CHAPTER III 

 SOIL AND CLIMATIC CONDITIONS 



A soil that will produce a good crop of corn is 

 well suited to the production of standard broom- 

 corn. A lighter, sandy soil is better adapted to the 

 production of the dwarf type. The rich corn soils 

 have a tendency to produce a coarse brush, while the 

 light sandy loams produce, when planted to the 

 dwarf varieties, a short, fine, tough brush which is 

 in great demand for the manufacture of fine whisk 

 brooms. 



For the production of a good crop of long stand- 

 ard brush a fertile soil is required, but the rich bot- 

 tom lands that are subjected to overflow should be 

 avoided, because the weeds will give trouble during 

 the early part of the season when the broom-corn 

 is making slow growth. Soils that are badly in- 

 fested with weeds should not be planted to this crop, 

 because of the large amount of hand labor that will 

 be necessary to keep the weeds in check until the 

 plants are large enough to cultivate. 



The production of high-grade broom-corn, how- 

 ever, is more dependent upon climatic conditions 

 than upon the character of the soil upon which it is 

 grown. The plant is of a subtropical origin and does 

 best in a warm, sunny, climate where there is suffi- 

 cient moisture during the early part of the season 

 to produce a rapid, healthy growth. It is very essen- 



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