Proceedings of the Farmer^ Club. 333 



Oil of Sunflower Seed 

 Is made in large quantities in Eussia, and which is exported from 

 St. Petersburg at about eighteen or twenty cents k gallon, gold, by 

 wholesale. The cultivation of this plant for oil in this country has 

 been recommended time and again, but for some reason has never 

 been extensively undertaken. Four years ago the returns showed 

 that in Eussia the annual product of sunflower seed was 33,500,000 

 pounds. A light, rich soil, not shaded by trees, is required. About 

 five pounds of seed is needed to the acre, drilled in rows eighteen 

 inches apart. The young plants are thinned to thirty inches apart. 

 The average yield is stated at fifty bushels to the acre. There can be 

 no doubt that a large portion of the Western country is peculiarly 

 adapted to the growth of the sunflower. 



Self-raising Flour. 

 Making self-raising flour, which has been invented in England, and 

 which can be used by any dusty miller who chooses to be careful about 

 his work : Pure hop yeast-cakes are thoroughly dried and then reduced 

 to powder ; half a pound of this prepared material is mixed with 

 sixty pounds of clean wheat, and the grain is then ground in the usual 

 manner, except that care is required to prevent the flour in grinding 

 from being heated above blood heat. Precaution should also be taken 

 to prevent this flour becoming moist, as it will ferment much more 

 readily than the ordinary kind. From yeast we may turn to hops, 

 which every grower knows lose half their value if kept one year, and 

 become nearly worthless at the end of the second. ^In such connection 

 an agricultural use for coal oil is proposed as follows : 



Hop Extract. 

 An extract of hops which can be kept for any length of time can, 

 it is stated, be prepared by dissolving out the " hop-dust " and better 

 principle by digestion in coal oil, naphtha and other light products of 

 petroleum. It is preferred to use a solvent that will boil at 100 

 degrees Fahrenheit. The concentrated extract is of course obtained 

 by evaporating the solvent, and for all we know to the contrary may 

 smell bad even if it does keep well. As this, if it succeeds, will pro- 

 bably benefit the speculator more than the farmer, perhaps the latter 

 would like a recipe for applying petroleum to some more e very-day 

 use, and here is one that should be put in practice on every bit of 

 iron-work on farm implements before they are stored away for the 

 winter. It is recommended by Dr. Puscher, a German pandit, who 

 tells how to accomplish a very desirable thing, viz. : 



