96 BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 
This practice of early harvesting is of comparatively recent origin. 
Formerly the crop was commonly left standing until the seeds had 
become so nearly ripe that they could readily be collected and used as 
fodder. They were at one time quite extensively used for feeding 
animals in Connecticut and Massachusetts, and, as may be seen in the 
old volumes of agricultural journals, much questioning was indulged 
in as to whether the broom-corn seeds were or were not equal in value 
to the same bulk of oats. 
A good deal of rather vague evidence has in fact been recorded at one 
time and another in favor of the nutritive value of sorghum seeds. It is 
well known that the seeds of some of the varieties of this plant are very 
important as human food in several hot countries. In many parts of 
Africa in particular, the doura or Indian millet is the staple grain, and a 
great deal of it is grown in the East Indies also. According to Loudon, 
‘Encyclopedia of Agriculture,’’ p. 833, § 5180, and ‘* Encyclopedia of 
Plants,’’ p. 860, note 2131, the flour obtained from doura in Arabia is very 
white, and good bread or rather cakes are made of it. The bread made 
from it in some parts of Italy, on the contrary, is dark and coarse. In 
Tuscany, it is used chiefly for feeding poultry and pigeons; sometimes for 
swine, kine, and horses. In India, it is much used to feed poultry, and is 
frequently sent to Europe for the same purpose. In the West Indies, 
where it is esteemed a hearty food for laborers, it is called Guinea corn. 
The following citations may serve to give an idea of the opinions for- 
merly held with regard to broom-corn seed by our farmers in some of the 
older States. 
‘¢ Different opinions are entertained as to the value of the seed: many 
assert that it is superior to oats; others estimate it much lower. It is 
probably worth twenty-five cents * per bushel for hogs and cattle, but is 
whatever nutriment may be contained in the hulls. . . . The most successful 
growers say that the cutting should commence as soon as the ‘ blossoms’ begin 
to fall. After the flower has been fertilized and the seed ‘set,’ the anthers, or 
male organs and male flowers, fall away, and this is called the dropping of the 
‘blossom.’ At this time the seed has just begun to form, and is in a merely 
rudimentary condition, and the brush at this period is not only of the best color, 
but is heavier, a matter of importance in selling, and it is thought to be more 
durable.” “ Broom-Corn and Brooms,” O. Judd Co., New York, 1876, pp. 18, 
21. Compare U. S. Patent Reports for 1846, p. 191, and 1849-50, p. 463. 
* In the same paper from which this extract is taken, the price of oats is 
quoted at forty-two cents per bushel in Boston market. Six years later (“ New 
England Farmer,” 1831, 10. 167), the price of oats being quoted at forty- 
eight to fifty cents, the following statement occurs: “ Broom-corn seed has 
been sold in Northampton from seventeen to twenty-five cents per bushel. The 
opinions of farmers vary much as to the value of this article. More than 
fifty thousand bushels were raised in this vicinity the past season.” 
