854 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Ocr., 1899. 
form no doubt a most healthy and pleasant food. There is really no complete 
feast or holy day for a country lass or youth without a few pennyworth of the 
dainty Sémotchky. 
These sunflower seeds form also a capital feed for poultry, being nearly 
equal to buckwheat to induce hens to lay. Pigs also like them, and thrive well 
on them. ‘The oil cake (towrteaw) which remains after the extraction of the oil 
is, for feeding and manurial purposes, as valuable as linseed and cotton-seed cake. 
In those vast plains or pyenues of Russia, where timber is scarce, the sunflower 
stalksareused as fuel. Astheir ash isvery rich in potash, the latter iscarefully col- 
lectedandsold. Suchashesform, of course, a capital manure and stimulant for plants 
requiring potash, such as tobacco, coffee shrubs, &c. Like the hemp, which they 
resemble, the stems of the sunflower are.surrounded by a valuable fibre, strong 
and silky. That fibre can be extracted and treated by means similar to those 
used for hemp and linseed. The pith of the stem is rich in nitre, which causes 
it to retain fire like tinder or a cigar, so that in case of snake-bite, for instance, 
it could be used asa cautery. When soaked in alum the seeds yield a nice blue 
colour, and from the flowers themselves a nice: yellow colour is obtained. 
The large leaves form an excellent green feed, greatly relished by all stock. 
They can also be used as ensilage and hay, but they should not be gathered too 
dry, as they easily crumble into dust; neither must they be too moist, asmouldiness 
would be the result. 
The sunflower is also a grand bee food. At least the bees think so, for as 
soon as the heads come into blossom we can see scores of the busy workers 
occupied in loading their little thigh baskets with pollen and filling their tiny 
stomachs with the sweet nectar, and then fly to the hive where they will make of 
it bee bread, honey, or wax. In “Bee Gleanings,” Dr. Hitchcock says that, 
after he had taken off the seeds from the heads, he would use these latter as bee 
troughs, filling the little cells with feeding syrup, which plan, he says, worked 
admirably. 
Although I have by no means exhausted the numerous uses of the sun- 
flower, I hope I have said enough to induce every farmer to grow a small patch 
on his farm. It will certainly be utilised under one form or another, and thus 
add to the general comfort of the inhabitants of the farm. Some district will 
be found far more suitable for its cultivation than others, and so a new industry 
may be gradually developed there. 
MARKET GARDENING, No. 8. 
By H. W. GORRIE, 
Horticulturist, Queensland Agricultural College. 
RHUBARB (RHEUM RHAPONTICUM). : 
Tur rhubarb of the garden is a hybrid between R. rhaponticum, and R. hybridwn, 
both of which plants are natives of the temperate regions of Western Asia. 
Rhubarb was first introduced to England in 1778, and came very rapidly into 
favour, so that nowadays no garden, however small, is considered complete 
without a bed of this most useful plant. Besides being utilised for pies, 
puddings, tarts, &c., a very good and cheap jam may be made from rhubarb. 
For family use, I hardly know of a plant which better repays a little care 
and attention than the “ pie plant,” as it is called in America. 
Rhubarb may be grown in almost any well-drained soil, but a rich deep 
loam yields the best product. The soil must be both rich and deep, and the 
deeper it is the quicker will be the growth. 
The bed ought to be trenched to a depth of 2 feet, and very heayily 
manured with good stable and cowyard manure. 
To grow the plants from seeds, a well-manured seed bed should be prepared, 
and the seed sown in August or September in drills about 1 foot apart. The 
young plants will require plenty of water in dry weather, and a light shade will 
also be beneficial to their growth. 
