770 
Journal of Agricultural Research 
Vol. XXIV, No. 9 
sunflowers at all stages of maturity. Additional work on the 1921 crop 
of sunflowers is included later in this paper. 
The plants were grown from seed of the Giant Russian variety on 
Palouse silt loam soil. The plants grew luxuriantly, many of the largest 
of them reaching a height of from 10 to 12 feet. 
stages of maturity selected 
In selecting the proper stages at which to sample the sunflowers consid¬ 
erable difficulty was encountered in choosing definite stages of growth, 
since the sunflower plant does not offer any definite and sharply defined 
differences at any time during its growth. After due consideration, 
the stages were arbitrarily chosen in terms of budding and flowering in 
the early period of growth and, later on, of the degree of hardness of the 
seeds in the main or top flower. Five stages were selected, as follows: 
First, when the first bud was appearing on the top of the plant; second, 
when the first flower was about 3 inches in diameter but no seed had 
developed; third, just before the seeds of the first flower were in the 
dough stage; fourth, when the seeds of the first flower were well into the 
dough stage and the rays were just beginning to fall; fifth, when the 
seeds of the first flower were quite hard and its rays had fallen. 
method of sampling 
Representative samples were secured by collecting a number of plants 
of uniform development and weighing and measuring each plant; the 
average was then recorded. Composite samples of sufficient size were 
made by cutting in a small silage cutter the constituent plants and 
then mixing thoroughly. A portion of each sample was dried in an elec¬ 
tric oven to secure the percentage of moisture. A second portion was 
air dried and reserved for the approximate analysis. The remaining 
* portion was used for making silage. For this purpose quart milk bottles 
were tightly filled and each stoppered with a rubber stopper containing a 
bent glass tube which had its outlet in a beaker of mercury. This ar¬ 
rangement allowed the fermentation gases to escape but prevented air 
from gaining access to the silage. This procedure was found to be very 
satisfactory and in every case resulted in a good quality of silage. 
different spacings of plants 
In the early stages of growth, when the plants were about 6 inches 
high, the plants were thinned in order to secure data on the yield and 
composition of sunflowers when grown at various distances apart in the 
row. 
In order to secure chemical data, two distances apart were chosen, 
which represented as nearly as possible the extremes of planting 
and also the two extreme types of sunflowers.^ The two types selected 
were plants grown 36 inches apart and plants grown from 4 to 8 inches 
apart. The former system resulted in plants with an abundance of 
leaves and flowers on one large stalk, while the latter resulted in rather 
tall, spindly stalks with much smaller leaves and flowers. The data on 
the composition of sunflowers and sunflower silage are given in Table I. 
^ The spacings of plants intermediate between 4 inches to 8 inches and 36 inches were not included in 
this investigation, as the analytical work would have been enormously increased, and it was not certain 
that the results would show differences sufficient to warrant the additional analyses. 
