4 BULLETIN 1019, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
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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 perloraa 
_MACHINERY USED. 
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. 8, 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 machimes 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 4 
in thrashing broom corn more properly belongs to the preparation 
: 
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