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, 1s 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 sufh- 
cient moisture during the early part of the season 
to produce a rapid, healthy growth. It is very essen- 
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