Harvesting and handling.
To secure the best quality of brush, the harvesting should be done about the close of the blooming period. The brush becomes stiff and brittle if the seed is allowed to ripen, and is greatly reduced in value.
Dwarf broom-corn is usually harvested by pulling the heads by hand, leaving a foot or more of the stalk attached. Standard broom-corn, because of its height, must be "tabled" before harvesting. This "tabling" consists in bending the stalks of adjacent rows at a height of about three feet diagonally across the space between the rows, so that the seed-heads of each row extend about two feet beyond the adjoining one, and are in position for cutting. The stalks are then cut a few inches below the head and the heads laid on the tables thus formed, in position for hauling.
After the brush has been cut or pulled, it is hauled to the drying sheds where it is sorted and threshed. Sorting is simply the separation of coarse or knotty brush from the uniform straight heads ; when the crop is grown on a small scale, the seed may be removed by "scraping" by hand; when largely grown, the brush should be cleaned with a broom-corn thresher. After threshing, the brush should be dried so as to maintain its uniform green color. Rapid drying without direct sunlight is necessary to accomplish this result, open sheds usually being used for the purpose.
After the brush is thoroughly dried it should be baled, the bales weighing 300 to 400 pounds. The crop is then ready for the market. In sections where the crop is largely produced, buyers are usually on hand to purchase it ; elsewhere, commu nications should be addressed to large users of the crop for quotations. The price varies with the quality of the crop and the production, usually running from $50 to $100 per ton. An acre of dwarf broom-corn should produce at least 400 pounds of brush ; an acre of standard 600 to 700 pounds.
As special equipment for the handling of this crop is needed in the matter of drying sheds, thresher and baler, as well as a considerable force at harvest-time, the business of growing it should be a fairly permanent one, and farmers are not justified in growing broom-corn for a single year only.
Literature.
Farmers' Bulletin No. 174 of the United States Department of Agriculture, "Broom-Corn," by C. P. Hartley, gives very concise treatment of this crop. Several experiment station publications have also been devoted to it. For further account of broom-corn in its botanical relations, see the article on Sorghum.
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