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few acres on one of the islands in the Mohawk river, agreeing to take the brush 
at a fixed price per pound, and furnishing him with a rude implement for scrap- 
ing the seed by hand, each head separate. Mr. Willard prepared the brush and 
notified them when it was ready for delivery. Two of their number came to 
weigh and receive it, but when they saw the great length of the brush they were 
amazed, and refused to ratify their engagement, thus leaving Mr. Willard with 
what was supposed to be useless stock on hand. Mr, Willard thereupon deter- 
mined to make it up into brooms. Deeming the mode then in vogue, of holding 
the twine by the feet and winding with the handle in hand, too slow a process, 
he invented the broom winder, now in use,and made better brooms in much less 
time, thereby working an entire change in the broom-corn culture and the manu- 
facture of brooms, The cause of the excellence of broom-corn in this vicinity 
is the uniformly dry and, warm nights during the summer months, owing to the 
absence of dew until near midnight, probably attributable to the sand plains on 
the hills surrounding this valley. 
“ Culiwre—The ground is carefully ploughed, harrowed, and rolled, and between 
the 1st day of May and the middle of June planted in rows by a horse-power 
seed-planter. When the ‘plant is about two inches high it is thoroughly weeded ; 
when about six inches up the earth is removed from the sides of the rows 
with a scarifier, and the space between the rows made friable ; and when the 
plant is about two feet high the earth is thrown to the rows with a double mould- 
board plow, and it is then left for the brush to develop. In sixty days from 
planting the brush is fully out, and it is then broken about two feet from the lowest 
branches, and after one day it is cut with a stem of six or eight inches, and 
taken to the comber or thresher (two revolving spiked cylinders) driven by 
power, and the seed removed; thence it is carried to dry-houses and placed on 
slats or poles in tiers with one foot space. After being dried it is sized and 
packed into bundles ready for manufacturing into brooms. 
« Broom-corn farmers prefer cuttings when the brush is green, as the green 
broom is more salable in the New York market than the red (ripe) brush. 
Experiments have shown that they are equally durable. Red or ripe brush 
exhausts the soil more than when harvested early. The first scrapings of seed 
are only fit for manure ; the second is half as good as oats, and the third makes 
an excellent feed for horses and cattle, and is found toe be a superior feed for 
milk cows in the winter months. The haulm when properly cured and housed, 
or a geod fodder. One bushel of good seed will plant ten acres of bottom 
and. 
«The broomsin use in 1827 sold for $2 25 per dozen; in 1830 the Schenectady 
brooms brought $2 50; and now the best brooms sell at $1 75 to $2 per dozen. 
Ripe seed is now selling here fer $7 per bushel. Brooms are daily sent from 
this city to all the States, Canada, West Indies, and Eurepe, and the demand 
is increasing. A quantity of brush manufactured here is grown in the States 
of Illinois and Indiana. In most ef the western States, and in Pennsylvania, 
the plant will not flourish.” 
EGYPTIAN COTTON. 
The following letter gives a faverable account of the Egyptian cotion seed 
distributed last spring by the department : 
Warrerx county, Miss—I received, late in -April last, two packages of 
Egyptian cotton seed, one of which we planted in this vicinity ; the other I 
distributed in small parcels among some ten or twelve planters in this county, 
five or six in Texas, and one in Florida. All heard from report very favor- 
ably. Mr. Fletcher, an old planter, has had several bolls opened, a few 
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