OTHER USEFUL PLANTS 79 



One type of sorghum is the sirup producer 

 to which we have just referred. 



The other type constitutes a very valuable 

 forage and grain-producing plant, not altogethei 

 unlike Indian corn in general appearance, that 

 is almost devoid of sugar. 



The third type resembles the others in some 

 respects, but the kernels are smaller and more 

 primitive in form, the plant being used for the 

 manufacture of brooms. 



My own work with the sorghums has included 

 many different varieties, but has chiefly con- 

 cerned the nonsaccharine types, and, in partic- 

 ular, the one known as broom corn. 



This is a variety of sorghum having long, 

 slender panicles of a specialized form, pro- 

 duced by long selection for the special purpose 

 of making brooms and brushes. The product 

 of this plant is familiar in every house- 

 hold, but the plant itself has not been very 

 generally grown in the United States until 

 of late. 



There is a vast difference in the different vari- 

 eties as well as individual plants of broom corn 

 as regards length, strength, and symmetry of 

 the group of panicle stems, or brush as it is 

 technically called, and equal diversity as to the 

 quantity produced per acre. 



