Hattiesburg daily progress. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 18??-1909, 1903-12-03
PLENTY OF BUCKWHEAT.
A TEN MILLION BUSHEL CROP IS
NOW BEING HARVESTED.
1t Is the Biggest on Record, and There
Is a Demand for All of lt-Most Of
the Crop From Two states-The
Cake an American Delicacy.

" 10 tnS 6t9QeSt on RECORD, anu fHcFe
Is Demand for All of lt-Most Of
the Crop From Two States-The
Cake an American Delicacy.
Lovers of the buckwheat cake will
be glad to learn that the largest buck
wheat crop ever harvested is now
being gathered in the two great buck
wheat raising states of the Union,
New York and Pennsylvania.
| Last year the buckwheat crop OF
the United States amounted to 1885,
966 bushels, valued at s5,341, ALB. OF
this total New York produced $780,,
1873 bushels, worth s1,S69,690, with
| Pennsylvania a close second with a
production of 3,1SS.4O bushels, worth
$1,753,621. Compared with these the
State of Maine makes a poor third
yielding 1890 bushels.
Twenty-four states figures as buck
wheat producers, the grain growing
as far south as Georgia and as far
west as Oregon. Considerably more
than two-thirds of the total produc-
ton is always from New York and
Pennsylvania, to which nearly every
State in the Union pays tribute for
the delectable griddle cake.
1t is too early to estimate the total
of the crop for the present year, al
though it will certainly exceed TO-
100000 bushels. The four counties
Of Armstrong. Indiana, Westmore-
land and Butler in Pennsylvania will
yield more than 100000 bushels,
these counties forming the buckwheat
belt of the United States and yielding
nearly four-fifths of the crop pro-
duced in the keystone StateeThe pro-
ceeds that of Pennsylvania, but its
cultivation is there more generally
distributed.
The buckwheat cake is a peculiarly
American institution, as much SO as
the pumpkin pie. The crop is cult
waited In many lands, but the house
wives of no other country have
learned how to prepare it in such a
manner as to tickle the palate of the
lover of good living.
Not so very many years ago buck
wheat cakes were eaten only by the
very poor of the farming districts,
not because they liked them, but as a
measure of economy. There was no
market for the grain or flour, and
when it was grown at all it was for
stock food, or for home consumption
in default of anything better.
1t will grow on the poorest soil,
where no other crop can be raised. 1t
natures more quickly than any other
cereal, and a crop failure is hardly
ever known, so that this is pre-emi-
nently the poor mans crop.
The poorer farmers no longer eat
Juckwheat nowadays. They can't az
ford it. They first convert it into
cash, and then buy wheat flour, no
doubt wondering what those city
folks mean by buying at fancy prices
what was considered a few years ago
fit only for cattle, poultry and paup-
ers.
Among bee keepers buckwheat is
favorite crop, for the reason that the
blossoms contain more honey than is
found in the flowers of any other
plant of economic use aside from its
value as a honey producer. AS long
as the buckwheat fields are in flower
the bees confine themselves to them
entirely, and therefore produce pure
buckwheat honey.
The market value of this is i'm
paired by the fact that 1t dark am
Der color, instead of the clear white
demanded by the fastidious city
trade. In making this exaction, city
customers show their own ignorance.
Few of those who have ever tried
genuine buckwheat honey would be
willing to exchange it for the finest
grade of white clover
Buckwheat makes practically all of
it's growth in six weeks of hot wealth
err in July and August, being the
most rapid growing Of farm crops.
For this reason it is supposed to be
very exhausting on the soil, so that
plant it at all.
This is, no doubt, the reason why
so much of this grain is raised in But
Ter, Armstrong, Westmoreland and In
diana counties in Pennsylvania.
These counties are full Of bald knobs
that have been cultivated for more
than a century, until all the natural
fertility of the soil that has not been
extracted by the crops has been
washed down by the rains into the
valleys below.
They will produce nothing but
buckwheat and beans, and az buck
wheat brings greater returLs with
less labor, buckwheat is the crop pre-
ferred. Possibly the time will come
when these wornout farms will cease
to produce even buckwheat; but, with
firm faith in a benefcent Providence
and in the efficacy of commercial fer
tilizers, the farmers are not losing
any sleep.
Buckwheat is sown broadcast or
drilled into the ground about the first
or middle of July. and is harvested as
soon as the first frosts kill the last
lingering blossoms. The sheaves are
allowed to stand in the fields for a
few days, until the peripatetic steam
thresher comes around, when the
crop is hauled in and threshed.
This is really the most critical Pc
Rod for the buckwheat farmer Often