Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-04-01

clean of weeds, and thus increasing enorm-
ously the profits of sunfower farming.
The Season for the Harvest.
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-
tion. In the South and Southwest of Euro
pean Russia it ripens about the middle Of
September, further north at the end of Sep
tember 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 NAV be seen that the sunfower, wherever
it grows, ripens later than any other corn
plant, a very important fact in agriculture,
as its harvesting does not interfere with the
harvesting of other crops When the SUM-
flower is over-ripe its yellow flowers wither,
its stalk and the seed cup from the top be-
come gray, all the leaves of the flower GOV.
ering the seed fall of, and the seeds get
hard, shoot out 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 sunfower is harvested
gradually; the ripe heads are cut off first,
flowers are spread out ON the ground for the
day, and are placed under shelter for the
night, until quite dry, thus giving an excel
lent 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 6rewood.
On larger farms this method of harvesting
would be too tedious; therefore. where the
sunfiower 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 upward, in the same way as hemp, till
quite dry. Some larger farmers cut the seed
cups off, but leave them on their own indi-
vidual stalks, where they are allowed to re-
main from three to ten days, until quite
dry.
Fine Oil Made by the Mills.
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 mill is
thoroughly cleaned and sorted They are
passed under millstones especially prepared
for this purpose, in order to release the seeds
from the shells After this the seed is prop
erlv 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 steam. From
these vessels the paste is taken out and
wrapped in a 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 1900. The total
number of oil mills found in Russia in 1888
was 104. From this number IS were solely
applied to obtaining sunhower OIL At first
sunfower 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 the country, who for
many years have used tine hempseed oil in
the preparation 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 i'll Rus |
,ia
The Stalks Are Coed for Firewood.
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 and hot flame fire. About 1000 |
pounds of such irewood are gathered from
IN acre of land, thus adding great boon to
district where wood is scarce. Sunhower
hells are also used for heating purposes,
lot only in private houses, but in large
actories as well. They are burned in
,vens especially prepared for their con-
sumption.
The ashes of the sunfower contain q
nigh percentage of potassium. The exper-
ments of Hermbstedt have proved that
|, 200 pounds of dried stalk yield SO pounds
,f ash, and from 200 pounds Of ash are OBJ
aimed 349 pounds of the best potassium.
An entire ripe sunfower plant without the
'oots contains about % grams of mineral
substances, whereof about IL grams are po-
assium. The farmers in Russia sell their
shes to the soap works for very low
,rice, instead of using them for the field.
Sunf1ower cakes are looked upon as the
'est food for cattle in the country; they are
considered better even than hemp or rape
eed cakes. Besides cattle, fowl are fed with
unfiower cakes; and horses fed on them are
made strong, sleek and sprightlv. The
ried seed cups, if ground, are used in many
istricts as food for cattle, and practically
or sheep, with great success.
According to the estimate of the last two
ears, the total export of sunhower cakes
rom Russia was $4,000, 600 pounds in 1888,
nd 80, 600, 600 pounds, valued at about $780,
90, in 1890. Besides Great Britain and Ger
lany, Denmark and Sweden import great
uantities of Russian sunfowers; in fact,
he export to Denmark in the last two years
as been even larger than to Germany.
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