Beaver County News | 1916-05-19 | Page 2 | Sunflowers a Paying Crop

SUNFLOWERS A PAYING CROP Raised by Farmers in Southeast Missouri Mis-souri on as Large a Scale as Corn. Kansas City, Mo. In southeast Missouri Mis-souri farmers raise sunflowers to feed chickens. Many farmers In New Madrid county, Missouri, are growing sunllowers for seed on as large a scale as they grow corn. The seed is high in oil and protein and makes an excellent feed It is used chiefiy as a feed for parrots and as a part of the commercial poultry feeds. The; seed is purchased, each fall by general seed buyers from St. Louis. The soils In which sunflowers are grown are the once swampy lands and range from sandy loams to clays. The average production is about 8.000 to 15,000 pounds of seed to the acre. The usual selling price is from 2y2 to 4 cents a pound. The average return is about $40 for each acre. Some of the farmers are growing the sunflowers in place of corn. The crop is planted about the same as corn. In the labor required in handling han-dling and cultivation, the two crops are alike. When the crop matures, a wagon is taken into the field and the heads are cut off and thrown into the wagon. The seeds are then threshed out with a threshing machine.