1873.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
177 
a serious item of consideration iu themselves. 
"While when ;ill goes well it is a paying crop, it 
■would be wise that the culture should be gra- 
dually undertaken, and just enough raised for 
home use to bo worked up for domestic pur- 
poses, until it is certainly known that the con- 
ditions for success are favorable. The soil must 
be good. Fair corn land will do for a crop for 
home use, but for marketable brush the laud 
must be rich enough to bring 50 to 75 bushels 
of shelled corn per acre. Such land as the 
Connecticut, or Mohawk, or Miami river bot- 
toms, or the rich Western prairies, well plowed 
just before planting, and well harrowed and 
Fig. 2.— CLEANING THE BRUSH. 
free from weeds, will be suitable; and it would 
pay better on any other than such land to grow 
almost any other crop. 
The seed should not be planted until the 
weather is settled and the ground is warm; the 
middle of May until June 10th would be a pro- 
per seed-time iu any locality not subject to early 
autumn frosts. There are several varieties of 
seed. The Tennessee Evergreen produces fine 
brush, and yields 1,000 pounds to the acre. 
The Missouri Evergreen has a longer, coarser 
brush, aud requires closer planting than the 
former to make fine brush. The Mohawk, 
Shaker, and Early York are the kinds produced 
chiefly in the Eastern States; they produce a 
light short brush, which must be cut early, as it 
turns red soon after blossoming. A dwarf 
broom-corn, for making whisks and brushes, is 
II 
Fig. 3. — DRYING RACK. 
sometimes grown, which yields 1,200 to 1,500 
pounds per acre, but there are difficulties at- 
tached to harvesting it which make it an unde- 
sirable crop. About two quarts of seed per 
acre are required, with four or five stalks to the 
hill for long brush, and eight or more for short 
or inside brush. If planted in drills — which is 
by far the best method — the seed should be 
dropped two or three inches apart in the row. 
An Emery corn-planter may be used for plant- 
ing iu drills, which should be 3+ to 4 feet apart; 
or any of the common corn-planters which have 
broom-corn attachments may be used. Some 
of these plant two 
rows at once, finish- 
ing 20 acres a day 
with two horses. 
They should be set so 
as to cover the seed 
less than an inch in 
depth. That this may 
be done regularly the 
soil must be very fine 
and smooth. The 
cleanest cultivation is 
required. Shares' 
horse-hoc, or a V bar- 
row with the center- 
tooth removed aud 
made to straddle the 
row, are convenient 
implements for this 
purpose. Each row 
should be cultivated 
once up and once 
down each time to 
effectually kill weeds. 
The crop should be 
harvested as soon as 
the blossoms fall, so 
that the brush may 
be of a light green 
color, and tough and clastic when cured ; 
if cut later than this the brush loses weight. It 
is in the cutting and curing that the price is 
made ; well-cured green brush brings readily 
$120 to $140 per ton, wheu over-ripe, red 
brush will hardly sell for $40 a ton. "When 
ready to cut the brush is to be "tabled." This 
operation is performed by bending the stalks 
about 30 inches above the ground, and laying 
them flat over towards the next row iu a dia- 
gonal direction, so that the brush overhangs the 
next row about a foot. The second row is 
broken down and laid over the stalks of the 
first row, interlacing with them and forming a 
table 30 inches above the ground. Two men 
or boys pass up the rows breaking aud laying 
down the stalks in this manner. This opera- 
tion of "tabling" is shown at figure 1. Then 
the cutters follow, armed with sharp knives 
similar to shoemakers' knives, aud cut the brush 
with eight inches of stalk, no more nor no less, 
and lay it on the table. If the butts are less 
than eight inches long it is a loss to the grower, 
as it reduces the weight of the brush ; if it is 
cut longer the extra length is waste, and tho 
value is reduced. 
Iu wet, hot seasons the growth of brush is 
very rapid, and the straw being weak and soft 
it bends and becomes crooked, and its value is 
lessened ; all crooked brush should therefore be 
kept and packed by itself, lest being mixed with 
straight brush the value of that should be re- 
duced proportionately. Crooked brush is the 
result of one of those contingencies of weather 
that the grower can not guard against, and he 
must make the best of it. It will happen with 
all varieties of corn. As the brush is cut it 
should be hauled to the barn and put under 
cover without loss of time ; the greeu color is 
very soon changed by sun-light to a straw color, 
aud the value thereby reduced. The brush 
should be laid in the wagon straight and even, 
the crooked being kept by itself, and on its ar- 
rival at the barn it is put through the scraper 
to remove tho seed. This is a machine (figure 
2) run by a horse-power, and contains either 
one or two drums, or cylinders, furnished with 
short teeth similar to those of a thrashing- 
machine. The brush as it is taken from the 
wagon is laid on a table, and from thence is 
TABLING AND CUTTING BROOM-CORN. 
taken by the butts in haudfuls and thrust into 
the scraper until freed from seed. If there is 
but one drum the brush must be turned ; if there 
are two drums, one exposure of the brush to 
their teeth" for a moment is sufficient to clean it. 
A boy then takes the brush and spreads it on 
the drying-racks in the barn or dry-house. If a 
huge quantity is grown, a dry-house, similar to 
a tobacco-house, with eveiy fourth or sixth 
plank hung on hinges is needed ; but for a 
small quantity racks may be set up on the floor 
of an ordinary barn. The simplest kind is made 
by taking poles or light scantling two by two 
and eight to twelve feet long, and nailing strips 
four feet long six inches apart on every pair of 
them. Common sawed lath free from knots or 
knot-holes make good strips, as the brush is 
very light. The racks are set up in rows, three 
Fig. 4. — BALE OP BROOM-CORN. 
feet ten inches distant from each other, and 
laths are laid a few inches apart on the cross- 
pieces, making a succession of stalls with 
shelves six inches apart, through which the air 
has complete 'access. The racks are shown at 
fig. 3. The brush is laid on these lath shelves 
not over two inches in depth. It should be 
quite free from moisture when placed on the 
shelves, or it will heat or mold and lose color. 
Here it remains, getting plenty of air during 
fine days, and being shut up when there is rain, 
until perfectly dried. It is then ready to be baled. 
For this a hay-press is needed. The brush is 
