SUNFLOWER SEED AS POULTRY FEED.

Motueka Star, Volume IV, Issue 165, 20 March 1903, Page 5

SUNFLOWER SEED AS POULTRY FEED.

1 thoroughly endorse all you have said about sunflower seed (writes Mr A. E. Henry) as feed for poultry. The best kind to grow is the . big Russian, reliable seed if which may be obtained from Messrs Anderson and Co., George street, Sydney. The best way to grow them is in drills about 3ft or 4ft apart, and wheu the plants come up thin them out to about 18in apart. In fact, tieat the same as maize. Sunflowers are fond of potash, so any manure rieh in this, sprinkled in the drills, will greatly increase the yield, unless the ground ha-; naturally an ample supply. August, September, and October are the best months to sow the seed. The may be planted right up to January, but unless favoured with a pretty good rainfall the late sowings don't produce such fine heads.

From early sowings on artificially manured or naturally suitable soils, it is easy to get 60 bushels of seed from an acre, from s me soils over 150 bushels having been obtained. The head.may be left on till thoroughly dry. or, if the sparrows aio tiOubl3some, they may be cut as s >on as the yellow of the flower falls, and tied (jto|bit-s of string on horizontal poles under a verandah or some othe" suitable place away from rain. The thing 's to get them thoroughly dry, which vill be in a fortnight's time. The seed may then be easily extracted, or the heads may be thrown t» the fowls whole. The fowls will turn up their noses for two or three days for the seed is somewhat of an acquired taste, besides probably being new to the eye and not understood by the birds. But after two or three feeds, they will be eaten ravenously, the result being that the fowls improve in plumage, come through their moult well, and Jay more eggs. The sunflower plant, stalk, leaves and all, is excellent feed, green ordiy, for all kinds of stock. The flower itself is full of the most beauti fully flavoured honey, and is therefore probably the most valuable plant that can be grown for bees.

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