32 



The handles in an unfinished state, made either of maple or 

 ash, are furnished for a cent a-piece. The wiring and tying 

 on are usually done by the hundred. The scraping the seed 

 from the brush is an unpleasant business, and the dust is preju- 

 dicial to the eyes. A common flax comb is generally employ- 

 ed ; but an improved machine, moved by horse-power is com- 

 ing into use, performs the work quickly, and greatly lessens 

 the labor. The manufacture, when carried on extensively and 

 with ample capital, has yielded encouraging profits. 



The seed is sold at two thirds the price of oats, and is ordi- 

 narily of the same weight. It sometimes weighs more than 

 oats, and by some persons is more highly valued. It is by 

 many esteemed good feed for the fattening of swine, when 

 mixed with other grain. Some have used it for fattening cattle 

 and horses, but it is not approved. The saving of the seed of 

 broom corn is, by the best farmers, deemed a matter of much 

 importance. It must be taken from that which produces a full 

 and square head ; and not from that which runs up in a spind- 

 ling form, and " branches like a pine-tree." The difference in the 

 seed is deemed of so much consequence, that while ordinary 

 seed for planting can be obtained at one dollar and fifty cents 

 per bushel, the best always commands four dollars. In no sin- 

 gle thing do farmers commit a greater error than in respect to 

 seed. Inferior seed of any kind of plant should never be used ; 

 and the diff"erence in the expense between good and poor seed, 

 is nothing compared with the increased value of the crop from 

 good seed. 



It is a fact, which certainly deserves mention, that broom 

 corn is taken three, four, and sometimes ten years in succession 

 from the same field without diminution of the crop. I have 

 the testimony of three respectable farmers to this point. Yet 

 this can only be done by high manuring. By many farmers 

 it is deemed an exhausting crop. The brooms made from the 

 brush, cut and dried while green, are tougher and much more 

 durable than those made from the brush, when suffered to be- 

 come quite dry and yellow. The returns of a crop of broom 



