22 BROOM-CORN CULTURE 



center is a cross between the sweet sorghum and the 

 broom-corn and exhibits characters of color and 

 form intermediate between the parent forms. 



It is important, therefore, that the grower keep 

 his seed pure and free from mixture with the plants 

 belonging to the other groups of the sorghum fam- 

 ily. Furthermore, it is important that the grower 

 select his seed exclusively from plants producing 

 fine, straight, tough, elastic straws, for the crop 

 grown from seed produced by any particular plant 

 will be much like the parent. If the seed head is 

 coarse with a large central stem or twisted straws, 

 as shown in Figure 7, many heads of a like kind 

 will be found among its progeny. Of course, the 

 most carefully selected seed will not produce all 

 good heads, because of the influence of more remote 

 ancestors of poor quality, but careful selection of 

 seed from year to year will greatly reduce the num- 

 ber of poor individuals, provided the crossing with 

 other varieties is prevented. 



It is a common practice to allow a portion of the 

 general crop to ripen and produce the seed for the 

 following year. A separate seed patch will involve 

 more labor, but it will be much more satisfactory 

 in the end. Such a patch should be planted each 

 year with the seed from the choicest plants of the 

 seed plot of the previous season and should be suffi- 

 .cient in size to permit the grower to reject a large 

 number of plants and yet have a sufficient number 

 of individuals left to produce the required amount 

 of seed. The careful breeder will often find it de- 

 sirable to reject ten plants for every one which he 



