478 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



The seeds will begin to ripen generally in August, according to the latitude, and con 

 tinue to do so until frost makes its appearance. A place for spreading the seeds should be 

 prepared about the time of their ripening. This is sometimes a spot of dry ground, cleared 

 and beaten hard, and sometimes a low scaffold for spreading the pods. &quot;When the pods on 

 the spikes begin to crack, they should be cut, and spread in the sun to dry, in the place pre 

 viously prepared. They should be spread thinly, in order to dry well. There will be several 

 gatherings of the crop, as the pods mature and ripen. The heat of the sun causes the pods 

 to open, and the beans to shell out. In warm weather, two or three days will generally be 

 sufficient to dry them. 



When all the beans are out of the pods, the latter are raked off and the beans gathered 

 and cleaned by a fanning-mill, or seed-cleaner, with a suitable screen. They are then spread 

 in a cool, dry place to become thoroughly dried before being stored. It is well to occasion 

 ally turn them during the drying process. 



BROOM CORN. 



THIS plant is a variety of the sorghum, and a native of the East Indies. It is culti 

 vated for its branching panicles principally, which are used in the manufacture of 

 brooms, etc., although it is grown to a limited extent as a forage plant. This family 

 of plants are all more or less rich in saccharine matter, but as this variety has been cultivated 

 for a long period with direct reference to the production of the brush or seed-bearing stems, 

 and their improvement in length and fineness, without regard to its sugar-producing proper 

 ties, its appearance is very different from that of the common sorghum or Northern sugar 

 cane. 



The introduction of broom-corn into this country, as a cultivated plant, is attributed to 

 Dr. Franklin, who, finding a seed on a whisk broom that had been imported, planted it, and 

 produced seed from the plant that was the result of the experiment. From this, originated 

 its culture in the United States. 



The production of broom-corn was formerly quite limited, being confined almost exclu 

 sively to New England, but it has now become an extensive industry in some of the Western 

 States, where the climate and soil seem admirably adapted to it, and where it proves, in many 

 localities, a very valuable crop. 



At the extreme North, the season is rather too short to admit of the perfect maturity 

 and ripening of the seed. In many of the Western States the seed is not permitted to ripen, 

 the crop being harvested before this period, in order to produce a finer quality of the brush 

 product. In such cases, a more southerly latitude must be depended upon for seed in 

 sowing. 



The average product of brush per acre is about five hundred pounds, although with the 

 best soil and cultivation, rare instances are known of the crop amounting to nine hundred or 

 a thousand pounds per acre. As there seems to be no substitute for the brush, and there is 

 always a demand for it, and it is a crop that can be easily cultivated, it is a desirable and 

 profitable one for the farmer to raise, in those sections to which it is well suited. 



When mixed with oats, the seed makes very good food for horses. It is also valuable 

 for poultry, especially chickens after they are a week or two old, and when fed in connection 

 with other food. It is much more nutritious when ground sufficiently fine to break up the 

 tough husk. When ground with corn, in the proportion of three bushels of broom-corn to 

 one of corn, it makes very good fattening food for cattle, sheep, or swine. This proportion 

 also makes a good ration for milk-production in winter. 



