S3>ic RURAL NEW-YORKER 
667 
Russian Sunflowers for Silage 
Experience in Montana 
E have had a mmvher of iiote^ ahout the use 
of sunflowers as cattle feed Some years affo 
an effort was made to introduce sunflower silafre. 
which meant sunflowers and corn .irrowiiifir together 
and cut into the silo. This was tried in Canada and 
the northern part of this country, and apparently 
gave good satisfaction. A few farmers took it tip, 
hut there never was a general use of tlie sunflowtu-. 
This war is forcing many farmers to hunt ahout for 
new crops and new methods, and, among otlier 
thing.s, tlie sunflower seems to he coming hack. It is 
l)eing grown in the Nortliwest, where under irriga¬ 
tion tlie Rus.sian sunflower makes a tremendor.s 
crop, which has considerahie value for silage. A 
recent bulletin from the ^lontana E.xperimeut ^Sta¬ 
tion gives a very clear statement ahout this croi». 
a.nd the director of the IMontana Station, F. 11. Lin- 
fleld, has Avritten an article for the Journal of 
Heredity from Avhich we take the following notes: 
^Ir. Linfleld says that in all the history of f.-irul¬ 
ing. a man starting Avith new. strong soil, generally 
rich and free from Aveeds, iinally 
runs upon the necessit.v of growing 
croiis Avhich will enrich the soil and 
keel) fbc AA’ceds doAvn. The soil may 
be kept up or imiiroA'cd by growing 
tiie legumes, and thus obtaining 
nitrogen from the air, or growing 
some crop Avhich Avill giA’e a large 
amount of forage and thus increase 
the su])ply of manui’e. In the lower 
^iontana valle.A's Alfalfa makes a 
heavy forage crop. It also does 
very well in most of the higher val¬ 
leys, but do<‘s not control the Aveeds. 
■Mr. Liufleld says that .some four 
yc'ars ago a man in the extension 
service visited a farmer Avho Avas 
growing Russian sunflowers. It A\’as 
suggested that this had great ]>ossi- 
bilities as a foi’age croi> undei’ Mon¬ 
tana conditions. Thus in lOl.o one- 
tenth of an acre was planted, Avhich 
pi'oduced at the rate of .‘!0 Ions of 
green feed per acre, and made a 
duality of silage (piite opial to that 
from cloA'cr. The next season three 
acres of sunflowers AA'erc planted in 
rows .flO inches .apart. This cro]) Avas 
not irrigated, but it greAV well and 
.stood nine and 10 feet high. The 
yield Avas about 22 tons of green 
feed i)er acre. This crop Av.as ])art]y 
fed green to the cows. In the latter 
]>art of Atigust the stalks Avere laiu 
thi'ough a silage cutter just as they 
came from the field, and the cows 
ate this forage readily. A compari¬ 
son Avas made bj’ foaling this 
chopi)ed sunfloAver stalk in couv- 
jvari.sou with green corn. The cows 
ate the sunfloAvers as Avell as they 
did the corn, and kept up their 
yield. This test A\'as continued for 
three Aveeks. Hie rest of the croj) 
of sunfloAvers Avas cut into the silo, 
and fed duilng the Winter to both 
cows and steers Avith satisfactory 
results. It was not found that the 
suntloAver silage made any differcMice in the odor or 
taste of the milk. 
'Phe pa.st season seA’en .acres of the .snnflowers 
were pl.anted. This croj) grew 11 or 12 feet high, 
and gaA'e close to 25 tons of green forage i)er acre, 
fl’he test of feeding Avas A'ory satisfactory, and IMr. 
1. infield thinks that they Iuia'c fuily demonstrated 
tli(‘ v.alue of Russian sunfloAvers for green fodder 
and sii.age. It is the heaviest yielding forage crop 
grown in Montana, and giA'Cs 214 times as much 
forage .as corn, and twice as much as cloA'er. As 
generally grown in 'that Stab' it c.an be thoroughly 
cultivated, and during the late season shades the 
ground so com]iletely that the Aveeds cannot imiki' 
large growth. It cannot he profitably fed unless it is 
run through a silage cutter, and thus fed green or 
I'Ut into a silo it gives silage of good quality, .and 
cattle are fond of it. On the Avhole, it .seems b) be a 
I*romi.sing crop. Of cour.se, Ave must remember that 
these experiments were conducted iu Montana, undei' 
conditions A’ery ditt’erent from those to the found on 
the Atlantic slojie. The sunflowers do best under 
irrigation, and in that country corn is not usually a 
great success. It AA'iH not be. therefore, that these 
good results AAmuld follow in New York or New Eng¬ 
land, but there seems to be no doubt that the Rus¬ 
sian sunflower is a good forage jilant Avhen jirojierly 
handled, and Ave believe there are places in the East 
AA'liere the sunfloAvers Avould pay Avell. The ])lcturos, 
Figs, 340 and 341., are taken from the Journal of 
Heredity. They show a growing crop of the sun¬ 
flowers and the comparative size of one head. 
A Farmer’s Wife on Living Questions 
T he jireseut high price of feed, the imiiosslbility 
of getting some kinds at an,v price in our sec¬ 
tion, the lowen'd ])rice of milk, higher taxes. Jack 
of help, and immoderate ju'ices of the conimon<‘st 
commodities, bring freshly to my mind a ter.se re¬ 
mark made by a dairyman last Winter. We have a 
farmers' station at iMiddleville, of Avhich Ave are 
justly lu'oud (but the farmers won't operate it them¬ 
selves; they rent it), and next door to it is the feed 
mill. The farmer in question, pointing to the .sta¬ 
tion, .said; ‘'They paid .jl'25(>,(M)0 for milk last year" 
—then indicating the feed mill, “and they took in 
more than of it." fl’lie ])urchases at tliLs 
mill represents jiossibly two-thirds of the feed used, 
many farmers buying in car lots direct, and many 
iifori' getting their suiqily from m'ighboring towns. 
11 woubi be inti'i'csting to know just how many dol¬ 
giH'ss that if the men who ri'ut the station didn't 
make any more than the farmers the.v never Avuuld 
pay more than .'FS.OOO for the same iii'ivilego another 
jear. I read a statement ri'cently: “A farnn'r must 
get a good living and Id ])er cent on his Investment.” 
IMaybe he must; just now he lacks it all but the liv¬ 
ing, AA'ith hard substituted for good. If ,a farmer has 
15 cows and they return him ,$ldO each, AA'hich is a 
fair return, and more than half of that goes for mill 
feed alone, it is easy to see that the remainder Avill 
hav(' to be stretched mightily to feed and <-lothe his 
family, pay taxes, interest, insurance and uiiki'e]), 
buy seed, fertilizer, fencing, reidace stock .-yid imple¬ 
ments, .and the thousand and one things that are 
absolutely es.sential. 
This great depression Avill not last, of course, for 
the ])endulum sAvings hack as far as it swings for- 
Avard. but it has alread.A' put many dairymen out of 
business, ami before another year rolls around many 
more Avill haAC gone. Within the past Aveek a dairy 
Ilf ,5d cows and .‘iO two-year heifers Avas sold here, 
and the auctioneer rejiorted that several more Avonld 
bo offered soon. Hundreds of acres of hay Avas net 
cut, and hundreds of bu.shels of potatoes not dug in 
our county last year, because help Avas not available, 
and (his year Avill Avitiu'ss a more distressing shoi't- 
age. ilan.A' farmers blame the draft entirely for 
that, glad of .any chance to criticize the rJoA'crument. 
but the lack was A'cry apparent iu our section before 
war wa.s declared. The factories aa’ci'c paying big 
Avages for short hours, and naturally the youth of the 
country liad resjiondod. It .seems to me tlu* food 
shortege isn't (tlfor/etlwr attributable to the Avar, 
either. No doubt the Avar, AA'ith its big demand for 
<‘xports, ha.stened it. but it Avas bound to come in a 
measure, under conditions as they existed, and, lack¬ 
ing a Food Administrator, jirices AAMuld have soared 
to high heaven. Avith no iK'iiefit to the farmer either. 
I’rices are high enough now. but. Avlth flour and 
sugar .‘IS short as tliey are. dm's anyone think aa'o 
<‘ ou!d buy the one at ,$12..5(» per barrel and the other 
at nine cents per pound if the Covernment didn't set 
a limit'? Soon after the war started, (lour here 
soared to ,$IS per barrel, and that with no shortage 
of AA'heat re])orted, and other things jiimiK'd in jiro- 
jiortion. It doesn't always pay to drop the lines .‘ind 
jiiiii]) as soon as the horsi' frisks, neither Avill it pay 
dairymen to sell now at a sacrifice, if they can pos¬ 
sibly “stick." I>airynH‘n are born, not made, and tin' 
stream of them that is being turned loose into mu¬ 
nition factoru's. etc., just iioaa', is a ('nininal 
inisai»i)roin'iation of talent. if 
the loudest grumblers Avere all 
rangi'd in a line and gh'en their 
eindee, go back to the farm and 
kee|) .still about it. or go .straight 
into the front line trenches 1 think 
Ave Avoiildn't miss A'ery many famil¬ 
iar faces round the farm, fl'he ol- 
ored ])hiloso])her .said: “Har’s two 
things yo’ kin do; yo' kin grin and 
or yo' kin b’ar it ami not 
Let’s h’ar it and grin. 
IfARIUKT r,. WOOD, 
llerkinier Co., N. Y. 
Vetch, for Green Manure 
and Feed 
r AAOiild like inforinatiiin as to the 
use and effects of growing Winter 
vetch. I have read that Winter vetch 
will build tip Avorn-oiit soil, and that 
good cro))s of corn and iiotatoes e.-m 
be groAvn after one crop of vetch, plow¬ 
ing under a generous groAvth in late 
^Iiring. If this is so, would it help 
grain crops, .such as oats, biickAvheat 
and Avheat, on worn-out land'? Would 
it help any in getting a clover seeding'? 
In this latitude what is the jiroper 
time to seed to Winter vetch? How 
should the ground be prepared, ami 
the seed applied, and how niucli per 
acre? What is the quality of A-etch 
hay as compared with clover and Tim¬ 
othy? c. .T. n. 
Tioga Co., N. Y. 
T’R cxiicrieiicc Avith Winter 
A'ctch shoAvs that in Northern 
Noav .fersey it is a very u>a>fiil cro]» 
for green manuring or fodder, bet¬ 
ter for the former than for the lat¬ 
ter. We huA'e not obtained first- 
class results Avhen seoling the vetch 
alone. Rye should be sei'deil Avith 
it, as the lye holds the vi'tch off the 
ground, giA'cs it a better chance to 
grow and makes a much lu'tter job 
for cutting or jilowing under. We 
have seeded the vetch and r\'<‘ at 
the last cultiA-ation of corn, using 
tliree pecks or a little more of rye 
and about 20 pounds of vetch seed 
to an acre. The A’etch makes a small groAvth iliiring 
till' Fa 11, but Avheii Winter is over it starts early in 
Sjiring and groAvs Amry rapidly when cut early, along 
Avith the rye. It makes a fair qiialit.v of fodder, al¬ 
though as a hay or forage cro|) avc think oats and 
IK'as Avill jirove superior. The chief value of the 
A'otch comes as a manurial crop, and Avlieneviu' avc 
have pIoAvi'd under a crop of rye and vetch in the 
Spring AA'e haA'e aI\A-ays seen the result of it in the 
folloAving crop. AA'hether it be grain, grass or ])otatoes. 
<»n several fields Ave have folloAvisl the ])lau of .seed¬ 
ing rye and vetch in the corn each year, and the 
following year plowing the croj) under and planting 
corn again Avith a small quantity of lime, fi'his can 
be kejit up year after year until tin* corn smut or 
corn AA-orm becomes too bad. It Avill be a mistake to 
assume that .starting on a ])oor soil tin* rye and 
vetch alone Avill jirodiice good crops and also inqtroA'e 
the soil, q’his crop aa’III fill the soil Avith organic 
matter and supjily .some nitrogen, but phos])horic acid 
must be siqiplied in some form in order to get a 
full growth of the vetcli and produce the folloAving 
cro|). Ry using .'tlo pounds or more of aci<l phos¬ 
phate to the acre ou the corn crop following the 
A'etch. you can keep up the yield, but it is not likely 
that you would 'be satisfli'd Avith using the vetch 
alone, or without the iihosphate. Yetch does fairly 
Avell on a slightly iicicl soil, uud does uot need lime. 
Ileproduced from the Journal of Tleredlty. 
Coin para five >S(/gf; of Russian Ruvflower. FUj. it'/O. 
b';ir it. 
grin.” 
o 
neproflucod from the .Tournal of Heredity. 
llarvestint/ t^Kiifloinrr Rihifp-. Fip. 
l.-irs Avere s])ent to get that .'t2.')i),(M)p. It’s a sal’i 
