1 June, 1899.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. - 425 
One special feature to be remembered is, that this product, if well cured, 
will continue in good condition if kept from vermin for a considerable time, and 
will not, as is the case with ordinary farm products, rapidly deteriorate. Thus 
the farmer can safely hold for a favourable market, and dispose of his crop 
accordingly. So erratic and meagre has been the supply during this last season, 
not only from America, but also from New South Wales, that the Victorian 
Government has deemed the matter of stimulating local production of this 
article so important that a bonus has been offered to growers in order to facilitate 
the operations and supply the demand of their own factories. I am of opinion. 
that deanite this bounty system, when our local growers fully understand .the 
advantages we have in climatic conditions beyond the reach of our southern 
neighbours, it will be only a matter of time when Queensland broom corn will be 
worked up in Victorian factories with their modern machinery to the exclusion 
of the American article. tyes 
VARIETIES. 
Broom corn, or broom millet, as it is sometimes designated, belongs to the 
Sorghum family, the variety here described being Sorghum vulgare, sometimes 
designated Sorghum dura. The name, however, given by Mr. F. M. Bailey, 
Government Botanist, is Sorghum cernuum. Of the known varieties hitherto 
introduced into this colony by the Department of Agriculture from America some 
5 years ago, two rank for some purposes amongst the best. These are the Cali- 
fornian Golden and the Improved Evergreen, both of which I have grown with 
satisfactory results. Of the two varieties, I prefer, for prolific croppmg, the 
Californian Golden, as it is a good, vigorous grower, with firm upstanding brush. 
It cures a good bright colour, makes a satisfactory hurl, and is not so prone to 
erow crooked in the brush as some varieties. The brush clearing itself 
rather freely from the sheaf is not so congenial a harbour for aphis—the bane 
of the manufacturer, who abhors the red markings upon his clean hurl, which 
is the evidence of the presence of these pests. 
The Improved Hvergreen is not, in my experience, quite so luxuriant a 
cropper as the former variety, but it is less likely to throw so much crooked 
brush, and thus needs less attention in bending. The more enduring green 
colour of the hurl or brush is by some manufacturers on this account most 
approved of. Thus, in Sydney factories, the fashions trend more to green- 
coloured brooms, while in our metropolis and in Melbourne I observe that 
light-coloured brooms preponderate. Consequently either variety is acceptable, 
and carries its value in equal ratio. A newer variety, more recently introduced 
to this colony and New South Wales, is the White Italian. This I find from 
experience to be the heaviest yielder, and, if properly cultivated and cured, — 
carries all the merits of the other sorts mentioned. As its name indicates, it is 
a pale variety, and, when carefully attended to, is one eminently suitable for 
the manufacture of a high-class broom, and will command the foremost value 
in the market. 
It would be scarcely within the realms ofjthe probable that no demerit should 
attach to an article of commerce. So it is with this variety. Its most exasper- 
ating feature is its persistence in bearing crooked broom-heads. This is owing 
robably to its vigorous growth of hurl and heavy seeding propensities. No 
feature of this crop is so annoying to the grower as this matter of crooked 
brush, and no pains should be spared in securing that the conditions of culti- 
yation are such as to prevent this happening. Crooked brush means defective 
quality, lower price, much care and trouble in cleaning, sorting, packing, and 
general exasperation to all using it; otherwise this variety is suitable for our 
commercial needs, and attention to the crop in bending will avoid’ the defect I 
have here described. There are several other varieties not known to me by 
name, many of them of very fair quality. These are often distinguished 
by the black, red, or pale-brown colour of their seeds. In this connection 
if would be well to impress upon growers’ habits of observation, as thus the 
selection of new and improved sorts may be discovered as Nature's processes of 
inoculation or hybridising, which sometimes improve though sometimes deteriorate 
— 
ar 
Ss. 
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