17 



as corn, and gathered, the heads being cut off, just as ears of corn are plucked from the 

 stalks. The seed is thrashed out by several devices. One is by holding the sunflower 

 head in the hand and scratching out the seed with a good currycomb; another is by 

 beating it out with a stick. Where large crops are grown, a special machine, similar 

 to that employed for thrashing broom corn, is used for removing the seed, which is 

 then run through a fan mill to remove the chaff and dirt. Sunflowers are considered 

 a profitable crop among many of our farmers. 

 The uses to which the seed is put are chicken feed and prepared stock food. Also, 



1 understand, a certain kind of oil is made from the seed. The yield of seed is from 

 1,000 to 1,500 pounds per acre. The average price, one year with another, is about 



2 cents per pound. 



Mr. J. H. Marion, of St. Louis, Mo., under date of October 14, 



1899, says: 



It may possibly interest you to know that the growth of sunflower seed in Jeffer- 

 son County, 111., has been quite extensive the past summer. The industry has been 

 promoted by a gentleman named A. M. Stratton, of Mount Vernon, 111. Mr. Strat- 

 ton furnished the seed to farmers, provided they would give him an option on the 

 crop. About 100,000 pounds of seed have been produced under this plan. What 

 disposition was made of it I have been totally unable to ascertain further than that 

 it was shipped to New York. A farmer named Bennett, near Mount Vernon, sold 

 Stratton 11,000 pounds of seed, grown from ten acres, for $156, a little more than $15 

 per acre. 



INVESTIGATIONS OF SUNFLOWERS BY STATE EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



The sunflower has not occupied a great deal of attention in the agri- 

 cultural experimental work at the stations in the United States, 

 although a few isolated investigations have been made. Some work 

 was done at the New York Agricultural Experiment Station in 1883, 

 and the subject is discussed in the second annual report for that year, 

 page 154. The objection which is urged in this report to the growth 

 of the crop in New York State, based upon the fact that it matures late 

 in the season, would not, of course, be tenable in more southern local- 

 ities. The New York report referred to is as follows: 



EXTRACTS FROM A NEW YORK REPORT. 



From a late article in the Drug Reporter we obtain some statistics relating to the 

 growing of the sunflower as a crop. In Italy its cultivation is confined to the neigh- 

 borhood of Piove and Conegliano, in Venetia. In Russia the plant is most exten- 

 sively grown in Kielce and Podolia, and the district of Birutch in Voronej. The 

 production of seed is now estimated at 228,000,000 pounds from an area of 216,000 

 acres, or about 1,325 pounds to the acre. In Tartary and China it is cultivated in 

 immense quantities, but no actual statistics are available. In Mysore, India, 1 acre 

 of land gives 1,288 pounds of seed, which yields 45 gallons of oil, which is there com- 

 pared to peanut oil and applied to the same use. The Russian seed is expressed on 

 the spot, and the oil is largely employed for adulterating olive oil. The purified oil 

 is considered equal to olive and almond oil for table use. 



The chief industrial uses of the oil are woolen dressing, lighting, and candle and 

 soap making. For the last-mentioned purpose it is superior to most oils. It is pale 

 yellow in color, thicker than hemp-seed oil, and dries slowly. 



11715 No. 60 2 



