BxJEEAu OP Agkiculttjbe. 227 



THE GROWING OF SUNFLOWER SEED. 



This Department has had several letters making ex- 

 tensive claims for the possibilities for growing sunflower 

 seed in this State. Knowing that the Pulton County 

 farmers had experimented with this crop to a consider- 

 able extent, we wrote to Mr. C. T. Beale, of Hickman, 

 Kentucky, for information as to the -success of this un- 

 dertaking. He writes that in this part of the State, and 

 particularly in Fulton county, the growing of sunflower 

 seed has been given more or less attention during the 

 last two years, with vaiying degrees of success. While 

 the lands in Kentucky seem well adapted to the growing 

 of this crop, the crop itself has not, as yet, proven very 

 successful or remunerative, and the production of seed 

 thus far amounts to but little in this State. It is claimed 

 for the crop, however, that it can be grown on ordinary 

 corn land, and that while the yield per acre is not ma- 

 terially more than that of com, when figured on a cash 

 basis, the cost of planting and harvesting is much less 

 and that the crop under favorable conditions will be a 

 good one to adopt in a diversified system of farming. 

 One trouble which has been experienced in Fulton county 

 during the past season, was the effect of the wind. The 

 sunflower, unlike corn, will not rise after being blown 

 down. The seed will remain on the ground, and soon be- 

 come unfit for the market, and from this cause a great 

 deal of the crop was lost last season. 



To grow sunflowers, the soil should be fertile, and 

 of the same nature as the soils usually devoted to com. 

 The seed should be drilled with a corn-planter in rows 

 four feet apart, and the plants thinned to two feet in the 

 row. The planting may be made from April to July, 

 and the cultivation is practically the same as that of com. 

 Occasionally the rivers overflow some of the best 

 bottom lands in western Kentucky at a season too late 

 for the replanting of com, and then the sunflower plant 

 can be profitably substituted. It does not take quite so 

 long to mature as the com crop. Where only a limited 

 amount of this crop is raised, it is gathered by simply 

 cutting the heads from the stalks, and beating the seeds 



