CASTOR BEANS — BROOM CORN. 417 



the beans are left where they will get into the feed of horses or 

 cattle. 



CASTOR BEANS AS FERTILIZERS. 



One great advantage in raising castor beans is the effect 

 the crop has upon the land as a fertilizer. It seems to be 

 almost equal to a crop of clover. Some think the good effects 

 produced are by the action of the plant in neutralizing the 

 acids of the soil, so that crops that follow may utilize those 

 properties of the soil that otherwise would be locked up and 

 unavailable. Others think that the plant draws largely upon 

 the elements of the air, and by so doing attracts and gathers 

 into the soil and lays up for future use those elements neces- 

 sary for plant food. Whatever may be the cause, the result is 

 certainly favorable. I have, in sowing wheat or flax on ground 

 where wheat and castor beans had been grown, seen a marked 

 difference as soon as the wheat came up, and the difference was 

 more perceptible as the season advanced, until the harvest. 



YIELD PER ACRE. 



The yield per acre will be in proportion to the fertility of 

 the soil. On medium upland, eight to twelve bushels per acre 

 is considered a fair crop ; but there have been some crops on 

 bottom bind reported as yielding twenty to thirty bushels per 

 acre. Prices have ranged from seventy cents to one dollar and 

 ten cents, in the years 1878 and 1879. 



BROOM CORN. 



One of the advantages of raising broom corn is that it 

 utilizes the newly broken prairie sod, as it proves a very good 

 crop on sod without any cultivation, no labor being needed, ex- 

 cept to plant and harvest. The yield is better on good, well 

 prepared soil, but even on sod the crop is sometimes remunera- 

 tive enough to pay for the same area of land on a good farm. 

 The principal obstacle to overcome is the lack of shed room in 

 which to cure the brush. 



Planting should be about the same time that corn is planted, 

 in rows three to four feet apart, the hills being everyone to two 

 feet in the row, with five to eight seeds in each. If old ground 



27 



