Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 July 1886 — Sunflowers for Fuel. [ARTICLE]

Sunflowers for Fuel.

I grow one acre of them every year, and have plenty of fuel for the stove the whole year round, and use some in the other stove besides. I plant them in hills the same as corn (only three seeds to the hill), and cultivate the same as com. lout them when the leader. or top flower is ripe, lett ng them lie on the ground two or three days. In that time I cut off all the seed heads, which are put into an open ;shed with a floor in it, the same as a corn crib The stalks are then hauled home and packed in a common shed with a good roof on it. When cut in the right time the stalks, when dry, are hard as oak, and make a good hot Are, while the seed-heads, with the seed in, make a better fire,than the best hard coal. The seed, being very rich in oil, will burn better and longer, bushel for bushel, than hard coal. The sunflower is very hard on land. The piece of ground selected to plant on should be highly enriched with manure. In the great steppes (prairie) region in the interior of Russia and in Tartary, where the winters are more severe than here in Dakota, the sunflowers are and have been for centuries past the only kind of fuel used.— Cheyenne Sun.