The Abbeville banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1847-1869, 1847-07-14

NEWLY DISCOVERED USE OF THE Sun
FLoWER.-Ihose most experienced in the
cultivation OF TINS plant are sangune that.
with proper soil and proper cultivation,
it is more profitable than wheat or corn
The seeds are more oleaginous than those
OF the flax plant, and combine the qualities
tor table use of the best olive oil; for burn.
ing, OF the best sperm, without its smoke
and for painting it is said by painters who
have used it to be superior t., inseed. and it
is more rapid in drying, equally easy in
spreading, and without forming a much
denser coat Prepared and eaten as arti
chokes, the young cups of this plant are
very esculent and pleasing to the palate :;
the stalks are an excellent substitute for
hemp or flax, and for bee pastura2e it is
equal to any plant, yielding, ffom its lus-
clous and numerous nectaries, an abun
dance OF the best and most paIatable honey.
A writer in one Of our agricultural cx-
changes, says that, on suitable soil, with
proper cultivation, it will yield on an ave-
rage from eighty to one hundred bushels of
seed to the acre. From five to seven quarts
OF oil are calculated on per bushe Ifthis
lsnot over-estimating its productivcness, and
it can be raised as cheapy y as wheat or indi-
an corn, ordinarily considered the most ex-
pensive crops cultivated, the Sunaower
must be very profitable production. We
have therefore cultivated it on small scale.
as usually in vacant spots, by the fences and
IN places where the culture of other vereta-
bles were ineligible, and so far as our expe-
renee goes, it coroborates the above ascer-
tlons. We find that the green leaves are
excellent fodder for cows, especially when
the feed in our pastures gets low in seasons
OF scarcity and drought We generally
commence plucking them in July, taking
the lower leaves first, and feeding them out
ut night, or, if scarcity Of feed IS great, in
the morning before turning them from their
yards. We have sometimes given them
corn-toppings and the leaves of the sunAow-
er at the same time, and have found that the
latter are invariably preferred. The seed
ofthe sunAower is a most desirable food for
poultry, its highly oleagnous nature wholly
superseding the necessity Of animal food.
HENS AND CH1cKENs-As the season for
rearing chickens is at hand, beg leave, as
professed utilitarian, to give to your read
crs hint of a plan which have successful
ly practsed for several years, for ecomomi
.zing the time of my hens, because, in this,
as in other instances slime is money!
or rather time is eggs, and eggs is money
When have number of setting hens in
process ofincubation, the first one that comes
off with her chickens, put in coop, just
as the other people do; when second one
comes of, if a day or two has intervened,
and were to put the last hatched chickens
to the first hen, which has now had time to
become acquainted with the number and
color of her own brood, she will abuse and
kill the new comers, as intruders, especially
ifthey are Of color different from her own:
: instead of this | remove the first hen and
put the second in her place with the chick
ems Of both.-when the third one comes off,
! put her in place of the secondhand give
her all the chickens, and so on until the last
hen has as many as she can attend to /; a
large hen may comfortably brood twenty-five
orthirty chickens--and the hens which have
4 been taken from the chickens, after being
ahut up q few days, will resume laying
b agiaD, instead Of wasting their time with the
oare of ID few chickens. Ihaye known an
instance where one hen reared ,thirty-eight
chickens 70 maturity. IS @