804 
THE TkOPiCAL A(5IlICtlLTtJRisT. [June 2, iSOl 
Gd.) t,o flG (£3 Cs. 8d.) clear profit for each calf 
inisecl on fkim-milk. 
EiTSt-LTS WITH Whole Mii.k.— During 22 weeks 
tluse 1(1 calves consumed 23,-87 pounds of frefh 
milk, 8,355 pounds of corn chop, 835 pounds of 
Kafir-corn meal, and 835 pounds of alfalfa hay. 
The total gain was 2,8' S pounds, or a dailj' 
overage of] -05 pounds per bead. (. barging butter 
fat at creamery prices, tbe feed cost of raising 
these calves amounts to $U)V.]9 (±32 14s. U^^d.), or 
$15.72 (±3 6s. 6d.) perhead. Ihe feed cost for each 
lOO pounds of gain amounts to $5-40 (£1 2s. 9d). 
Eesults with Calves Nubsed by the Cows. — 
On May 28, IflOO, 22 calves that were running with 
their dams averaged 174 pounds. On October 15 
these f-ame calves averaged 422 pounds, or an 
average daily gain per head of l-'il pounds. Tbe 
only expense attached to raising these calves was 
the keep of the cows, which was estimated by 
the owner to be $12 (£2 ICs.) per head. Multi- 
plying the average daily gain of these calye« by 
154, the number of days in previous experiment, 
gives a total gain of 'i'l 2 pounds per head. With 
|l2 (£2. 10s) as Ihe cost of raising the calf each 
150 pounds of gain cost $4.41 (18s. 
Results in Feed Lot after Weanikg.— In the 
fall all these calves were placed in the feed lot, 
where they were pushed for baby beef. During 
the seven months under experiment the skim-milk 
calves gained 440 pounds per head, the whole milk 
calves 406 pounds per head, and the calves nursed 
by the cows 422 pounds per head. 
This experiment shows that the feed cost of 
laising a good gkim-milk calf need not exceed 
$5.25 (£ 1 Is. 10|d.), in contrast to 15.75 (£3 5s. 
7id.) for a whole-milk calf, and $8 (£1. 13s. 4d, for 
one nursed by the dam. The skim-milk calf 
becomes accustomed to eating both grain and 
roughness early in life, is handled enough to be 
gentle, and when transferred to the feed Ion is ready 
to make rapid and economical gains. D. H. Otis, 
Experiment Station, Manhattan, Kim,—Joitr7ial 
of the Department of Agriculture of Western 
A%(stralia. 
CULTIVATION OF SUNFLOWERS. 
The first year of the twentieth century closed with 
a curious sale, on the Baltic, of a cargo of sunflower 
seeds, which changed hands at £11 5s. per ton. 
Though a small trade has been done in sunflower 
seeds for close on 200 years, this transaction was 
the first in which a whole cargo — 300 tons from 
Odessa — was dealt with. In Russia, where the cul- 
tivation of the sunflower and the manufacture of 
oil from its seed is conducted on a large scale, the 
Grandi Flora is the variety grown. The species rises 
in a slender stalk of 5ft. high, producing one mons- 
ter head, the average yield being as much as fifty 
bushels of seed to the acre. So rich is it in oil that 
that quantity of seed will yield fifty gallons of oil ; 
while the refuse of the seed, after this quantity of 
oil has been expressed, weighs 1,500 lbs, when made 
into cattle cakes. Few people in England who grow 
the sunflower for ornament have any idea of its 
usefulness. It is among neglected crops in which 
there is money, as is shown by the price paid a few 
days ago. Besides thi! seed, every other portion of 
the plant can be utilized. The loaves furnish an 
excellent fodder ; while in Russia the stalks are 
rized as fuel, and their ashes, which contain 10 
per cent, of potash, are readily sold at soapmakers 
Naturally, in RnSsia the chief virtue of the sun- 
flower lies in oil contained in its seed. The oil 
is of a clear, pale yellow colour, almost inodorous 
and of an agreeable, mild taste, so that it is in 
great request as a table article. Why sunflowers 
are not cultivated on an extensive scale in England, 
it is difticult to say. Poultry and cattle like the 
seed eitber in its natural state or crushed and 
mfide into cakes. No plant produces such fine 
honey and wax ; when the flower is in bloom the 
bees abound in it. — Journal of the Department of 
Aeiriculture of Western Jusiralia. 
PLANTING NOTES. 
BuEEAu CF Plant Ikdi;stev. — This is a eection 
tbe U.S. Department of Agricnltnre, organised in Jnly 
1901, and devoted to the invfetigation of vege 
table physiology and pathology, botanical investiga- 
tions and f xperimentf, the stndy of grass and forage 
plants of pomolrgy, of feed nnd plant introduction 
8rd other matters relating to horticnlttire and agri- 
ctiltnre. Some idea of what onr American kinsfolk are 
doing may be obtained by stating that tbe bureau 
consists of a chief, Prof. Galloway, and no fewer than 
twenty-five assistants, comprising pathologists, bota- 
nists, physiologists, a " cerealist," a Tobacco expert, 
a mycologist, and a chemist. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 
The Eothams-tkb Expeeiments. — The Lawes Agri- 
cultural Trnst Commmittee at a recent meeting 
av pointed Mr. A. D. Hall, M.A., principal of the 
Agricultural College. Wye, to succeed the late Sir 
Henrt GiLBEHT, F R.S., as the Director of the 
Eothamsted Experimental Stalion. Principal Hall, 
who received his training at Oxford, and has since 
distinguished himself by his successful development 
of W'ye College as a centre of agricultural education, 
will thus carry on the historic experiments that were 
jointly conducted by Sir J. B. Lawfs and Sir Henby 
GiLBEET for over half a centry at Rothamsted. and it 
is anticipated that not only will the continuity of the 
work of the past be maintained, but that tbe progress 
of science will be advanced in new directions at this 
national centre of agricultural research. — Times. 
A GisANTic Gbass Seed. — At the meeting of th* 
Lincean Society on Thursday, March 20, Dr. Ott" 
Staff exhibited several seeds of Melocanna b&mbu~ 
soides, a species of Bamboo, which completely npse' 
the popular idea of grass seed dimensions, the giant" 
of which are presumed to be represented by pedigre^ 
Wheat and Maize, in which latter the huge mass of 
seeds constitutes, it is true, a very substantial fruitage, 
the actual seeds, ho'wever, are comparatively small 
In Melocanna, on the other hand, in lien of a spike 
aim or cylindrical mass of associated small seeds, we 
have solitary ones, measuring no less than 5 inches 
in height, by 3 in diameter, a massive pear-shaped 
body, the size and form of which are as utterly 
different frcm our usual idea of a grass seed as can 
well be conceived. By what evolutionary process 
this huge f olitary fruit has been arrived at, is not 
clear, but as might be expected, the great store of 
nutriment <mbodied in so large a fruit lavours the 
development of the associated embryo plant to such 
an extent, that tbe first product of germination is a 
robust growth, which practicall.v secures establish- 
ment and continued existence. The single seed is 
thus fully as (fficacious, if not more so, in securing 
reproduction, than a very large number of small ones, 
and by its greater individual vigour, would probably 
have an infinitely better chance of survival in a dense, 
growing Bamboo jungle, where small weakly seedlings 
would be utterly incapable of reaching.the light. This, 
indeed, is probably the key to its genesis. — OarHcttcra' 
Chronitlet 
