4 BULLETIN 1019, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



should be left in the field. If the harvesting of broom corn is prop- 

 erly done there will be very little trash, such as leaves and boots, on 

 the brush. In general, it may be said that anything unfit for use 

 in the manufacture of brooms should, so far as practicable, be left 

 in the fields. 



THRASHING. 



To command the best price, broom corn must be free from seed. 

 The operation of removing the seed is variously termed seeding, 

 scraping, or thrashing, and this phase of the preparation for market 

 probably has been criticized more than any other. The value of the 

 brush is materially affected by the quality of the work performed. 



machinery'tjsed. 



There are two kinds of thrashers — hand-fed and machine-fed. Es- 

 sentially, a thrasher consists of a frame with one or two cylinders, 

 the surface of which is equipped with teeth or spikes. If double cyl- 

 inders are used, one is set above the other and they are run in oppo- 

 site directions. Self or machine fed thrashers are so arranged that 

 the broom corn is conducted to the cylinders by means of a toothed' 

 chain that runs at an angle with the cylinders in such a manner as to 

 permit the brush to extend farther and farther between them as the 

 brush is carried along. The seed from the tip portion is first re- 

 moved and by the time the brush has been carried to the rear table 

 the cylinders have scraped the seed from the entire length of the 

 fiber. A power machine such as described (see fig. 3, page 10) with 

 a crew of 20 men can thrash the brush from about 30 or 40 acres in 

 one day. Hand machines are little used except for individual 

 work. Such machines usually are of the one-cylinder type and are 

 hand-made. In thrashing with this type the brush is held firmly 

 with the hands and applied to the rapidly revolving cylinder. 



Thrashing machines of either type, if run at the proper speed and 

 operated with sufficient and competent help, will do good work. 

 With hand-fed machines, if the broom corn has been delivered from 

 the field in a satisfactory condition, there seems no reasonable ex- 

 cuse for poor thrashing, because the brush can be applied to the cyl- 

 inder until all of the seed is removed. With power thrashers much 

 broom corn is poorly thrashed. The principal causes may be summed 

 up as follows : Improper handling of the crop prior to its thrashing, 

 improper feeding, carelessness in operating thrasher, incompetent and 

 insufficient help, windy weather during the thrashing period, night 

 thrashing, and willingness on the part of interested parties to leave 

 seed on the brush. 



PRIOR PREPARATION IMPORTANT. 



Close study reveals that much of the criticism of current practices 

 in thrashing broom corn more properly belongs to the preparation 



