15S 



the Sun Flower. 



Vol. IL 



Hemp and Smi Flo^ver Seed Oil. 



From a communicatioa in the Cuyahoga 

 (Ohio) Plough Boy, we learn that Hemp and 

 Sunflower seed are being used for making oil 

 for lamps, and it is said to be superior to any 

 oil save sperm and equal to that. Eacii kind 

 of seed yields one gallon to the bushel. The 

 Sunflower is said to be superior to the hemp 

 seed and owing to the price for hemp seed, 

 it is thought to be inexpedient to make it into 

 oil. But the Sunflower yields about 160 

 bushels to the acre and therefore is believed 

 to be very profitable. The cost of expressing 

 the oil is 25 cents per gallon, which would 

 leave a good profit. 



Tlie Native Orape. 



We are not yet well acquainted with all 

 the varieties of fruit;? m the American forests, 

 nor how they may be improved by cultivation. 

 We have ourselves found in the woods better 

 grapes, than that called the Isabella. A cor- 

 respondent of the Cincinnati Daily Express 

 says: 



" I am cultivating some new native varie- 

 ties of grapes, that are entirely free from the 

 hard pulp generally prevalent in our native 

 grapes, and for the table, quite equal to the 

 foreign grape : I have not yet tested the qua- 

 lity of all of them for wine. I have one va- 

 riety resembling the Noiren of Burgundy, 

 that promises to make a superior wine, both 

 red and white, but its produce will be com- 

 paratively small. The most celebrated of the 

 Madeira wine merchants was recently in'our 

 city, when a bottle of each of these wines 

 (red and white) was set before, him, together 

 with two bottles of Madeira, very old of my 

 own importing, red (Tinton) and white. No 

 intimation was given that either was domes- 

 tic, but a gentleman at the table requested 

 him to select the best; he decided in favor of 

 the domestic. 



jTIilk Cows should be tvell Kept. 



The keeping of cows in such manner as to 

 make them give the greatest quantity of 

 milk, and with the greatest clear profit, is an 

 essential point of economy. Give a cow 

 half a bushel of turneps, carrots or other good 

 root, per day, during the six winter months, 

 besides her hay; and if her summer feed be 

 such as it should be, she will give near dou- 

 ble the quantity of milk she would afford, if 

 only kept during winter in the usual manner 

 and the milk will be richer and of better qua- 

 lity. 



The carrots, or other roots, at nineteen 

 cents per bushel, amount to about eighteen 

 dollars. The addition of milk, allowinn- it to 

 be only three quarts a day for three hundred 



days, at three cents per quart, amounts to 

 twenty seven dollars. It should be remem- 

 bered too, that when cows are thus fed with 

 roots they consume less hay, and are less lia- 

 ble to several diseases, which are usually the 

 effects of poor keeping. — Farmers' Assistant. 



Specimen of tlie "Down East Women." 



At the late fair at Boston, was presented a 

 very large carpet, manufactured from odds 

 and ends, bits of old cloths, flannels and 

 stockings, in short every thing in the shape 

 of woollen rags, from a ravelled thread up to 

 a bed blanket, the work of Mrs. Abigail 

 Welsh, of Nevvburyport. At the distrnce of 

 five' feet, which is near enough for well sized 

 people to look, it has the appearance of a rich 

 Turkey carpet of a handsome pattern and it 

 will last for y( ars a beautiful carpet. The 

 value of this kind of work may be perceived 

 by the following estimate of cost, which we 

 find in the Transcript: 



Cost of tow cloth for foundation, $2,67 



Dying the rags and old stockings, 2,00 



Throinbs placed at Lowell for border, 2,00 



$6,67 

 ' The carpet was made during odd hours, 

 after the labor of the family was performed, 

 in four months, and for the trifling sum above 

 stated, with the toil saved from the hours of 

 idleness, an elegant and almost everlasting 

 carpet produced. — Nantucket Inq. 



Tlie Sun Flower. 



The sunflower is a plant of much greater 

 value than is generally known. Instead of a 

 i'ew being permitted to grace a parterre, and 

 considered only as a gaudy flower, experience 

 warrants my saying it should be cultivated by 

 every planter and farmer as part of his pro- 

 vision crop. It can be turned to profitable 

 account on all our Plantations; for certain 

 purposes it is more valuable than any other 

 f^rain known to us ; in as much as it can be 

 made to yield more to the acre in exhausted 

 soils, with little labor, and with greater pros- 

 pects of success. 



Its seed are wholesome and nutritious food 

 for poultry, cattle and hogs, and very much 

 relished by them. 



From the seed an oil is obtained, with great 

 facility, as delicate, it is believed, as that of 

 olives. 



They are also pectoral. A tea made of it 

 is quite as effective as flaxseed, or any other, 

 in catarrhal affections. — On one occasion tea 

 sweetened with honey, was of so much more 

 service to me than the prescription of my 

 physician, that I attributed my early restora- 

 tion in health to its agency alone. Certainly 



