Sussex, Wis., March 1, 1881.
=Planting Buckwheat for a Honey Yield.=—In answer to Mr. A. Hodges, on
page 78, I will say that buckwheat is a peculiar plant about yielding
honey. I have never known it to fail here in yielding enough honey
for the bees’ winter stores, and usually very much more; in other
localities in the same latitude, it cannot be relied on at all for a
honey crop. It seems, however, that it never yields through the entire
season in which it can be made to bloom. Quite a large amount of it is
cultivated every season in my vicinity, much of it generally coming
into full bloom as early as the middle of July, yet I have never known
it to yield any honey earlier than the 1st of August, and very rarely
before the 10th; but when it commences to yield honey, it does so
profusely until the plant itself is ripe, or killed by frost. I would
say to Mr. Hodges, or any one else intending the sowing of successive
crops of buckwheat, that it is useless to sow any early in the season,
to blossom before the 1st of August. I am intending to sow about 20
acres of it this season for my bees. I shall put the first crop of it
in the ground about June 25; the rest about July 10. That from the last
sowing will remain in bloom until frost comes, even if that is delayed
later than ordinary.