SELECTION IN BROOM CORN; 



J. B. Park 

 Ohio State Universitv, Columbus. 



THE market value of broom corn 

 is greatly influenced by the 

 quality of the brush. Good 

 heads should have long, slender, round 

 fiber and be as free as possible from 

 crooked, tvv^isted, and kinky brush and 

 from central stem. Brush having these 

 undesirable characteristics is sorted out 

 and sells at a very low price. Every 

 crop contains a greater or less amount 

 of this \o-w grade product. 



The opinion is common among 

 growers that quality in broom corn is 

 entirely controlled by seasonal condi- 

 tions and that the kind of seed planted 

 makes very little difference. Accord- 

 ingly many growers use the most care- 

 less methods of securing seed, some 

 even using seed from the broom corn 

 thrasher where all kinds and qualities 

 of brush are thrashed and the seed 

 mixed. 



The literature of broom corn im- 

 provement is meager indeed. Rothgeb^ 

 working in Oklahoma, found that vari- 

 eties differ in productiveness, and that 

 the differences are most pronounced in 

 unfavorable seasons. He states that 

 seed from commercial sources is likely 

 to be of poor quality and he believes 

 that strains which produce a more uni- 

 form quality of brush can be developed 

 by selection of desirable seed heads. 

 He states further that environing con- 

 ditions influence the length and quality 

 of the brush, thick stands tending to 

 produce short brush and thin stands 

 long coarse brush. 



Central stem is illustrated in Figure 

 11. It is an extension of the rachis. 

 varying greatly in length and thickness. 



Some stemmy heads are entirely worth- 

 less. From others the stem may be 

 broken out by the broom-maker leaving 

 the rest of the head of fairly good 

 quality, but this involves labor and 

 waste of material. If a strain could 

 be produced which contained no central 

 stem or a smaller proportion of it, the 

 cash value of the crop would be greatly 

 increased. 



The experiment reported in the pres- 

 ent paper was undertaken to show 

 whether or not central stem is an in- 

 herited character and whether it can be 

 reduced in amount or possibly elimi- 

 nated by selection. Work was begun 

 in 1917 by planting about one-tenth 

 acre to the variety Longbush Evergreen 

 from seed bought of an eastern seeds- 

 man. In the fall, 105 heads of good 

 quality were selected from the crop 

 and these were planted in the spring of 

 1 91 8 in head-rows about thirty feet 

 long. In the fall of 1918 a few of the 

 best quality rows and some other typi- 

 cal ones were chosen, the brush was 

 harvested and statistical measurements 

 recorded for length of brush, degree of 

 fineness, amount of kinky brush, and 

 of central stern. 



These first head- row populations, 

 grown from open pollinated seed, 

 showed in many cases a decided family 

 resemblance within the head-row and 

 conspicuous differences between rows. 

 See Table i. 



For example, strain 56 is character- 

 ized by a moderately fine fiber. Strain 

 46 has short brush with a high per- 

 centage of the heads containing central 

 stems. 



^ Contribution from the Department of Farm Crops. Ohio State University, Columbus, O. 

 The author desires to acknowledge the assistance of Messrs. L. E. Thatcher, D. N. 

 LuTz and H. L. Borst, who successively have been associated with him in this work. 



" RoTHGEB. B. E. Broom Corn Experiments at Woodward, Okla. U. S. D. A. Bui., 

 836. 1920. 



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