The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1899-11-22
TONS OF SUNFLOWER SEED.
oXE ILLINOIS COUNTY PRACTICAL
LYSUPPLIES THE WORLD.
only a Few Men Know What the
Seed Are Used for and They
Will Not Tell.

Iawrenceville ([ll.) correspondence Chi
cago Record.
man down here is advertising for l.
ooO 600 pounds of sunfower seed. He
has bought three-fourths of a million
Donnds of seed and expects to ship 5,>
100000 pounds.
Practically all of this crop raised in
the world goes out of Lawrence county.
This same man, who is now buying seed
nv the trainload, got rich by raising
sncb things on his rented farm, going
into the market for strange and unusual
things while his neighbors stuck to corn
and wheat and hogs. His name is W..
r Crackel, and he is both shrewd and
inouisitive, but while supplying the
world with what sunfower seed it needs
he has never been able to find out what
the world does with them. The sun
flower seed industry is not only an art
exhibit and poem, but one of the great
est mysteries as well.
A good many people here are engaged
in it now, but it is not so profitable as 1t
waste the grower. Farmer Cracked sold
his first big crop for 8 cents pound ;the
next wear his neighbors put out good
deal of land in sunfowers, and sold the
nroduct for 8 cents pound, which was
some hundreds of dollars per acre. Then
came the deluge. Everybody In Petty
township planted sunfowers instead OF
corn. and the farmers accomplished their
own undoing. One township in tTe
conntv broke the market from cents to
cents by causing an overproduction in
the worlds supply. Then many went
hack ro corn and wheat, and now things
have settled down to basis that pay
we'll enough but does not make men
rich.
THE YEARS CROP.
The weld per acre varies greatly. a
field of flowers only rs large as dessert
plate will not have half the amount OF
seed as q field of flowers as large ae
half hushel. Almost any kind OF lAnd
with slight attention will yield 6OO
mounds to the acre, and crops of ,OOO
bounds to the acre are not very uncom-
mon. although they are the result OF ex-
ira attention by growers who have stud
lad the habits and needs of the sunf1Ow-
er and who also have very rich land.
Just now the buyers are paying from
$1.25 to 81 so per hundred pounds Tor
the seed delivered at the warehouse.
The cost of raising an acre OF sunhoWers
is very much less than the cost OF an acre
of wheat or corn. and the crop is much
more certain. This city is the great sun
flower seed market of the world, put
small quantities, comparatively, are
bought at Bridgeport, st. FranclsVllie,
Sumner, Birds and others of the smaller
towns in this county, each station send
ING out several carloads year. The
cron of 1899 is now being threshed aud
sent TO market, and in this county Will
aggregate about 5 1000, 600 pounds, IN the ,
opinion of those most Interested. Omaii
quantities of sunhower seed are sent 10
market occasionally from widely sepa-
rated points in the United States, out III
no other place is the seed raising MADE d
business. ooo ooo
What does the world do with 5 O,OOO
pounds of the seed of plant commonly
associated only with an aesthetic craze!
Onlv few men know, and they won
tell. The secrecy which envelops the
whole matter of its use, like the hist OF
a stage burglar, suggests that it is an an
adnlterant. It once sold readily at ~
cents a pound. which was the equlvalen.
of nearly So a gallon for the Oil, ana
what oil can be used for an adulterant a'
such a price? The same man, CracKoi'
who started the whole thing mere DIS
farmer. and now handles nearly tne
whole crop as dealer in grain, thougn'
of all that. He is man who taxes ex.
cellent care of his own business, ana at
the same time has philanthroplc lnter-
est in the doings Of his neighbors 90 VIZ
here, where everybody visits everybody
else. Some other people had cssuai
curiosity about the matter, put Whou
thew found out that Cracker nao 70
sha me>facedly admit that he ala NO.
know and could not find out they let IL
60 at that. Cracked found out that tne
oil was pressed from the seed, ana tn@'
was all.
USE OF THE SEED A MYSTERY.
After several years dealing with the
Cincinnati firm who buys the seed, nnai
~ he took an excellent opportunity anu
made it clear that he thought he mlgnt
now be admitted into the degree Whlcn
enlightened about what was done WIN
the snnflower seed. The senior mem oer
of the firm acqpiesced, and after initiate
ry cerem Jniesbve an altar with olg