BROOM-CORN EXPERIMENTS AT WOODWARD, OKLAHOMA. 49 
WEARING QUALITY OF THE BRUSH. 
Brooms were made from the lots of brush harvested at the differ- 
ent stages of maturity in 1917 and 1918, in order to test the wearing 
quality of the brush. These brooms were divided into sets and are 
being used for sweeping both private dwellings and office buildings. 
Each set contains one broom made of brush harvested at the different 
stages of maturity. 
This part of the harvesting experiment has not progressed far 
enough as yet to draw final conclusions. However, the indications 
are that the brush harvested in the dough stage will give the best 
service. When harvested at the earlier stages, the fibers are too 
weak at the base to stand hard usage. They break over the shoul- 
ders of the broom. ; 
NURSERY EXPERIMENTS. 
The objects of the broom-corn nursery were to learn the quality 
of the seed from commercial sources and to obtain stock for subse- 
quent breeding. In the spring of 1915 thirty-four lots of broom-corn 
seed were obtained from commercial sources and a row 132 feet long - 
was sown with each lot of seed. Nearly all lots of seed were received 
under some varietal name which indicated whether the seed was 
of the Standard or of the Dwarf variety. In a few cases the 
names were misleading, as the same name was applied to both 
varieties. In other cases the word Dwarf was part of the name used 
for the Standard variety, or Standard was used in combination with 
other words for the Dwarf variety. Each lot of seed was given a 
Cereal Investigations number (C. I. No.). 
The commercial name, Cereal Investigations number, and source of 
all the lots of broom corn grown in the nursery in part or all of 
the four years from 1915 to 1918, inclusive, are shown in Table 
XXIV. It will be noted in this table that the seed came from 14 
different States and from several different localities in some of 
these States. One lot came from France, one from Germany, and 
one from the Greek exhibit at the Panama-Pacific Exposition. 
HEIGHT OF PLANTS AND DURATION OF VEGETATIVE PERIOD. 
Table X XV shows the height of the plants (in feet) and the dura- 
tion of the vegetative period (in days) for all lots of broom corn 
grown in the nursery in part or in all of the years from 1915 to 
1918, inclusive, with 4-year averages. The height of Standard broom 
corn ranged from 7 to 11 feet in 1915. In the less favorable seasons 
of 1916, 1917, and 1918 the plants averaged much lower in height 
than in the favorable season of 1915. Dwarf broom corn reached 
a height of 5 to 6 feet in 1915, but in 1918 the height ranged from 
2.8 to 4.3 feet only. 
