As part of a larger study of the influence of residual stresses and grain orientation on the behaviour of short cracks, this. paper deals with the influence of grain orientation on the distribution of stress in single grains which are subjected to an external load. For this work an iron-silicon alloy with about 2.1 weight percent silicon was chosen. In order to produce grains with a mean diameter of about 5-10 mm the alloy was heat treated at 1400degrees C for 10 h in vacuum. Orientation measurements in single crystallites were carried out to choose grains with definite orientation. After selecting a grain an RCT-specimen with 2 mm thickness centred immediately inside the boundary of the selected grain was machined. In order to apply the external force a device equipped with a force gauge was constructed. Using the x-ray diffraction method load and residual stress in single crystallites were determined. The results show that there is no agreement in the load stress distribution between the selected grains and that the elastic anisotropy of the single crystal doesn't correspond to this disagreement.