2 BULLETIN 1045, U. S. DEPAETMEIs^T OF AGRICULTURE. 



The sunliower under cultivation has been widely used as an orna- 

 mental, and its seeds are valued as a feed for birds and poultry. In 

 addition, the seeds are used as human food, and when pressed cold 

 produce a fairly good table oil. The resulting seed cake, after the 

 oil has been expressed, is used as a concentrate in feeding cattle and 

 horses. The above-mentioned uses are largely responsible for the 

 widespread distribution of the sunflower. 



PRESENT DISTRIBUTION. 



The sunflower plant is grown throughout North America, from 

 the southern Provinces of Canada to the Canal Zone. It is to be 

 found also in most parts of South America, but more especially along 

 the west coast from Colombia to Chile. In Australia, New Zealand, 

 South Africa, Egypt, the Mediterranean region of Europe, India, 

 and China the sunflower is grown to a limited extent. It has reached 

 its highest development and its greatest usefulness in Russia, where 

 several important varieties have been developed. It is grown exten- 

 sively there for its seeds and the oil therefrom, both being consumed 

 as food, and the stalks are utilized as fuel by the peasants.- Next to 

 Russia, IIungar3^ was perhaps the largest producer of sunflowers. 

 There were many mills in that country which were equipped espe- 

 cially for extracting the oil from sunflower seeds, and the oil content 

 of the Hungarian seed was higher on the average than that of seed 

 grown in Russia.^ 



CULTIVATION IN THE UNITED STATES. 



Although the sunflower is a native of the United States and was 

 cultivated by the Indians, early settlers seem to have made little use 

 of it as a crop plant. Most of the sunflowers grown in early days 

 were harvested for seed, but insects, such as cutworms .and also 

 those which live on the seeds, often made the crop an unprofitable 

 one. The United States Department of Agriculture investigated the 

 production of sunflowers in the United States and published the 

 results in 1901 as Bulletin 60 of the Division of Chemistry. 



At that time there were no mills producing sunflower oil, and the 

 crop was being utilized largely as feed for cage birds and poultry, 

 the seed only being harvested. In 1895 and 1896 large areas of 

 sunflowers were grown in southern Indiana near Madison. Accord- 



'^ statistics published in the New York Drug Reporter in 1883 claimed a total produc- 

 tion of 228,000,000 pounds of seed in Russia from an area of 216,000 acres, mostly in 

 Kielce, Podolia, and the district of Bruitch in Veronez. 



^A good summary of the information regarding the production of sunflower oil and 

 seed cake in Russia and Hungary is to be found in the articles of Richard Windisch In 

 Landw. Vers. Stat., Bd. 57, p. 305-316, and Dr. Th. Kosutany in the same publication, 

 Bd. 43, p. 253-269. 



