SUNFLOWERS AS A CROP 



By Karol J. Kucinski, Research Assistant, and Walter S. 

 Eisenmenger, Research Professor, of Agronomy 



General Considerations 



Sunflowers have been grown to some extent in nearly all parts of this country, 

 either for the seed or as an ensilage crop. Some varieties are grown as ornamental 

 plants. In Missouri, California, and Illinois they are grown chiefly for the seed; 

 while in the northern part of the United States, in Canada, and at high altitudes 

 where the summers are short and the temperatures so low that corn does not do 

 well, they are grown for forage. 



Although interest in the sunflower has recently been increasing because of the 

 many new uses being found for it, our forefathers years ago learned many of its 

 values. They knew that the plant produces a good birdseed; that beekeepers 

 consider it a source of fine honey and wax; that the seed is exceptionally rich in 

 oil of high quality, suitable for human food as well as for making paints and fine 

 soaps; that the oil cake is valuable for fattening cattle, pigs, sheep, pigeons, and 

 rabbits; and that the sunflower stalk, if treated similarly to flax, yields fiber in 

 large quantities. 



Europeans, especially Russians, ha\'e long known the value of the sunflower, 

 and the peasant population has always eaten the seed, it being not uncommon for 

 youngsters to carry some in their pockets to crack and eat as our boys do peanuts. 

 The oil found in sunflower seeds (about 20 to 32 percent) is considered a delicacy 

 by the European cook. 



In this country the sunflower seed is used primarily as an ingredient of scratch 

 feeds for poultry, while the little oil that is extracted is used in making lard 

 substitutes and in paints. 



In the midst of an all-out war, with the accompanying shortages and high 

 cost of feeds, there may be justification for growing crops which it might not be 

 feasible or economical to grow under normal conditions. Poultrymen and indi- 

 viduals keeping hens for their own home use might well give earnest considera- 

 tion to the growing of sunflowers, since the seed is an exceptionally good con- 

 ditioner of poultry if used to supplement the regular feed. 



For the past five or six years sunflowers have been grown at the Massachusetts 

 Agricultural Experiment Station in the hope of finding out whether the crop is 

 adapted to our soil and climatic conditions. Results of these tests are very 

 encouraging, showing that the crop can be grown and will yield seed abundantly. 

 However, to the best of our knowledge, no one in the State is now growing sun- 

 flowers in commercial lots, probably because of the lack of near-by mills for 

 processing the oil and the prohibitive cost of transportation to mills in the Mid- 

 west. 



It has been charged that the growing of sunflowers has an effect on the soil 

 that may be detrimental to the succeeding crop. This may be true under semi- 

 arid conditions or in seasons of limited rainfall. However, this has not been 

 borne out in experiments in the Connecticut Valley when tobacco was the suc- 

 ceeding crop, in spite of the fact that tobacco is very sensitive to effects of the 

 preceding crop. 



