REPORT OF TEE DIRECTOR. 



23 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



o 



Name of Variety. 



1 Carmans No. 1.. . . . 



2 Early Sunrise 



3 Burnaby Seedling. . . 



4 Early Harvest 



5 ■*Enipire State 



6 t American Wonder.. 



7i*Everett 



8 Wonder of the Woil 

 9Earlv Rose 



10 Seedling 230 



11 Prize Taker 



12 Uncle Sam 



13 Early White Prize. . 



Yield 

 per Acre. 



Bush. Lb.s. 



387 

 257 

 228 

 327 

 226 

 105 

 221 

 333 

 291 

 428 

 290 

 313 

 351 



44 

 30 

 43 

 1 

 15 

 47 



la 



16 

 47 

 41 

 24 

 33 

 34 



* Part in low laud. ^ Wet low land lessened the yitld. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH SUNFLOWERS. 



A plot covering a quarter of an acre was sown with this crop. The soil was a 

 sandy loam of good quality. The previous crop was oats. After the oat crop was 

 cut the land was gang-ploughed shallow, and later in the autumn it was ploughed to 

 the depth of 7 or 8 inches. During the winter of 1899 and 1900 the land received a 

 dressing of fresh barn-yard manure, about 12 tons per acre. This was placed on the 

 frozen ground in small piles of about one-third cart-load each to prevent fermentation, 

 and loss, and spread and ploughed under in the spring of 1900. The land was then 

 harrov/ed twice with the disc-harrow and three times with the smoothing-harrow, when 

 the seed was sown with the grain drill in rows 3 feet apart, about 3 or 4 pounds of 

 seed being used per acre. Subsequently the plants were thinned out when they were 

 4 or 5 inches high, so as to leave them from 12 to 15 inches apart in the rows. 



The variety tried was Mammoth Russian, black seed. It was sown on May 25, 

 and the heads were cut on September 15 and put in the silo. The plants made a 

 strong growth, and the heads were ripe when cut. 



Yield of heads per acre was 6 tons 1,920 pounds. 



This crop should have been sown earlier. In our experience, sunflowers cannot 

 be sown ton early ; the earlier the seed is got in the larger the crop, provided the season 

 is favourable. 



