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SUNFLOWER 



SUNFLOWER 



times as much fat as corn and more protein than 

 any of the cereal grains. In protein, it compares 

 well with peas, cowpeas and soybeans. 



Varieties. 



Aside from the common sunflower, two other 

 varieties are grown in this country. The largest 

 flowered of the three is the Black Giant, in which 

 the heads may reach a diameter of twenty-two 

 inches. In the Mammoth Russian the heads may 

 reach a width of twenty inches. The seeds of the 

 former are about three-eighths of an inch long, 

 and black ; the seeds of the latter are slightly 

 longer, and bear dark stripes. 



Culture. 



Soil. — Sunflowers may be grown successfully on 

 any good corn land in those states which are best 

 adapted for growing corn. For the largest crops 

 the land should be fertile, and especially rich in 

 humus and nitrogen. The crop exhausts the nitro- 

 gen of the soil in producing the large amount of 

 protein stored in the seed, though the most valu- 

 able constituent of the plant, the oil, is formed 

 during growth from the elements carbon, hydrogen 

 and oxygen, which are secured by the plant from 

 the water and the air without diminishing the fer- 

 tility of the soil. The crop has succeeded on alkali 

 soil in California. 



Planting. — Sunflowers should be planted at about 

 the same time as corn, though somewhat earlier 

 planting is safe, as slight frosts are not injurious 

 to the young plants. The seed may be planted with 

 a grain drill or drill planter in rows three to three 

 and one-half feet apart. Usually to insure a good 

 stand the seeds are dropped three to four inches 

 apart in the drills, and later the plants are thinned 

 to twelve to eighteen inches apart in the row. 

 The seed is planted in a well-prepared seed-bed, a 

 little shallower than corn would be planted under 

 similar conditions. Six to twelve pounds of seed 

 per acre are used. Shallow cultivation is given, 

 and the subsequent care is much the same as for 

 corn. It is advised to remove all but three or four 

 heads per plant when the plants are in bloom, in 

 order that the best development may be secured. 



Harvesting, threshing and storing. 



The sunflower heads should be harvested before 

 the seeds are fully ripe. As soon as the seeds are 

 ripe they begin to shatter, and before the crop is 

 mature it is likely to be damaged by birds which 

 gather in flocks to feast on the rich seeds. As 

 ordinarily gathered the seeds will not be dry 

 enough to shell and store, but the heads should be 

 cured for a week or so before threshing or shell- 

 ing. If only a small quantity is grown the heads 

 may be spread out on the barn floor or in a loft or 

 shed. At the Kansas Experiment Station has been 

 followed the plan of cutting off the heads with &, 

 sickle or corn knife and putting them in shallow 

 windrows in the field for several days, when they 

 are hauled in and threshed or stored in large piles. 

 More or less loss attends the handling of the crop 

 in this way 



There seems to be no satisfactory or economical 

 method of threshing out the seed. Often the seeds 

 are shelled out by hand, or they may be pounded 

 out- with a flail. Some farmers construct a wooden 

 disk or wheel arrangement, hung and operated in 

 the same way as the ordinary grindstone. The 

 sides of the disk are driven very full of nails, 

 against which the sunflower heads are held as the 

 disk revolves, thus removing the seeds quickly. 

 These methods are slow and cumbersome. Although 

 the writer has not seen it tried, it seems probable 

 that when the heads are fully dried the seeds may 

 be threshed out by the ordinary grain separator. 

 At least some cheap and more rapid method must 

 be found for harvesting and handling the crop be- 

 fore it can be grown successfully in a large way. 



If the seed is fully dry when it is threshed it 

 may be stored safely in large bins, but if the heads 

 are yet green and the seeds not fully dry when 

 threshed, the seed must be spread out and dried 

 before storing in large quantities. Often the seed 

 may be stored safely in sacks, barrels or small 

 bins before fully dry. Fermentation must be 

 avoided, otherwise the quality of the oil will be 

 lowered. 



Yield. 



By the reports of farmers who have grown 

 the crop, an average yield appears to be 1,000 

 to 1,500 pounds of seed per acre. W. S. Dean 

 reports a yield on his farm of 2,250 pounds of 

 seed per acre in 1894, while other growers report 

 yields as low as 600 pounds per acre. The yields 

 of green matter per acre is four to five tons. 

 The average weight of a bushel of seed is about 

 thirty pounds. 



Feeding. — No experiments in feeding sunflower 

 seed to stock have been published by any of our 

 experiment stations. Some experiments were made 

 several years ago in Maine, Vermont, and at some 

 of the Canadian experiment farms, in ensiling sun- 

 flower heads in combination with other crops, and 

 feeding the silage, but, on the whole, the results of 

 these experiments, seem to have been unsatisfac- 

 tory. By the reports received, so far as sunflower 

 seed has been fed by farmers in this country the 

 results have been satisfactory. The whole seed 

 ground and fed with other grains makes a rich 

 and palatable food - for growing and fattening 

 stock. If sunflower seed can be produced in suffi- 

 cient quantity and cheaply enough, it should be- 

 come a valuable feed for stock in this country. In 

 Russia, the stalks of the plant are ground up and 

 fed as roughage to horses, cattle and sheep. 



In the manufacture of sunflower oil, " oil-cake " 

 is left as a by-product, and meal made from the oil- 

 cake makes an excellent food for stock. The cake 

 is rich in protein and oil and is well relished by 

 stock. 



Robertson mixture. — The Robertson mixture is a 

 combination of corn, sunflower heads and broad 

 beans in the form of silage, in the proportion of 

 one-half acre of sunflower heads to two acres of 



