SUNFLOWER. Heliantlius annuus, Linn. Coin posits. Fig. 837.
The sunflower is a native annual plant, the seeds of which are used for bird and poultry food, and to some extent for stock-food and for the manu facture of oil. The entire plant is also used for feeding dry and for ensiling. The seeds of the large-seeded variety are sold in Russia as pea nuts are sold in this country, except that they are to be eaten raw. The stems are 3-20 feet high, rough-hairy, often mottled; leaves 4-12 inches long, broadly ovate, acute, and the lower cordate, coarsely serrate, rough on both sides; flower-heads 3-6 inches wide in wild specimens, often 14 22 inches in culti vated specimens.
Although the sun flower is native in Kansas and the Great Plains region from Nebraska to Mexico, it has re ceived little develop ment by culture as a farm crop in this country. The Ameri can Indians culti vated and developed it, using the seed for food and to make oil which they used on their hair.
These cultivated varieties were first introduced into Eu rope about the mid dle of the sixteenth century. In western Europe and America the plant has been grown chiefly for ornamental purposes, or occasionally for poultry food, and, ex cept in recent years, has hardly risen to the dignity of a farm crop; but in Russia, sunflower seed has come into general use as a staple article of human food and for the production of oil, which resembles olive oil and which is used in cooking and for other domestic purposes in that country. In recent years some exportation of this oil is being made from Russia to other countries. In Russia the plant has come to be extensively cultivated ; improved va rieties have been developed, and the best varieties now grown in the United States are those intro duced from that country. The crop is also grown extensively in India and Egypt.
Sunflowers have a wide adaptability, and could be grown successfully throughout a large part of the country. For growing on a commercial scale, however, the Ohio valley and Kansas and Missouri seem to be best adapted. Sunflower seed is very rich in fat and protein, containing four to five times as much fat as corn and more protein than any of the cereal grains. In protein, it compares
well with peas, cowpeas and soybeans.
Varieties.
Aside from the common sunflower, two other varieties are grown in this country. The largest flowered of the three is the Black Giant, in which the heads may reach a diameter of twenty-two inches. In the Mammoth Russian the heads may reach a width of twenty inches. The seeds of the former are about three-eighths of an inch long, and black ; the seeds of the latter are slightly longer, and bear dark stripes.
Culture.
Soil.—Sunflowers may be grown successfully on any good corn land in those states which are best adapted for growing corn. For the largest crops the land should be fertile, and especially rich in humus and nitrogen. The crop exhausts the nitro gen of the soil in producing the large amount of protein stored in the seed, though the most valu able constituent of the plant, the oil, is formed during growth from the elements carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, which are secured by the plant from the water and the air without diminishing the fer tility of the soil. The crop has succeeded on alkali soil in California.
Planting.—Sunflowers should be planted at about the same time as corn, though somewhat earlier planting is safe, as slight frosts are not injurious to the young plants. The seed may be planted with a grain drill or drill planter in rows three to three and one-half feet apart. Usually to insure a good stand the seeds are dropped three to four inches apart in the drills, and later the plants are thinned to twelve to eighteen inches apart in the row. The seed is planted in a well-prepared seed-bed, a little shallower than corn would be planted under similar conditions. Six to twelve pounds of seed per acre are used. Shallow cultivation is given, and the subsequent care is much the same as for corn. It is advised to remove all but three or four heads per plant when the plants are in bloom, in order that the best development may be secured.