Arizona weekly citizen., 1889-10-05
BROOM MAKING.
AN INDUSTRY WHERE THE SMALL
 CAPITALIST HOLDS HIS OWN.
The Broom Center of the Country. Growth of a Broom Factory-Ths Trade In New York City-A Trick of the Trnde.

In New York City-A Trick of the
 Trade.
 There is one industry in the county fu which the small capitalists have been able to hold their own against the wealth jest men in it, and that is the industry of broom making. It is business in which journeyman of skill and prudence can hope to establish himself, if he wishes, within very few years after he has learned his trade. The process of broom making is simple, and yet it is such that machinery has never been devised for turning ont a completed broom. and, be- rona tie sum necessary to erect such an establishment aS wiI uermit of Il cer- fliU division of rae 'HCor. an abundance 0f capital lS of no Specis; s6vantage.
 The broom center uf inc coanIry is in New York state, the largest establish- ments and the best workmen being located in the Mohawk valley. The time was when the Mohawk valley was the Ereat broom corn raising center of the country, too. but the less tough ana JtrinCy and more succulent and profitable cabbage has driven the wavy green tassels of broom corn from the flats which were once their favOrite growing place. It was because of the prolific yield of corn there in former years that the trade of making brooms became so well established.
 BROOM FACTORY.
 The growth of broom factory is in- teresting. A young man of economical habits learns the trade, and, having learned it we'll, is able to do the equivs- lent of turning out from 100 to 125 or 150 complete brooms day. As a matter of fact, in we'll regulated shops no man makes a complete broom, but only one part of it, but the journeyman having learned his trade we'll can do enough work usually at piece prices to earn from g to $3 day. Out of this he ought to savs $500 before starting in trade tor himself With this sum he can buy enough ma chinery tat cost of $15O and stock to set from three to five men at work and keep them going until returns come in from the sales. That is very modest capital, but since the machinery costs ss little, men have started on $500, anu even less, and made notable successes as the trade goes. Second hand tools can be had sometimes for $60 or $S0, couple ot bales of corn would cost perhaps $35, 5OV handles S650 more, and other supplies $2J, and then the man is ready to set up shop and make all the brooms his neigh bOrs can use, at least.
 The trade in New York city calls for about 150, 900 dozen brooms a year. The majority of them are made in Amsterdam and other towns along the Mohawk river. Many come from Jersey, however. The factories are unpretentious wooden build- ings. Steam power in the larger factories Is used in stitching the broom and in winding the wire around the corn where 1t is secured to the handle. The largest factory in the business, according to a New York dealer, turns out l, ,0O0 brooms day, or twice as many as the New York city trade demands. In such factory Q mans work is equivalent to the making of from 200 to 250 brooms day, accord ing to the quality of the brOoms.
 Of the trade in tine corn a dealer said: ''The manufacturers buy their corn in the west. Kansas corn has the best reputa- ton in this market, but Missouri, Me- braska and Illinois raise great deal The crop was very small in Kansas this year, and Illinois did better than any other state. An ordinary crop is 300 to 400 pounds to the acre. If a farmer gets 500 pounds he pays off some of his mortgage, hnd when the crop reaches 600 pounds he buys new silk dress for his wife and 8 piano for his daughter. And yet there is not such a terrible profit in it. It brings all the way from $S0 to $160 a ton in New York, the ordinary brOoms requiring stock that now sells for from Si00 to $120 a ton. It costs S25 ton to get it here from Kansas aud $15 from Illinois. The mid dle man out there must have his commits sion, and so must the New York mer- chant. If farmer receives S20 an acre for his crop he is doing well; still that is better than wheat at sixty cents bushel
 BROOM CORN IN BALES.
 "The corn comes to this market in bales averaging 300 pounds each. The corn from the prairies is baled with lath and wire, but some Ohio corn comes here with very liberal chunks of wood to keep the bales from tumbiing to pieces The wood sells at the same price as the corn, is the buyer doesn't notice it. Sometimes the prairie farmer gets even with the Ohio man by dropping sod or two into the bunch.
 "The corn on the average will make 1000 broOms to the ton, although in some fancy brands of extra heavy brooms as much as fifty pounds is used for a dozen brooms. In the parlor brooms sold st the groceries two to two and one quarter pounds are used.
 There is quite an export trade in broom corn in ordinary times and in brooms in other times. With low prices on the corn the corn is shipped, but when the broom makers have a squirt, as they sometimes do, and flood the market, no broom trust having yet been formed, brooms are sold so low as to enable merchants to send them to Cuba and South America. Very little broom corn is ordinarily sent to Europe, the fields of southern France and of Italy supplying the European market.
 "What $ the trick in this trade, if there be tricks in all trades:n was asked of a dealer in broom corn
 'It is ir. making poor corn look like good. The best article has healthy green color, like well cured timothy hay. That color indicates toughness, with proper fleXibility. The cheap stuff, worth $50 a tor, is of sickly yellow or lemon color. Nothing is easier than to give to the yell tow corn bath in a green dye, so as to give it the appearance of first color corn until after it is sold. Manufacturers who use only the uncolOred corn assert that the doctored stuff has Paris green in it, and that when the unridy housewife takes C broom splint to try her cake or pick her teeth, she is toying with deadly poison. The men who make the dye say it is q harmless vegetable compound. People who will use broom corn splints for such purposes may, perhaps, be frightened from an untidy habit by fear of poison, but no case has yet been recorded where any one was poisoned by broom splint. :" New York Sun.