AMERICAN BROOM CORN.

Hawke's Bay Weekly Times, Volume 1, Issue 39, 30 September 1867, Page 240

AMERICAN BROOM CORN.

(Cobbett’s “ Year’s Residence in America.”) The covering of barns and other outhouses with shingles makes them fiery hot ;n summer, and the heat they cause in the upper parts of houses, though there be a ceiling under them, is intolerable. Thatch is cool. Cool in summer and warm in winter. Its inconveniences are danger from fire, and want of durability. The former is no great deal greater than that of shingle. The latter may be wholly removed by the use of broom-corn staiks. rftraw is not so durable as one could wish ; beside in very high windsjt is liable, if not reeded, to he ruffed a good deal; and the reeding, which is almost like counting the straws one by one, is expensive. In England we sometimes thatch with reeds. This is an aquatic plant, and 1 have seen a thatch of it winch with a little patching had lasted upwards of fifty years. Now, the broom corn far surpasses reeds iu all respects. What a useful thing! What quantities upon an acre of land l Ten feet high, and more durable ih m reed j. The seed stems, with a bit of the stem of the plant, make the brooms. We here (America) sweep stables and streets with what the English sweep their carpets with 1 This plant demands greater heat than even Indian corn; it would hardly ripea its seed in England, but, if well managed, it would prouuce a prodigious crop of material for reed hedges and thatch. Sow in rows of about five feet asunder, or rather on ridges, a foot wide at the top, with an interval of five feet j let the plants stand all oyer this foot wide, at about three inches apart or lesss. Keep the plants clear of weeds by a couple ofwredings, and plough, well between the ridges three or four limed during the summer. This will make the plants grow tall, while tlieir closeness to each other will make them small in thickness of stem or stalk. It will bring them to the thickness of fine lirge reeds in England, and to about twice the length, and L will engage that a large barn may be covered by a tbatcher with the stalks in two days,* and that the covering shall last lor fifty years Only think of the price of shingles and nails l The very first thing that I would do, if I were to settle in a place where I had buildings to erect would be to sow some broom corn; that is to say, sow some roofs. As an ornamental plant nothing equals this. The Indian corn is far inferior to it in this respect. Planted by the side of walks in gardens, what beautiful avenues it would make for the summer! I have seen the plants eighteen and a half feet high.