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 corn. 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 
