THE SUNFLOWER AS A SILAGE CROP. 3 



ing to the United States Department of Agriculture Market Re- 

 porter of February 5, 1921, there are now three important seed-pro- 

 ducing areas in the United States. These are southeastern Missouri, 

 southern Illinois, and the San Joaquin Valley of California. The 

 1920 seed crop in these three areas was estimated at 9.850,000 pounds. 



The New York Agricultural Experiment Station (Geneva) re- 

 ported some results with sunflowers in 1883, the Vermont station 

 in 1893, and the Maine station in 1895 and 1896. The Canadian 

 Experimental Farms Report for 1893 also discussed the culture of 

 sunflowers in Ontario and other southern Provinces. The last- 

 mentioned work was devoted mainly to studying the value of the 

 silage mixture originated by Prof. James W. Robertson, of Ottawa, 

 Canada, and designed to produce a silage of such composition that 

 the quantity of grain needed in the ration could be reduced. Corn 

 and some legumes, such as the horse bean or soy bean, were grown 

 together in the field, and when ready for the silo the crop from 2 

 acres of this mixture was put in the silo with the sunflower heads from 

 half an acre. If it was found desirable to grow the legumes and 

 corn in separate fields ; then the mixture was made up by combining 

 the crops as follows: One-fourth acre of sunflower heads, one-half 

 acre of horse beans, soy beans, or some other legume, and 1 acre 

 of corn. 



Because of the high protein content of the legume and the high fat 

 content of the sunflower seed, this silage mixture possessed a high 

 feeding value. It was claimed that the Robertson mixture produced 

 results equal to those of pure corn silage and required 4 pounds less 

 of concentrate, such as grain or meal, with each 50 pounds of 

 silage fed. 



In growing sunflowers for tests of the Robertson mixture in the 

 New England States and Canada most of the investigators obtained 

 a larger yield of sunflowers (total crop) than they did of com. Some 

 of them also recognized the possibility of utilizing the entire plant 

 for silage. Prof. J. N. Bartlett, of the Maine Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station, says that " the very large total yield of sunflowers 

 (48,000 pounds per acre in 1896) would give them a high rank 

 among coarse fodder plants for silage material." Notwithstanding 

 the heavy tonnage produced by the sunflowers and this apparent 

 realization of the value of such a crop for silage, none of these sta- 

 tions ever seriously attempted to make use of the whole plant by 

 ensiling. The idea seemed to prevail in the minds of all these in- 

 vestigators that there could be very little food value in the coarse 

 woody stalks of the sunflower. 



Tests of the feeding value of the Robertson mixture were made 

 with dairy cows at the Vermont station and also in Canada. Al- 

 though the quantity of grain fed with the Robertson silage was 



