50 BROOM-CORN AND BROOMS. 



MAKING BROOMS BY MACHINERY. 



The broom manufacture is one of those industries in 

 which the labor may be divided with great economy. 

 Domestic manufactures enter into competition with such 

 industries under unfavorable conditions. It can never 

 be hoped that the supply of brooms required by the trade, 

 or any material portion of it, can be produced in the 

 homes of the farmers who grow the brush. They have 

 done their portion of the divided labor when they have 

 provided the raw material Yet it is true that the spare 

 hours of the winter season, when farm labors are in 

 good part suspended, may be in many cases profitably 

 occupied in working up some portion of the crop. Boys 

 and girls may give a helping hand, and earn a sum which 

 will add a great deal to the general comfort. There is 

 no good reason why a farmer's family might not turn out 

 a sufficient stock of brooms to purchase most of the fam- 

 ily groceries, or to procure a goodly supply of books and 

 papers. Well-made brooms are usually worth at whole- 

 sale about twenty-five cents each. A pound and a half 

 of brush will make a broom, and the handles and wire 

 needed, cost but five or six cents. This is the whole 

 money outlay required. The result is that an acre of 

 brush yielding say 600 pounds, will make 400 brooms, 

 worth $100, with an outlay for material of $24. 



The following description of the manufacture, which 

 appeared in the American Agriculturist for Sept., 1873, 

 was prepared by one of the editors after a careful study 

 of the operations carried on in one of the large broom- 

 making establishments. The illustrations of the machi- 

 nery are from sketches taken at that time. It will be 

 seen that the machines, while they allow the brooms to 

 be made much more rapidly and neatly than by hand, 

 are quite simple, and can be constructed without diffi- 



