The record-union., 1892-07-13
FARM And ORCHARD.
The SunhOwer, Its Cultivation and
Usefulness.
Removing Tassels From Corn-About
Gapes-Products of the Farn1-Dried
Apples-Eggs by the Pound-A Good
Observation-Disclosures Items.

observation-disclosures Items.
The oil of the sunhower, which is used
not only for food, but in several import
ant industries, has superseded other oils.
It's bland quality and its freedom from
injurious acids render it desirable in the
fabrication of fne machinery, as for
clocks and watches, and also for the uses
OF the artist as a medium for his colors.
Other uses are being found for it, which
cannot be filed by any other kind.
The plant itself, too, has other valuable
uses. The stalks make servicaeble fuel,
and are cheaper than wood where the
plant is most easily grown, as on the
broad plains of Europe, Asia, and in our
Western States. The leaves are good fod-
der for COWS. The cake left from the oil
press is an excellent fattening food for
beeves and mich cows, and the seeds are
a better food than any other grain, being
worth, for feeding, 81 TO per 100 pounds,
against 81 IL for corn, and having q better
nDtritive ratio than any other oily seeds.
The seed contains thirteen per cent. OF
protein and twenty-four per cent. OF fat Of
irreproachable character for feeding, and
AIS 1uIIILlN = IdIlO ID SGS6u dllu G"O-IGllGilo
of carbonaceous matter to one of protein,
and thus it is better balanced food than
other oil cake. The cake is worth 81 So
per 100 pounds, which is more than the
value of linseed cake, and contains twen-
ty-Seven per cent. of protein and eight
per cent. of oil. The ashes of the whole
plant have thirty-five per cent. of potash,
which is equal to one and nine-uenths per
cent. OF the dry stalks. This fact is the
key to its culture, for which soil that is
rich in this element is indispensable for
its continued growth. But as the broad,
open plains, over which the annual fires
have swept for centuries, are especially
rich in potash, the plant is there grown in
the greatest luxuriance.
An average yield is twenty-five bushels
OF seed per acre, and, at the common
price of one dollar per bushel, this is
quite profitable, considering the value of
its leaves and stalks. There are two va
rieties of this plant, the mammoth and
the small-seeded kind; the latter, being
the richer in oil, is mostly cultivated for
this purpose. The large-seeded kind is
used for feeding, and also for eating as a
luxury, much as the peanut is with us.
The plant has been cultivated as farm
crop only since IS45, when it was first
grown in Southern Russia. Now the in
dustry has spread all over the southern
provinces of that great Empire, and is
butte to pay to the oil to say that it is su-
perior to our cotton-seed oil, knowing
that this has displaced the best brands of
the fine olive oils of Spain and Italy. AS
the plant succeeds to perfection in West
ern prairie States, where sheep may be
kept with the most profit, and as the
leaves and the whole heads are eaten bV
them and other animals, and as the
cheap-fuel question is an important one
In those States, this crop deserves eSpe-
cial attention by the Western farmers.
The mode of culture is the simplest.
The seeds are planted precisely as those
OF corn, and the land is simply cultivated
so as to be kept mellow and free from
weeds. The harvest is in no way exact
ing as to time, as the heads droop and are
protected from the rain, and the seeds are
firmly held and do not drop out from the
heads. The heads may be gathered and
the stalks left in the fields, to be taken up
at convenience for use as fuel. 1t is also
possible, and even desirable, to seed the
land with clover at the last cultivation of
the crop, and make it member of
larger rotation, to be followed by the
clover, which affords either hay or pas
ture. or both, and then a rich contribu-
tion of plant food to the land. The plant
thrives well in the South, and on the
common micaceous soils, which glisten
in the sunlight by the innumerable scales
of mica, and are also full OF feldspar-an-
other potash mineral. Each stalk will
bear several heads, full of seeds, and a
yield of fully sixty bushels OF seed to the
acre may be counted upon under fayora-
bic econditions.-Henry Stewart in Amer
lean Agriculturist.
REMOVING TAssELs FROM CORN.
The tasse-like male flowers of Ameri-
can corn discharge pollendust which is
carried by the air 20 the silky female
f1nWar which hn
and through the husks at the tip of the
ear. The formation of this pollen is
great task, much plant food being stored
in the cornstalk to be used for the rapid
growth of the tassels during a few DAYS.
The claim has been made that the re-
moval of the young taSsels would cause
the stored plant food and entire strength
OF the stalk to be used in the production
of more grain onahe ear.
For experiment the tassels were re-
moved from alternate rows OF part of
the Cornell Experiment Station corn
field in New York. Each detasseled row
yielded more than the perfect row be-
tween, but there are good reasons for be-
heving that the field would have Welded
more had all the tassels been allowed to
blossom. At the Kansas Experiment
Station when every fourth row was de-
taSSeled this MANNED row yielded least
When three alternate rows in the midst
vi a AdISe COTHLSlu were QeCaSSGlGu eacl
of the three detasseled rows yielded more
than either of the two perfect rows be-
tween, but it is probable that perfect
row between perfect rows would have
yielded still more.
The observed effects of self-fertilization
in plants make it probable that when all
the alternate rows are detasseled each
perfect stalk between may have to use so
much of its own pollen that the ATTEMPTED
1n-breeding either fails or is feeble in re-
suits. This may be the reason why there
are only few scattered grains on the
cobs of cornstalks standing alone, or on
the edges of fields. The result NAV also
be partly due to the decrease OF pollen
caused by detasseling. When the hot
winds blast the tassels of corn in the Mis-
souri, Valley the cobs grow, but with
many grains and rows missing, because
they receive so little good pollen 1t is
not probable that nature grows too much
pollen. The shock Of cutting or breaking