually takes place immediately before seeding. The land is usually plowed and prepared as for any other cereal. Early and thorough preparation of the seed bed, however, is advisable, as shown by the illustraBuckwheat: variety, Japanese, showing influence of preparation tions in this

of seed bed upon growth. Plat on which larger plant grew was cultivated during the spring, while In plat upon which smaller one grew the weeds were allowed to grow in the usual manner. Just before seeding, which was July 6, all plats were plowed and prepared in usual manner. Illustration shows plants at six weeks from seeding. From unpublished data of Cornell Station. (One-twelfth natural size.)

paragraph.

582. Seeding.

The date of seeding varies

from May first to August first. The preferred time varies from the middle of June to the middle of July, depending upon locality. If sown too early, the flowers are liable to blast by the warm weather. The plant begins to blossom when quite small and continues until frost comes. Thus the plant has seeds in all

stages of maturity. When the earlier blossoms are blasted the later blossoms produce the seed. For this reason and because of the lateness of sowing, the crop is particularly liable to suffer from frost. The amount of seed used varies from two to five pecks, three to four pecks being common; depending principally upon the preparation of the seed bed. There is little trouble from foreign seed or from lack of germination. While the seed is usually sown broadcast by hand and harrowed in, the same reason exists for using the grain drill as in the case of wheat and other cereals. (131)

583. Enemies.-On account of its rapid germination and the quickness with which the plant shades the ground, as well as the time of year at which it is usually sown, buckwheat is little troubled with weeds. It is also especially free from insect attacks and fungous diseases. The principal causes of failure are the blasting of the flowers from hot weather and from drouth or flood.

584. Harvesting.-Buckwheat is usually harvested when the first seeds are fully mature, which is ordinarily in September. Buckwheat is a rather difficult crop to harvest. Much of it is still harvested with the cradle. Where the land will permit, probably the self-rake reaper is the most desirable implement. In this case it is not bound but is set up in shocks something after the manner of maize fodder. It may be cut with the selfbinder, put in long shocks without caps and threshed as soon as dry. It is rarely stacked or put in the barn on account of the difficulty of getting the straw cured sufficiently to prevent heating. The grain is said to keep better, when carried over from one season to another, if put in two-bushel bags and piled loosely so as to admit of a good circulation of air, than when stored in bins. (168)

585. Use. The principal use of buckwheat is for the production of flour from which the well-known buckwheat cakes are

made. There is also some sale for buckwheat groats, which is made by breaking the hull and separating the same from the kernels of the grain. The constant use of buckwheat is supposed to produce a feverish condition of the system which manifests itself in eruptions of the skin. Brewer suggests that inasmuch as plants of the buckwheat family are used for their medicinal properties, perhaps the cultivated species has some such property which affects its physiological value as a food. Buckwheat is highly prized as a poultry food, it being popularly supposed to stimulate the egg laying capacity of hens. There is no experimental evidence to support this belief. When ground, it makes a good food for swine. Under favorable conditions, 100 pounds of grain will produce sixty pounds of flour, twenty-four pounds of middlings or bran, and sixteen pounds of hulls. Buckwheat middlings is highly prized as a food for milch cows on account of its high percentage of protein and fat. Buckwheat hulls are of little value. They are sometimes mixed with the middlings, the mixture being known as buckwheat feed. As a food for domestic animals, the former is greatly to be preferred.

Buckwheat straw if protected from the weather is relished by stock. Where hay is so abundant that there is no occasion to feed straw, buckwheat straw has little feeding value; but if roughage is short it may be made to help out to good advantage. Used as bedding it does not last well, but it makes good bedding for cows, and because it is rich in minerals and rots so quickly it is desirable for manure. An old buckwheat straw stack or chaff pile is counted almost as good as manure. Some farmers report good results from using buckwheat as a green forage crop. It is highly prized for bees, buckwheat honey having a recognized place in the market.

586. Production.-Buckwheat is grown throughout the cooler portions of Asia, being extensively grown in Japan, and is rather sparingly grown in Europe, being less important there

than formerly. It is grown somewhat extensively in portions of Canada. In the United States the area devoted to this crop is one-sixth that of barley, about one-third that of rye and equal to the combined acreage of rice and sorghum grown for its seed. While a secondary crop, its place in the agriculture in the sections where it is grown is more important than the statistics would indicate. New York and Pennsylvania produced twothirds, and, with Michigan, Wisconsin and Maine, produced more than four-fifths of the crop in 1899. The production has not changed materially in the past twenty-five years, although in 1860 the production was somewhat greater. In 1899 about 200,000 farms reported an average of about four acres each. There is a small importation of buckwheat from Canada; there is no export of either grain or flour.

587. Yield per Acre. The harvested crop may vary in yield. from five to fifty bushels, thirty bushels per acre being considered a rather large yield, and twenty to twenty-five bushels being considered satisfactory. The average yield in the United States in 1899 was, according to the census, fourteen bushels. The average yield for the ten years ending 1903, according to the estimates of the United States Department of Agriculture, was eighteen bushels per acre; the average December farm price per bushel for the same period was fifty-two cents.

588. History. Although buckwheat is known to have been cultivated in China for 1,000 years, its cultivation is not believed to be very ancient. It was introduced into Europe in the Middle Ages, being unknown to the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. It was introduced early into the American Colonies, having been relatively much more important than at the present time. Formerly it was chiefly used as a substitute for wheat; now it is used as a luxury, although in many farm homes in Pennsylvania and New York buckwheat cakes constitute the principal bread food during the winter months. (170)

Practicums.

589. DESCRIPTION OF BUCKWHEAT.-Give each student typical plants of two or more varieties:

5. Color of grain: light gray; medium gray; dark gray; brown; black.

6. Plumpness of grain: plump; medium; shrunken.

7. Width: average of twenty-five grains

8. Length: average of twenty-five grains 9. Weight: average of twenty-five grains .; per cent of hulls

10.

; average of twenty-five hulls

Volume weight: weight per bushel by weighing one pint. 11. Specific gravity: use picnometer. (203)

590. RELATION OF BUCKWHEAT TO SOIL MOISTURE. Having selected a soil, determine the amount of water it will hold when completely saturated. Fill sixteen three-gallon jars with this soil and determine the percentage of moisture in the soil. Sow buckwheat in four jars with sufficient water to fully saturate the soil; to four jars add three-fourths this amount of water; to four jars add one-half this amount, and to four jars one-fourth this amount. By weighing the jars, maintain the amount of water in them as indicated. At the end of three, six and nine weeks remove the plants from one jar in each of the series; determine their fresh weight and the weight of water-free substance and add sufficient water to the remaining jars to make up for the water of the plants. When the plants have ripened, determine the weight of grain and straw in each of the remaining jars.

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