If the stalks are broken back a little earlier, they form a better brush. In a few days they are cut, just above the break, and laid in bunches to dry. These must not be opened, to become wet by rain, as this would injure their value. The seed are removed by hand, with a sort of coarse comb, where the plantations are not large; but when the crop is cultivated on an extensive scale, it is done with a maehine driven by horse-power. The brush or tops are dried by laying them on horizontal poles, and successive tiers placed one above the other, leaving spaces for the air be tween each. Sheds or lofts may be used for this purpose. Temporary structures for drying are made of rails, the brush being laid on pairs of rails placed horizontally, so as to form a structure twelve feet square, or equal to the length of the rails, and each successive tier formed by resting the horizontal rails on an additional rail placed under each of their ends. By selecting the larger rails for one side, this side gradually becomes higher than the other, and admits a board roof for the top when the height has reached eight or ten feet. The quantity of brush yielded from
an acre is usually about five or six hundred pounds, but, in rare instances, it has reached as high as a thousand pounds. The price varies from five to ten cents. There is more uncer tainty with this crop than with many others— not on account of the difficulty of raising, for with proper care it is reasonably certain, but from the uncertain or fluctuating character of the market. With the seed, especially, this un ce•tainty is great. Sometimes it is sold as high as three or four dollars per bushel; at other times for not more than fifty cents. The seed may, however, be profitably used as food for horses when mixed with oats or other grain. When the seed is not allowed to mature, several successive crops have been grown on the same ground with -out detriment, and with moderate manuring.
Andropogon purpurescens, A. furcatum, or forked spike-grass, and A. nutans, or beard-grass, are well known species. (See Grasses.)