25 



The following is a statement of the cost of labor for growing the four acres of sun- 

 flowers and putting the heads into the silo: 



Rent of land, at $3 per acre $12. 00 



Plowing, at $2 per acre 8. 00 



Harrowing, twice at 20 cents each time per acre .. 1. 60 



Rolling, at 20 cents per acre 80 



Seed, 20 pounds 2. 00 



Sowing, l T 9 o days, at $1.25 2. 00 



Hoeing and thinning, 10 T V days, at $1.25 13. 13 



Hand-wheel hoeing, 2 days, at $1.25 2. 50 



Cultivating, 2^ days, at $1.75 5. 07 



Cutting and putting into silos, 17 days, at $1.25 21. 88 



Horse and cart, drawing in, 6 days, at $1.75 11. 38 



Proportion of time of farm foreman 8. 00 



Total 88. 36 



These figures do not include any allowance for the use of farm machinery, nor do 

 they include any amount as an equivalent for the exhaustion of soil. The cost for 

 labor was $22.09 per acre. The average yield of heads, nearly all ripe, was 3 tons, 

 1,009 pounds, which gives an average cost of $6.30 per ton for labor of growing, 

 including cost of seed and rent of land, etc., as in statements. 



EXPERIMENTS CONDUCTED BY THE DIVISION OF CHEMISTRY. 



The average height of the Russian sunflower as grown in the United 

 States is probably about 6 feet, but occasionally plants of very much 

 larger dimensions are produced. The largest plant which has been 

 described grew in Washington during the summer of 1897, and a pho- 

 tograph of this plant, which is reproduced in Plate I, was made on the 

 3d of August, 1897. The circumference of the stalk of this plant at 

 the surface of the ground was 8 inches, showing a diameter of almost 

 3 inches. The extreme height of the plant was 12 feet and 6 inches. 

 It is evident that this large plant was produced under extraordinary 

 conditions of fertility. 



DIMENSIONS OF SUNFLOWER PLANTS. 



Many discrepant statements have been published in regard to the 

 dimensions of sunflower plants. These discrepancies have arisen chiefly 

 from the fact that actual measurements have not been made, but simply 

 approximate estimates. It is evident that often the plant attains a 

 height of 10 or 12 feet, but the average height of the plants is not so 



