The islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1891-1899, 1894-10-18
SEEDS OF SUNFLOWER
What Samuel Crump Says
Concerning Them.
HOW THE OIL is EXTRACTED

The Weu-Known Manufacturer Declares
After Close Study That Washington
ia the State for Sunflowers, Peanuts
and Castor Beans.
Samuel Crump, proprietor OF the Spo-
kane Soap Works, has made close
study of vegetable oils, and is now ex-
perimenting with sunfowers, peanuts
and castor beans at the ranch OF ). Con-
way at Kennewick, Wash.
"This is an important question fo1
this section" said Mr.. Crump to a re-
porter. Even with our present soap
works we could use three tons of Russia
sunfower seeds day at cent pound.
The peanut costs more to cultivate, but
will yield double the quantity of oil and
sell for double the price. This nut has
yielded as high as 5S per cent of oil. The
castor bean grows prolifcally in Wash
ington, but requires closer attention in
the gathering of the seed. / am exper-
imenting with all these seeds, because
one extracting mill would handle all va
rieties with equal facility. There are
three methods of extracting the oil-one
by hydraulic pressure, another by chem
ical extraction, using bisulphate of car
bon or naphtha, and the third by cen
trifugal action, as cream is now separ-
ated from milk. The great varieties OF
valuable properties belonging to the sun
flower seed have been much neglected in
this country. While the plant is largely
and proftably cultivated in Germany.
Hungary and Russia, it is here raised
only as an ornamental plant by a few
country housewives either for fattening
poultry or on account of its supposed
value in warding off malaria. But no
plant produces such fine honey and wax,
and when the flower is in blossom bees
abound in it. The produce will be &C
cording to the nature of the soil and the
mode of cultivation; but the average
has been found fifty bushels of seed per
acre. The refuse of the seeds after the
oil has been expressed, made into cakes,
will produce 1900 pounds. But besides
every portion of the plant can be util-
lied. The leaves furnish an excellent
fodder; the stalks are priced as fuel,
and their ashes, which contain 10 per
cent of potash, are readily sold to soap
makers. The seeds should be planted
about six inches apart and about one
inch deep. When the plant is about one
foot high it is earthed up, and then will
require no further attention. Every sim
gle seed will produce thousand or more.
On some ground two crops may be grown
at the same time. When the farmer has
given his early potatoes last hoeing, he
may plant this seed twelve inches apart
in the ridges.
"In Russia where the cultivation of
the plant and manufacture of oil are
carried on on large scale the grandi-
flora is the variety grown. 1t grows in
one slender stalk five feet high, produc-
ing one monstrous head. A good, warm
summer is required to bring the flower
to perfection. The seeds are threshed
out usually by fail. They are then thor
oughly dried and hulled. To accom-
plish this mills or grindstones are used,
and the motive power is a pair of horses.
That the manufacture in oil is found to
be source of profit is shown by the fact
that sunfower cultivation is constantly
increasing. The same good results can
be attained in the State of Washington,
the climate of which resembles that of
Southwestern Russia, where cultivation
of the plant is extensively conducted.
The hulled seeds contain % to 80 per
cent of oil. It is clear, pale yellow, al
most inodorous, and of an agreeable mild
taste. 1t is exclusively used as a table
oil, and in Eastern Russia in the prepa-
ration of almost every kind of food. The
pressed oil can be employed in the manu-
facture of soap. In Spokane the product
of 1000 acres could easily be consumed
annually. yielding at least $11 an acre at
81 per 100 pounds, if only yielding LOO
pounds of mature seed to the acre, but
the possibilities are double"