U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
The sunnower under cultivation has been widely used as an orna- 
mental, and its seeds are valued as a feed for birds and poultry. In 
addition, the seeds are used as human food, and when pressed cold 
produce a fairly good table oil. The resulting seed cake, after the 
oil has been expressed, is used as a concentrate in feeding cattle and 
horses. The above-mentioned uses are largely responsible for the 
widespread distribution of the sunflower. 
PRESENT DISTRIBUTION. 
The sunflower plant is grown throughout Xorth America, from 
the southern Provinces of Canada to the Canal Zone. It is to be 
found also in most parts of South America, but more especially along 
the west coast from Colombia to Chile. In Australia, New Zealand. 
South Africa, Egypt, the Mediterranean region of Europe, India, 
and China the sunflower is grown to a limited extent. It has reached 
its highest development and its greatest usefulness in Russia, where 
several important varieties have been developed. It is grown exten- 
sively there for its seeds and the oil therefrom, both being consumed 
as food, and the stalks are utilized as fuel by the peasants. 2 Next to 
Russia, Hungary was perhaps the largest producer of sunflowers. 
There were many mills in that country which were equipped espe- 
cially for extracting the oil from sunflower seeds, and the oil content 
of the Hungarian seed was higher on the average than that of seed 
grown in Russia. 3 
CULTIVATION IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Although the sunflower is a native of the United States and was 
cultivated by the Indians, early settlers seem to have made little use 
of it as a crop plant. Most of the sunflowers grown in early days 
were harvested for seed, but insects, such as cutworms and also 
those which live on the seeds, often made the crop an unprofitable 
one. The United States Department of Agriculture investigated the 
production of sunflowers in the United States and published the 
results in 1901 as Bulletin 60 of the Division of Chemistry. 
At that time there were no mills producing sunflower oil, and the 
crop was being utilized largely as feed for cage birds and poultry, 
the seed only being harvested. In 1895 and 1896 large areas of 
sunflowers were grown in southern Indiana near Madison. Accord- 
2 Statistics published in the New York Drug Reporter in 1883 claimed a total produc- 
tion of 228,000,000 pounds of seed in Russia from an area of 216,000 acres, mostly in 
Kielce, Podolia, and the district of Bruitch in Veronez. 
3 A good summary of the information regarding the production of sunflower oil and 
seed cake in Russia and Hungary is to be found in the articles of Richard Windisch in 
Landw. Vers. Stat., Bd. 57, p. 305-316, and Dr. Tb. Kosutany in the same publication, 
Bd. 43, p. 253-269. 
