308 BROOM CORN. 



sates for this deficiency by the great bulk and goodness of its 

 straw, which grows usually to the height of 8 or 10 feet. It id 

 sometimes sown for fodder in the beginning of April, and is ready 

 to cut in July. It is said to be injurious to cattle, if eaten as 

 green provender, the straw is therefore first dried, and is then 

 preferable to that of rice. 



This grain is frequently fermented to form the basis, in combina- 

 tion with goor or half made sugar, of the common arrack of the 

 natives, and in the hills is fermented into u kind of beer or 

 sweet wort, drank warm. 



Holcus spicatus, the Panicum spicatum of Roxburgh, is culti- 

 vated in Mysore, Behar, and the provinces more to the north. 

 From one to four seers are sown on a biggah of land, and the yield 

 is about four maunds per acre. It is sown after the heavy rains 

 commence, and the plough serves to cover the seed. The crop i 

 ripe in three months, and the ears only are taken oft' at first. 

 Afterwards the straw is cut down close to the surface of the soil, 

 to be used for thatching, for it is not much in request as fodder. 

 Being a grain of small price, it is a common food of the poorer 

 class of natives, and really yields a sweet palatable flour. It is also 

 excellent as a fattening grain for poultry. 



The Poa Abyssinica is one of the bread-corns of Abyssinia. 

 The bread made from it is called tfff, and is the ordinary food of 

 the country, that made from wheat being only used by the higher 

 classes. The way of manufacturing it is by allowing the dough to 

 become sour, when, generating carbonic acid gas, it serves instead 

 of yeast. It is then baked in circular cakes, which are white, 

 spongy, and of a hot acid taste, but easy of digestion. This bread, 

 carefully toasted, and left in water for three or four days, furnishes 

 the bousa, or common beer of the country, similar to the quas of 

 Kussia. 



BEOOM COEN. 



TIIE production of broom corn is rapidly extending, and corn 

 brooms are driving broom sedge, as an article for sweeping floors, 

 out of every humble dwelling in the United States. There are 

 about 1,000 acres of it under culture in one county (Montgomery) 

 alone, and it brings 30 dollars per acre in the field. 



Messrs. Van Eppes, of Schenectady, have been engaged in the 

 broom manufactory business about eleven years. They have ft 

 farm of about 300 acres, 200 of which are Mohawk flats. A large 

 portion of the flats was formerly of little value, in consequence 

 of being kept wet by a shallow stream which ran through it, and 

 which, together with several springs that issue from the sandy 

 bluff 011 the south side of the flats, kept the ground marshy, and 

 unfit for cultivation. By deepening the channel of the stream, 

 and conducting most of the springs into it, many acres, which 



