Arizona weekly citizen., 1889-09-28
BROOM MAKING.
AN INDUSTRY WHERE THE SMALL
CAPITALIST HOLDS HIS OWN.

Growth of q Broom Factory-Ehs srada
In New York City-A Trick Of the
Trade.
There is one industry in the county IN
which the small capitalists have been
able to hold their own against the wealth
lest men in it, and that is the industry OF
broom making. 1t is business i'll 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 out completed broom, and, be
yond the sum necessary to erect such an
establishment as will permit OF GER
tain division of the labor, an abundance
Of capital is of no special advantage.
The broom center of the country 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
great broom corn raising center of the
country, too, but the less tough and
,tringy and more succulent and profitable
cabbage has driven the wavy green tassels
OF broom corn from the flats which were
OuCC tIl6lE kIONluS ~ " az
because Of the prolific yield of corn there
In former years that the trade of MAXIM
brooms became SO well established.
A BROOM FACTORY.
The growth of a broom factory is in.
teresting. A young man of economical
habits learns the trade, and, having
learned it well, is able to do the equiys-
lent of turning out from 100 to 125 or 15C
complete brooms day. AS a matter Of
fact, in well regulated shops no man
makes a complete broom, but only one
part OF it, but the journeyman having
learned his trade well can DO enough work
usually at piece prices to earn from 50 to
So day. OFT of this he ought to saws
$500 before starting in trade tor himself
With this sum he can buy enough ma
ehinery iat a cost of SEQ and stock te
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 &C
little, men have started on $500. ana even
less, and made notable successes as the
trade goes. Second hand tools can be
had sometimes for $50 or $50, Il couple Of
bales of corn would cost perhaps 500, SOP
handles Sc so more, and other supplies
Cd, anu liitti tiic ID w SCb l. II
shop and make ali the brooms his neigh
borS can use, at least.
The trade in New York city calls for
about $50, geo dozen brooms Il 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
&c ,1sa in ctifcbinCr tho hrnntt1 and in,
winding the wire around the corn where
it is secured to the handle. The largest
factory in the business, according to n
New York dealer, turns out l 900 broOms
q day, or twice as many as the New York
city trade demands. In such factory a
mans work is equivalent TO the making
of from 200 70 go brOoms day, accord
ing to the quality of the brooms.
OF the trade in the corn a dealer said.
1.-THE manufacturers buy their corn in the
west. Kansas corn has the best reputa-
ton in this market, but Missouri, Ne
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 farmer gets 500
rounds he pays off some of his mortgage.
snd when the crop reaches GOO pounds he
buys new silk dress for his wife and a
piano for his daughter. And yet there is
not such terrible profit in it. 1t brings
all the way from $50 TO S1G0 a ton in New
York, the ordinary brooms requiring stock
that now sells for from 500 to $120 a
ton. 1t costs $50 ton TO get it here from
Kansas and S15 from Illinois. The mid
die man out there must have his commits
sion, and so must the New York mer-
chant. II a farmer receives $50 an acre
for his crop he is doing well; still that is
better than wheat at sixty cents buShel.
BROOM CORN ~ BALES.
''The corn comes to this market in bales
averaging 800 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 tunbling to pieces. The wood
sells at the same price as the corn, il the
buyer doesn't notice it. Sometimes the
prairie farmer gets even with the Ohio
man by dropping a sod or two into the
bunch.
''The corn on the average will make
|, 900 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 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 IS the trick in this trade, if there
be tricks in all trades?' was asked of
dealer in broom corn.
sit is in making poor corn look like
good. The best article has healthy green
color, like well cured timothy hay. Thai
color indicates toughness, with proper
fiexibility. The cheap stuff, worth $50
tor. is of sickly yellow or lemon color
Nothing is easier than to give TO the yell
low corn bath in a green dye, so as TO
give il the appearance of first color corn
until after it is sold. Manufacturers who
use only the uDcolored c,rn assert thai
the ,toctOred stuff has Paris green i'm it,
and that when the Jntidy housewife takes
q broom splint to try her cake or pick her
teeth, she is toying with a 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 Il broom splint. 8"
New York Sun.