Fertilizing.— Stable manure is not usually applied to land intended for buckwheat, but is reserved for more exacting crops. Moderate ap plications of manure, however, on poor soils result in largely increased yields. When grown on poor land, buckwheat responds well to moderate dress ings of even low-grade fertilizers, and many farmers who do not use fertilizers on other crops find it profitable to buy for this. In experiments conducted at the Cornell Experiment Station on rather heavy soil, but in a state of fertility to produce a fair crop without fertilizing, applica tions of acid rock, dried blood and muriate of potash produced uncertain and somewhat contra dictory results.
Seed-bed.— Since buckwheat is not usually planted till the last of June, owing to pressure of other work or to shiftlessness, the land too often is not plowed till just before seeding and then receives hasty and indifferent fitting. This allows little time for sods and other organic matter to decay and become incorporated with the soil, and capillarity is not reestablished between the sub soil and the seed-bed. Under these conditions the development of the crop is slow, and if drought ensues disaster is the result. Early plowing of the land, so as to allow of several harrowings at inter vals of two weeks and a thorough settling of the soil, nearly insures the maximum crop the land is capable of producing. If early plowing is im practicable, then greater attention should be given to thorough fitting of the seed-bed.
Seed and seeding.—The amount of seed used per acre varies from three to five pecks, but is usually four pecks. It may be sown with the ordinary grain drill or broadcasted and harrowed in.
The time of seeding varies in different localities; in New York and Pennsylvania it is the last week in June or the first week in July. To avoid hot weather while the grain is forming, it is desirable to sow as late as possible and have the crop well developed before severe frosts occur. Buckwheat begins to bloom before the plants have nearly reached full growth and continues to bloom till stopped by frost or the harvest. Hence there will be at harvest time on the same plants mature and immature grain and flowers. It is sought to cut the crop just before the first hard frost. Much of the immature grain will ripen while lying in the swath or gavel.
Harvesting. — Buckwheat is rarely harvested with the self-binder, but may be cut with the hand cradle or the dropper-reaper. To avoid the shelling
and loss of the more mature grains, it is preferably cut early in the morning, while damp from dew or during damp, cloudy weather. It is usually allowed to lie a few days in swath or gavel, when it is set up in small independent shocks or stooks. It is not bound tightly by bands like most cereal grains, but the tops of the shocks are held together by a few stems being twisted around in a way peculiar to the crop. This setting up is also usually done when the crop is damp, to avoid shelling of the grain. The nnthreshed crop is not often stored in barns or stacked but is threshed direct from the field. Formerly much of the threshing was done with the hand flail, in which case it was necessary that the work be done on a dry, airy day, so that the grain would shell easily. If threshed by machinery ncithir cr'p nor day need he so dry, and it is usual to remove from the thresher the spiked con cave and put in its place a smooth one, or a suit able piece of hardwood plank. This is to avoid cracking the grain and unnecessarily breaking the straw. The pedicels bearing the seeds are slender, and these as well as the straw, when dry, are brittle, so that buckwheat threshes much easier than the cereals.
Place in the rotation.—Buckwheat generally has no definite place assigned it in the rotation of crops. This is chiefly due to its being resorted to as a substitute for meadow or spring-planted crops that have failed. The poorer lands and the left over fields are usually sown to buckwheat. While buckwheat seems not to be materially affected by the crop that precedes it, on the other hand it is reported unfavorably to affect certain crops when they follow it. Oats and corn are said by many to be less successful after buckwheat than after other crops. That this is so has not been estab lished by any experiment station. Buckwheat leaves the soil in a peculiarly mellow, ashy con dition. In the case of rather heavy soils on which it is desired to grow potatoes this is a decided benefit, and in some localities the practice of pre ceding potatoes by buckwheat, for the purpose of securing this effect, has become common. The following rotation is sometimes recommended for such soils : clover, buckwheat, potatoes, oats or wheat with clover-seeding. The first crop of clover is harvested early and the land immediately plowed and sown to buckwheat as a preparation for potatoes.