Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1903-11-17
PLENTY CT BUCKWHEAT.
A TEN MILLION BUSHEL CROP Is
NOW BEING HARVESTED.

~ 70 TIC DiS9SSt on KeCCrc. ana ! nerl
Is a Demand for All of it--Most o
the Crop From Two States-Th'
Cake an American DeIicacy.
Lovers of the buckwheat cake vii
be glad to learn that the largest buck
wheat crop ever harvested is nov
being gathered in the two great buck
wheat raising states OF the Union
New York and Pennsylvania.
Last year the buckwheat crop o
the United States amounted to 1866,
966 bushels, valued at S5,341, Alb. o
this total New York produced $3.50,
| l58 bushels, worth S1,S69,690 witt
Pennsylvania a close second with
production of 3,1S8 402 bushels, worth
SI753,621. Compared with these tht
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 fal
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 fol
the delectable griddle cake
1t is too early to estimate the tota
of the crop for the present year, al
though it will certainly exceed 10,
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 State. The pro-
duction of New York generally ex-
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 -four, 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
buckwheat nowadays. They can't af-
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 few years ago
fit only for cattle, poultry and paup-
ers.
Among bee keepers buckwheat is a
favorite crop, for the reason that the
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 confne themselves to them
entirely, and therefore produce pure
buckwheat honey.
The market value of this is i'm
paired by the fact that it q 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
its growth in six weeks of hot wealth
er 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
the owner of a good farm will not
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 as buck
wheat brings greater returns 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 beneficent 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
riod for the buckwheat farmer. Often
large crop is nearly ruined by a
few days of wet weather after the
grain has been cut and before it has
been threshed
Now is busy ard exscting season
for the owners of traction engines
and threshing machines in the buck
wheat belt, for to them the whole
farming community looks to save the
crop from possible destruction. Often
they work until midnight and then
travel for hours in order to be ready