The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1905-12-06

o o fact, that new broom
y sweeps clean, what can be
SSo~ expected OF 100000 new
brooms?
Forty-two millions is the harvest of
1905, says an Arcola, ILL.,, correspon-
dent of the indianapolis News, That
Is S1j,000,000 worth of brOoms. Pile
them into cars for shipment-and they
pack about 1000 to the car-and you
have 10000 carloads OF brooms. Ten
thousand cars means 200 long, fifty
car freight trains. and 200 such trains,
pulled by 200 big mogul engines, means
almost 100 miles of brooms - a string
of trains reaching from indianapolis
far east or west over the Ohio or III
inois State line. Lay those 100000
end TO end and the broom trail would
be 10000 miles long-wOuld reach one
and n half times around the world.
The broom harvest is just over. 1t
sounds like talking Greek, perhaps, TO
speak literally of broom harvest. The
broom stand back in the corner behind
the door, and it has been member
of your family for long time, and still
you are not on social terms with it,
Good, faithful, old servant-a little
run down at the heel, perhaps, and the
stick worn too shiny, but still faithful
and constant - what mans dog could
be more faithful to him than his wlfe's
broom il TO her?
The nations broom harvest is just
over and it has been n great sight TO
see 15,O00000 new brooms growing and
harvested over in this part of Illinois,
which is the home of the fine broom
that is, the aristocratic broom that you
or more. Another 21,O00000-cheapcr
ones-have just been taken out of the
September weather down in Oklahoma.
Those gathering in the sheaves over
In Kansas have plucked about 100000
more brooms from nature and another
million or two have been gathered in
Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas and
from scattering broom corn fields over
the country. There in nutshell is the
summary of the source of supply. The
big brooms come from Illinois, Okla
homa, Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas
and from Kansas; the whiskbrooms
come from Kansas.
While the broom grew, yet it didn't.
Nature does not make brooms with
hard pine handles and with straws
bound with trust wire and decorated
with combine tin and monopoly velvet,
but nature does grow beautiful brooms.
They are raised like great plumes into
the scenery of the broom corn country
In August and September, and these
plumes are borne ten, twelve and even
fifteen feet into the air by graceful
bamboo-like stalks. The plumes them
selves are heavily laden with beau
tiful golden seed that bends them more
gracefully and adds beauty TO the ma
jestic plant. 1t is indeed unfortunate
that the man thinks he must improve
on natures bloom, for he loses much
beauty in the process. He strips the
stalk of its graceful plume; casts aside
the beautiful seed tassels and, with his
bent of genius, he applies machinery,
and the result is the broom that we
find standing in the grocery ready for
our money.
The broom is corn crop-its stalk,
though slighter, more graceful and tall
er, greatly resembles that of the In
dian maize. 1t tassels out in the sum-
mer like the maize; 1t is cultivated
much like corn, and though it bears no
ears-nothing but its two foot long
graceful plumes-it has come to be
called corn-broom corn.
Just exactly where 1t came from no
one really seems to know, but it is in
teresting to find that the proom-the
kind of broom that we Americans
know and have is an American insti-
tuition, though broom corn came to us
from India. Older people in the coun-
try remember when their broomS were
made out of twigs and bristles, as are
most of the brooms used in this day in
European countries by the common
people. 1t was during the life of Ben
jamin Franklin that crude whisk-
broom was brought into his home, and
while he was admiring it he noticed a
few seeds clinging to the fibres or
straws. 1t is recorded that he had the
remarkable foresight to see that here
was the seed for new industry in
the Colonies.
He plucked the seeds from the fibrcs
and carefully planted them in the
spring in his garden and they were
the parents of the broom industry in
this country. He raised two or three
beautiful stalks of broom plant from
them and he gathered the seed and
gave it to friends the next year. 1t was
the beginning. Inasmuch as bushel
of broom corn seed is about enough to
plant a Congressional township it was
not long until the crop of seed was
sufficient to establish the broom max
Ing industry in this country.
The Quakers and the Shakers took 1t
up and the first extensive cultivation
OF broom corn was in the Mohawk
Valley, where the first broom factories
in this country were opened, possibly
by the Shakers. The brooms made q
great hit, and there was a scramble
for them, and the broom corn raisers