NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



Nov. 23, 1831. 



very difficiilt lo manage. In France where it is | soft water in u well glaz.t.l eartlu^n vessel, witl, 

 -rown in Inrge quantities, a leather dress an.l half a leas|).,.)nfnl oC alnrn ad.le.l, is saiJ to pro- 

 eloves are wurn lo prevent injnry fron. the little , diice a beantilul and permanent yellow dye, but 

 vpines Tl.onah considered raiher tender, the plant j whether adapted to dying hnen, cotton, or wool- 

 1 have stood o"ut last winter without any protect- 1 len goods, is not stated, 

 ion. There are two varieties, the one descnlied and 



the Spanish ; the latter not having any prickles, 

 is easily identified fioni the former, which is by 

 far the best and the only kind grown on the con- 

 tinent. If these lew remarks will be of any 

 benefit to your correspondent you are at liberty lo 

 use them as voii please. Your 



CambrUge, ATov. 19, 1831. 



II. 



tlie I.anc.istcr (Pa) Exi 



SUNFLOWER OIL. 



Mr Joseph Mann, of Salisbury, (Mass.) in a com- 

 munication to the New England Farmer, states 

 that after several trials made with suntlower seed, 

 he was unable to obtain more than two quarts of 

 oil from a bushel. — The process by which Mr Mann 

 arrived at this result was a singular one altogether. 

 He says ' we first made several trials by grmdiiig 

 and jn-essing, but in this way the most we could 

 get was one quart and a half pint, from one bush- 

 el. V/e then heated the seed, and pressed it with- 

 out grinding, bat it diil not succeed so well ; we 

 then ground and pressed it cold, and procured two 

 quarts, and this was the most we could procure in 

 any way.' Mr Mann adds ; — ' I presume the cause 

 why it did not produce as much when hot pressed 

 as cold, was that the hull of the secil when hoi 

 absorbed the oil more readily,' — which is very good 

 philosophy. 



It IS precisely this absorption of the oil by the 

 hull, that was the main cause of .Mr Mann's ' deci- 

 ded failure' Mr Barnitz of York, who cultivates 

 the Sunflower extensively, succeeds easily in ob- 

 taining four quarts from a bushel of good seed — 

 three quarts cold pressed and one by heating ; but 

 the hull i.< previously removed by an apparatus and 

 juocess which Mr B. has patented. Hence the 

 reason why the attempt to make oil proved unsuc- 

 cessful aiui uuproritable, is not to be sought in any 

 supposed nnliiness of sunllower seed for such pur- 

 pose, but in the inadequacy of the process emjdoy- 

 ed by Mr Mann to effect it. 



A German agncnliural work, puldlslied at Halle, 

 in 1S24, has lately lallcu in :o our bauds, and we 

 take this occasion to translate the following nara- 

 graphs from an article on the culture of the Sun- 

 flower. 



Sun.lower seed yields an excellent oil, richer 

 than olive oil and yet equally bland and mild ; it is 

 also purer and more transparent, tinged with a 

 sliglit shade of yellow. It is destitute of smell, and 

 in taste somewhat resembles that of almonds. In 

 Upper Saxony it is much u*"d instead of olive oil. 

 It is thou;lit to be equally good and much more 

 economical, as two gills of it will suffice where 

 three gills of the other would be required. As a 

 lamp oil it burns with a beautiCul flame, producing 

 no smoke and difl'using no disagreeable smell. 

 Curriers have found it particularly useful in dres.s- 

 ing leather, as it aids in imparting a permanent 

 nni) clear black ebony. 



The leaves of the Sunflower, among other uses 

 to which they may be applied, are ' serviceable in 

 the art of coloring. They are to be dried in the 

 shade, by spreading them thin on a table or a 

 riean floor and turning them frequently. A small 

 handful of these dried leaves boiled in a pint of 



Su.NFLOWEn Oil. 

 A correspondent of the New England Farmer, 

 Mr Joseph Mann, gives an account of an experi- 

 ment in making sunflower oil, which was a com- 

 plete failure; or rather an unprofitable job ; and 

 he thence concludes that the value of the article 

 ' has been overrated by at least one half We beg 

 Mr Mann to be assured the fault lo which the fail- 

 ure in his case is properly attributable was not in 

 the sunflower, but in himself. He merely resort- 

 ed [o the old method of extracting the oil, by 

 which every body knows only aboiit two quarts 

 of oil can be obtained from a liMshel of seed. 

 As long ago as 175S sunflower oil was made on 

 this plan and with this result, and .Mr .Mann had 

 no reason to e.\pect a better product from the same 

 process. The process he used was grinding and 

 pressing the seed, by both cold and hot pres- 

 sure, and the most he could obtain was two quarts. 

 Now we can put hiui in the way of extracting 

 FOUR QUARTS of oil from a bushel of seed, and 

 with the hope of inducing him to mike another 

 trial we will do so. The new process for extract- 

 ing this oil, the credit of which bchmgs to Charles 

 A. Barnitz, Esq. of York, Pa. is to clear the seed 

 of the hull or shell and press the kernel by itself. 

 The hull may he taken oflT readily by running the 

 seed through a buckwheat hulling machine, or 



ty, one third below the usual quantity, that lher«3 

 are various grades of quality, and but a small 

 portion of fine quotations are ranging high, and 

 which are likely to be maiiitaineil. In Sicily, owinjr 

 lo the entire failure in the crops, the porti have 

 been thrown open fin- foreign importation. From 

 the Black Sea and the Crimea the appearances of 

 ihe Crops are stated to lead to very satisfactory 

 conclusions. At Tanganroc best qualities of oltl 

 Wheat are very scarce, and at Odessa ihe supplies 

 are not expcected to attain the amount they hava 

 in ordinary years, owing to the political state of 

 the most fertile provinces in the interior. In Spain 

 the crops are tolerably good, but not so abumlant 

 as the appearances in spring imiicaieil. In Por- 

 tugal they have experienced much inclement 

 wealher and the crops are proportionally damaged 

 the port of Lisbon is in consequence opened for 

 the import of 27,000 qurs. r.f Wheat, and j.er- 

 iiiission it is expected will be further extended 

 next October or November. 



As to Germany, the crops in the neighborhood 

 of Magdeburg, the S.iale, Marks, Anhalt anil 

 Brunswick are highly s|)oken of — the quality will 

 exceed that of ordinary years in weight, averaging 

 GO to 61 lbs. and will reach fi2to03 lbs. and even 

 64 lbs. imperial — ihe quantiiy will also be an 

 average, though ihere are partial complaints of 

 rust ami mildew, but not sufiicient lo effect th<l 

 general proiluce. In Holstein and Mecklenburg 

 the same remarks will be borne out, not excepting 

 even the weight. Rye, on the contrary, has suf- 

 fered much from blight, and is complained of as 

 being thin ami light. 



In Pomerania and Silesia, the wheat crops are 



any other mill, the stones of which ran be kept 



so "far apart as merely to crack the hull as the seed I ''J, " "„;;;;';;;;f ;;;jy'"„;' ",|7ose""in"" Gennany 



pisses Ibioiigh ihem. The great obstacle herein- .,..„... r,..„,,:„ „,„ ,.,„ ;.,,„.,..„.l .l.„, „ „ (Von 



pisses iiiiough iliem. Tlie gre 

 fore moi with, in extracting this oil was the ab- 

 sorbing qualiiy of the large qiiaiillty of hull. 

 This is removed in Ihe new process of Mr Barnitz, 

 anil if Mr Mann will try it he will find that his 

 own ' wrong impressions' stooJ_iuost in need of 

 correction. — ,'1mer. Fnrmsr. 



CROPS ON THE CONTINENT OF EUROPE. 



As the st.ates of the crops in Englaml and on 

 theConiineiit are highly interesting to the growers 

 and dealers in grain in this country, we have se- 

 lected the following article from the London 

 New Price Current of September as containing 

 more information in a condensed form than any 

 we have seen. 



Having tievoted latterly so much space to the 

 Himie Agricultural ReporU", we now offer our 

 friends, this week, a succinct account of the sta e 

 and the result of the harvest abroad — commencing 

 then with France, we find that the Grain is no v 

 almost secured in most parts, with the exceptio i 

 ol'the Northern departments, the anticipations as ti 

 an abimdaiil produce have not been realized ard 

 are below an average growth, and in others fron 

 wet, the v.'heat has been materially deterioratfil 

 in quality, in which, in some instances, Rarity 

 and Indian Corn have i)artici[>ateil. — Towarcs 

 the South not only the quality has suffered bat 

 the quantiiy has fallen fiill one fourth short of 

 an average ; best descriptions of Corn therefoie 

 are being held at most of the principal markeis 

 at advanced term.=, prime samples of new bein» 

 scarce, and of ol<l, the stocks are nearly exhausteil 

 As to Italy and the Mediterranean, we bear fi-on 

 Naples, Leghorn, .Ancona, Genoa, Rome ant 

 Trieste, that the produce is calculated to be near 



From Dantzic we are informed that rye, from 

 mildew, has suffered a diminution of 6 to 8 lbs- 

 per bushel, and that wheat has also been injured 

 by blight, which it is feared will afl'eclthe i)roduce, 

 and lessen the chance of fine quality being pro- 

 cured. In Poland there is little doubt but a sniHlll 

 breadth of ground has been sown this season asi 

 compared with former years ; fortunately the growthi 

 seems nearly, by n superabundance, to hava 

 made up for the deficient extent. The supplies,, 

 however, from thence will depend entirely upon 

 p.ilitical results. From Russia we receive nai 

 complaints as to the produce of the harvest. Fill 

 .Norway and Sweden the crops are likely to prov<n 

 satisfactory to the anxious farmers, and to repaji 

 them the failure of the preceding giowih. Barleyi 

 and oats, with a few exceptions, in ail the North*, 

 erti countries, promise well as lo quality, lhough| 

 in some districts the yield of barley will not fulfill 

 the expectations. In Canada the crops are de»i 

 scribed as most promising, and that the seasoot 

 has been highly favorable lo the blossoming ofl 

 the wheat, so that a good quality may be looked I 

 for, and cultivation lias this year been considerably! 

 extended, and it is .said a fifth more seed of wheati 

 has been sown, which would enable an extra ex- 

 port next season of 3,000,000 bushels. In 1^ 

 Franco, Italy, Germany, Prussia and Russia, the 

 stocks of old wheat consist almost entirely of 

 inferior qualities, and best descriptions can only 

 be expected from the new produce. 



We have received from Prince Edward's Isl- 

 land, N. S. the first cargo of grain, consisting of 

 wheat, barley, and oats. The wheat is good red 

 Canadian quality, and the oats [dump, and ap^ 

 parently Irish seed of improved growth. 



