The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1892-03-26


spring being warmed only on the surface.
Many farmers moisten the seeds before
sowing.
The sunfower is sowu either broadcast
or in rows. In the latter case the seeds
should be placed about six inches apart,
The sowing of the seed broadcast, being
the more quickly performed, is generally
favored on large farms, especially where
the farmers have not sufficient he p. OF
the two methods-sowing 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 requires more time and
more work at first, and, consequently, IS
more expensive, 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 cultivators and hoes, while
in broadcast sowing they can only be re-
moved 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 expense
of sowing would be greatly reduced, and
the seeds would be planted regularly and
covered evenly and at the proper depth,
making it comparatively easy to keep the
fields clean of weeds, and thus increasing
enormously the profits of sunfower 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 planta-
ton. In the south and southwest of Eu-
ropean Russia it ripens about the middle OF
September, further north at the end OF
September or beginning of October. On
sandy soil it ripens about the middle of
August, on black earth lands at the end OF
August, and on lower grounds still later.
From this it may be seen that the sunfiower,
wherever it grows, ripens later than any
other corn plant, very important tact IN
agriculture, as its harvesting does not in
terfere with the harvesting of other crops.
When the sunhower is over-ripe its yellow
flowers wither, the stalk and the seed cup
from the top become gray, all the leaves OF
the bower covering the seeds fall off, and
the seeds get hard, shoot out from the seed
cup, and crack open. At this time the
plant should be well guarded from the
birds, or the over-ripe seeds will soon be de-
stroyed by them.
On small farms the sunfuwer is harvest
ed gradually; theripe heads are cut off first
leaving the others in the fields to ripen.
The flowers are spread out on the ground
for the day, and are placed under shelter
for the night, until quite dry, thus giving
an excellent quality of seed and of oil.
The stalks are cut off after they are thor
oughly 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 sunfower is cultivated
on 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 heEp, till quite dry.
Some larger farmers cut the seed cups off,
but leave them on their own individual
stalks, where they are allowed to remain
from three to ten days, until quite dry.
When the flower is thoroughly dry the
work of threshing should begin at once.
The small farmer shakes out the seeds by
means of small stick, with which he
whips the seed cups one by one. On the
larger farms sunfower threshing is per-
formed by means of the fail in the same
way as the threshing of grain; but this
mode is not advisable, as the shells are
broken, thus allowing the air to reach the
kernel, which soon becomes bitter from ex-
posure. A better way is to spread the
seed cups with the seed upward on the floor,
on top of which should be laid anotherrow,
and so on till the heads are about two feet
thick, thus protecting the seed grain from
the fail. In adopting this latter mode
thereis little danger of the shells being split.
After the threshing is finished the seeds
are screened, generally by the shovel-and-
wind method, but in some cases by means
of American or German tanning mills.
The seed is then dried very thoroughly in
the sun or in skins and sorted by means of
screens, separating the small from the large
kernels.
Good soil, after three crops of wheat or
rye, will yield about 1000 pounds of seed
per acre, furnishing about $50 pounds of
oil. The seed that is used as a pleasant
delicacy grows very much better than the
oil seed, yielding as high as 300 pounds
of seed per acre.
The seed being brought to the oil mil,
is thoroughly cleaned and sorted They
are passed under mill stones especially pre-
pared for this purpose, in order to release
the seeds from the shells. After this the
seed is properly busted aud put under a
press, and later into q mixer where the
seed is turned into compact mass very
much like paste, which passes into vessels
heated by steam. 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 oil mills
IN Russia were built about $3.50. The to-
tai number of oil mills found in Russia in
1888 was one hundred and four From
this number eighty-fve were solely applied
to obtaining sunfower oil At first this
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 oil competed
with it, owing to the fact that the lower
classes of this country, who for many years
had used the hemp-seed oil in the prepara-
tion of various dishes, and who had long
learned to relish it, were 10th to give it up
Now, however, public opinion has changed
and sunfower oil is preferred to all other
table oils by the masses in Russia.
The sunfower stalks gathered from the
fields and dried in piles have entirely re-
placed firewood; in fact, these stalks are
preferred even to pine wood, producing a
quick aud hot fame fire. About 1000