418 



SUNFLOWER-SEED OIL. 



cellent fodder for milcli cows, mixed with bran. Sir Allen Crockden, 

 of Seal Grove, by Sevenoaks, for many years cultivated the sun- 

 flower, for the purpose of feeding his stock. The oil makes most 

 beautiful soap, particularly softening to the hands and face, and is 

 most delightful to shave with. The cake is superior to linseed for 

 fattening cattle. Sheep, pigs, pigeons, rabbits, poultry of all sorts, 

 &c., will fatten rapidly upon it, and prefer the seed to any other ; 

 pheasants in particular, causing them to have a much more glossy 

 plumage and to be plumper in the body. It increases the quantity of 

 eggs from poultry fed with it. The seed, shelled, makes when 

 ground very fine flour for bread, particularly tea-cakes. It will grow 

 in any corner that may be vacant, and make all farms have a most 

 agreeable garden-like appearance. It should be planted six inches 

 apart, and about one inch deep, and when one foot high may be 

 earthed up ; it then will require no further attention. Every single 

 plant will produce 1000 or more seeds ; the main head generally pro- 

 duces 800 to 1000 seeds, and there are usually four collaterals, 

 producing 50 to 60 seeds each. But it is not the seed only that is 

 so valuable, the stalk is useful also ; for by treating it exactly like 

 flax, it will produce a fibre as fine as silk, and in large quantities. 

 Now that rags have become so scarce, arising from the very un- 

 precedented demand for paper, the stalk might be used for paper 

 making. On some grounds two crops may be growing at the same 

 time ; when the farmer has given his early potatoes a last hoeing, 

 he can plant his seed 12 inches apart in the ridges. The Chinese 

 have it by thousands of tons, and worship it. There can be no 

 doubt that many of their silk goods have a large portion of sun- 

 flower fibre in them. According to Boussingault, some experiments 

 made by M. Gauzac of Dagny gave the produce per acre' of seed at 

 15 cwts. 3 qrs. 14 lbs. ; the oil per acre, 275 lbs., being 15 per. cent., 

 and the cake 80 per cent. Next to poppy-seed oil, sunflower oil burns 

 the longest of any in equal quantities. The seeds vary in colour, 

 being either white, grey, striped, or black. From them is expressed a 

 palatable, clear, and flavourless oil, the demand for which in Russia is 

 very great. It is exported from St. Petersburg at about 10s. 6d. the 

 cwt., and is said to be extensively used, like cotton-seed oil, after 

 purifying, for adulterating olive or salad oil. In Russia a consider- 

 able quantity is grown for oil pressing. The plant is largely culti- 

 vated in Kiels, and Podolia, eastward on the black soil lands ; the 

 stalks are used for fuel. The manufacture of the oil, which was 

 formerly confined to the government of Voroneje, has recently been 

 carried on in that of Saratov, and in the town of that name there 

 were in 1867 at least 30 oil presses. Mr. Alexander Knobloch, of 

 Sarepta, has one worked by steam power. The seed is supplied by 

 the peasants of the neighbourhood. The production in Russia in 1867 

 (including a few other miscellaneous oil-seeds) was officially stated at 

 335,000 cwts. At Voroneje 6000 to 8000 poods (of 36 lbs.) of seeds 

 are produced. In Russia the seed sells at about 40 copecks the pood, 

 or 2 roubles 60 copecks the chetwert ; the oil at 3^ to 4 roubles the 

 pood. The following practical instructions may be given to produce 



