Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1892-03-31

farmers mcisten the seeds before sow
ing.
The sunhower is sown either broad
cast or in rows In the latter case the
seeds should be placed about six inches
apart The sowing of the seed broad
cast. being the more quickly per-
formed, is generally favored on large
farms, especially where the farmers
have not sufficient help. OF the two
misunderstanding in the fall and in the
spring-the latter seems to produce
the most satisfactory results. Seed
sown early, even on poorly prepared
ground, does much better than when
sown late under the best conditions of
soil Although the sowing in rows re-
qu1res more time and more work at
at first, and. consequently. is more ex-
pensive, it has great advantage over
the broadcast method.
The weeds. for example, which
should be carefully kept down or the
crop will be ruined, can be removed by
means Of horse plows and horse cult
vators and hoes. while in broadcast
sowing they can only be removed by
hand Then, too, the seeds ripen much
more quickly in rows, the wind and
the sun having freer access thereto.
If American methods were employed,
such as sowing by machinery, the ex-
pense of sowing would be greatly re-
duced and the seeds would be planted
regularly and covered evenly and at
the proper depth, making it compare
lively easy to keep the fields clean of
weeds, and thus increasing enormously
the profits of sunfiower farming.
The harvest time of the sunfower
can scarcely be fixed, as it depends not
only upon the climate, but also upon
the nature of the soil and the exposure
of the plantation. In the south and
southwest of European Russia it ripens
about the middle of Septem Der, further
north at the end of September or be-
ginning of October. On sandy soil it
ripens about the middle of August, on
black-earth lands at the end of Au-
gust, and on lower grounds still later.
From this it may be seen that the sun
flower, wherever it grows, ripens later
than any other corn plant, very inn
portant fact in agriculture, as its
harvesting does not interfere with the
harvesting Of other crops. When the
sunfower is over-ripe its yellow flowers
wither, its stalk and the seed cup from
the top become gray. all the leaves of
the flower covering the seed fall off,
and the seeds get hard. shoot o}st from
the seed-cup and crack open. At this
time the plant should be we'll guarded
from the birds, or the over-ripe seeds
will soon be destroyed by them.
On small farms the sunf1ower is har-
vested gradually; the ripe heads are
cut off first, leaving the others in the
field to ripen. The flowers are spread
out on the ground for the day, and are
placed under shelter for the night, I'M
til quite dry, thus giving an excellent
quality of seed and of oil. The stalks
are cut off after they are thoroughly
dry and stored away in piles to be
used as frewood. On larger farms
this method of harvesting would be too
tedious; therefore, where the sunf1ower
is cultivated on a larger scale the plant
is cut off at the very root Of the stalk,
after most of the flowers are ripe, and
piled. seed upwards. in the same way
as hemp, till dry. Some larger farm
ers cut the seed cups off, but leave
them on their own Individual stalks,
where they are allowed to remain from
three to ten davs, until quite dry.
Good soil, after three crops Of wheat
or rye. will yield about 1000 pounds of
seed per aeraa furnishing about $50
pounds of oisE 9The seed that is used as
a pleasant Gelicacy, grows very much
better than the oil seed, yielding as
high as 2, 700 pounds of seed per acre.
The seed being brought to the oil
mill is thoroughly cleaned and sorted.
They are passed under mill-stones
prepared for this purpose, in
order to release the seeds from the
shells. After this the seed is properly
busted and put under press. and later
into a mixer, where the seed is turned
into compact mass very much like
paste, which passes into vessels heated
by steaEa. From these vessels the paste
is taken out and wrapped in thin web
made of camel hair, and put under a
press, by which the oil is squeezed out
and conducted by pipes into cisterns.
The greater part of the existing o il
mills in Russia were built about 1880.
The total mum Der of oil mills found in
Russia in 1883 was 104. From this num-
Der eighty-five were solely applied to
obtaining sunfiower oil At first sun
flower oil did not meet public favor,
but later on. owing to its good qualities
and cheapness, it took the place of the
oil of poppy seed; but for long time
hemp-seed Gil competed with it, owing
to the fact that the lower classes of the
country, who for many years had used
the hemp-seed oil the preparation of
various dishes. and who had long
learned to relish it. were 10th to give
it up. Now, however, public opinion
changed. and sunfower oil is preferred
to all other table oils by the masses in
Russia g
The suniower stalk gathered from
the field and dried in piles have entire
ly replaced frewood; in. fact, these
stalks are preferred even to pine wood,
producing a quick and hot flame fire
About 1000 pounds of such firewood
are gathered from an acre of land, thus
adding great boon to district where
wood is scarce. Sunf1ower shells are
also used for heating purposes, not only
in private houses, but in large factories
as well. They are burned in ovens
especially prepared for their consump-
ton. y
The ashes of the sunflower contain a.
high percentage of potassium The
experiments of Herm bstedt have proved
that 600 pounds of dried stalk yield
5z.2 pounds of ASH and from LOCO
pounds Of ash are obtained $40 pounds
of the best potassium An entire ripe
sunf1ower plant, without the root con-
49,. - IA