Galignani Messenger - Wednesday, April 17, 1895
This report was originally published in English. Machine translations may be available in other languages.
LONDON ECHOES.
FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.
LONDON, April 16.
It is not generally known that since the date of Oscar Wilde's first lecture tour in the United States the cultivation of the sunflower has grown into an extensive and highly lucrative industry in that country. In parts of the north-west of America thousands of acres are given over to the sunflower, which is grown as easily as anything in the world. From the seed of this flower a valuable oil is extracted, the refuse furnishes a rich food for cattle, and I have forgotten the use to which the stalks are put. And this whole industry, it is said, owes its origin and existence to the whimsically-witty lecture of the unfortunate æsthete.