18 



Experimental culture in France gave a return of 1,778 pounds of seed, yielding 15 

 percent of oil and 80 percent of cake from an acre; but the product varies consider- 

 ably according to soil, climate, and cultivation, and tbe average may be roundly 

 stated at 50 bushels of seed from an acre, and 1 gallon of oil from 1 bushel of seed. 

 The percentage of oil to seed ranges from 16 to 28, and that of husk to kernel from 

 41 to 60. 



In Russia the seed is drilled into lines 18 inches apart, and the plants are thinned 

 out to 30 inches apart in the rows, thus giving about 11,000 plants to an acre. The 

 quantity of seed required for an acre is 46 pounds. 



The station crop of 1883 occupied a plat of one-twentieth of an acre, was planted 

 4 kernels in a hill, the hills being 42 by 44 inches apart, and was cultivated during 

 growth the same as corn. The soil received at the rate of 400 pounds of superphos- 

 phate to the acre. Planted May 18, vegetated May 31, harvested in September, and 

 the seed beaten out and measured and weighed October 25, the yield being 2 bush- 

 els, or 57^ pounds; expressed in acre yield, 50 bushels, or 1,150 pounds, the seed thus 

 weighing 23 pounds per struck bushel. 



From not having facilities at the station for expressing the oil we must be content 

 with the results of analysis. Dr. S. M. Babcock found the seed to contain 20. 52 per 

 cent of the oil in the air-dry seed. One hundred seeds in air-dry condition weighed 

 187.7 grains, and contained 49.1 per cent of husk and 50.9 per cent of kernel. The 

 complete analysis is as below: 



Composition of sunflower seed. 



The sunflower crop, however, has difficulties in the way of curing. As the plant 

 ripens late in the season the heads must be placed under cover to prevent waste, and 

 they contain at this stage milch water. We dried our crop by spreading the heads 

 upon a floor without piling, and as soon as the seeds were sufficiently dry they were 

 shelled out. As this has been a very late season, it is possible that in a more favor- 

 able year the seeds might be shelled off at the time of harvest. 



RESULTS OF EXPERIMENTS IN MAINE. 



The report of the Maine Agricultural Experiment Station for 1895 

 contains an article on sunflower heads and black-eye peas as silage 

 crops. The yield of the sunflower heads which were used in the experi- 

 ments was 12,720 pounds per acre in the fresh state, containing 2,040 

 pounds of water-free material. The composition of the sunflower 

 heads and the peas used in the experiments and the yield per acre of 

 nutrients per ton of 2,000 pounds are given in the following tables: 



