22 BROOM-CORN CULTURE 
center is across 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 
