Harvesting Broomcorn: Garvin County, Oklahoma1
Why The Broomcorn Bonanza?
A broomcorn aficionado emailed the Heck of a Guy Blog to lament the absence of certain points about that crop and the brooms manufactured from it from the January 7, 2008 posting, A Farrago On Brooms, Broomcorn, and Broom Dusting.
While that collection of factoids, historical data, and various oddities was presented as a trifle, a literary delectation for blog viewers rather than an exhaustive treatise for scholars or an instruction manual for would be broom manufacturers, no testosterone-imbued blogger could, of course, ignore the implicit challenge of such a complaint. While this sequel to the original Heck of a Guy epic maintains its predecessor’s lighthearted tone, focusing on the fun side of broomcorn and brooms, my authorial hope is that by the final footnote even the most wizened broomcorn fan will find a new insight or bit of information that will enrich his or her life – or at least discover a means of winning bar bets.
A Note On Terminology
Before the early 1800s, the material used in brooms was known as “sorghum” – primarily because it is sorghum (Sorghum vulgare technicum, to be specific).
Around 1810, the British had given sorghum a new name, “broom corn.” (The British called all seed bearing plants, “corn.”)2
From Household Utensil To Decorative Crafts
Broomcorn Wreaths3
While broom production in the US radically diminished after 1994 when a series of tariff changes were initiated that allowed foreign-made brooms to overwhelm the market, the use of broomcorn by the crafts industry has persisted.
The factory-produced broomcorn wreathes displayed above are one example.
More impressively, there is enough call for this product to warrant it being offered for sale by the bale.
One can, in fact, purchase a 160 lb bale of craft-grade broomcorn for $200; the less ambitious craftsman can pick up a 10 lb box of broomcorn for $30 at R E Caddy & Co.4
Broom Manufacturing In The US
And, while the manufacture of brooms in this country is most frequently a tourist attraction these days, it was an important industrial sector in the 19th and early 20th century.
According to the Broom Shop, The Shakers started making brooms, adapting the design of the round broom by using wire to bind the broom to the handle, placing the broom in a vise, and sewing it to form a flat broom. A flat broom does a great job sweeping a rough surface but does not do as quick and thorough a job on a smooth surface as a round broom.
The same source reports on the state of the industry as of 1830:
The Making of a Broom
The following description of the process by which a broom is made – and has been made for the last 40 years – is excerpted from Broom: How Products are Made at Enotes:
The Manufacturing ProcessIt is important to note that brooms made from broomcorn are made at a station, using a single piece of machinery. Using this machine, brooms are largely still assembled by hand. The process described below is used by the largest manufacturer of brooms and the factory uses about 28 makers to produce 6,000 brooms per day.
- The raw material for the broom, the broomcorn, comes into the factory already processed and bundled. The bundles are sorted by length and are sorted by the color of the fiber. Bundles are grouped together in a bale weighing about 120 lb (54 kg). Broomcom must be wet in order to be worked effectively and must be quickly dunked in water before being delivered to the operator. Each bale is lifted with a crane and submerged in a tank of water for 10 seconds. The bundles are then removed from the water using the crane.
- Workers break apart the wet bales and separate the smaller bundles within the bales. The bundles are placed on racks and rolled to operators who sit at broom-manufacturing equipment.
- An operator sits at a broom-making machine and has the broomcom and solid handles there to work. An individual handle is picked up by the operator. The operator inserts a metal wire into a hole drilled near the bottom of the handle. Then, the insides are first applied to the broom. In this process, the lowest-grade grass is pressed around the wooden handle, forming the center of the broom. This thick bundle of grass is secured tightly to the handle using the wire attached to the handle through the hole.
- Then, the shoulders and sides of the broom are given shape as smaller bundles of lesser grade grasses are placed along each side of the center bundle of grass. This side corn is secured to the central bundle of grass using more tinned wire that is wrapped by hand tightly around the side corn as well as the central body of grass.
- Next, the grass is cut off in a straight line just above the wire by the operator using a knife.
- Over this foundation of lower-graded broomcom or other grasses is now added the outside of the broom, or the broomcom we see when we look at a broom. The hurl, the best grade of broomcom used in a broom, is attached to the broom. It is laid atop the center section and shoulders, completely covering it. The hurl is physically attached to the broom using the same piece of white metal wire used earlier in the process.
- The final construction step is referred to as the run down. The operator runs the wire that secures the hurl down to the handle and nails it off, thus securing the cut end to the wooden handle. The grasses and broom-corn are now completely secured to the broom.
- The brooms are now constructed but are not finished yet. In order to complete the broom, the broomcom must be dried out completely. The brooms are moved by rack or palette into a very large drying room that is thermostatically controlled. Depending on the weather, the brooms are left in this large, hot room for five to six hours. When instruments inside the room indicate that no more moisture is being released from the brooms, the heat kicks off and the broomcom has completely dried.
- The brooms are now seeded, meaning that cylinders roll vertically over the broomcom, thus removing all the seeds and small pieces of broomcorn not secured to the handle that will fall out quickly upon use.
- The seeded brooms are taken to sewing machine operators who run the brooms through a heavy-duty sewing machine with two needles that is threaded with thick twine. The brooms are put through the machine and the broom is flattened and its shape is maintained through the double, triple, or quadruple rows of sewing (depending on the machine and company) that holds the grasses tightly. It takes about 45 seconds to sew the brooms into a flat shape.
- The brooms are moved by cart to final finishing, where they are trimmed across the bottom so they are even, packaged, and sent for distribution.
The Broom Biz
The extent of the commerce in brooms can be evaluated by these newspaper stories published at the end of the 19th and the first of the 20th centuries.
These excerpts from “Broom Trust To Be Launched Soon,” the article from the May 22, 1904 New York Times that was introduced in A Farrago On Brooms, Broomcorn, and Broom Dusting, are instructive.
According to my 8th grade math, if 80% of the daily production of brooms was 3000 dozen brooms, then the US production of brooms in 1904 was 45,000 brooms a day.
That would be, ahem, 2500 tons of broomcorn each month.
Oh, those shrewd, wacky broomcorn capitalists.
New York Times Nov 2, 1899
More broomcorn industry facts and figures; more broomcorn capitalistic skulduggery.
The Broomcorn Festival
Arcola, Illinois, the Broomcorn Capital of the World in the late 19th Century, holds an annual Broomcorn Festival.6 While the Festival features all manner of historical re-enactments, games, attractions, and entertainment, arguably the most well-known participant in the Parade are the Lawn Rangers, a self-described “precision lawn mower drill team” that has marched in formation and performed intricate routines with brooms and lawn mowers every year since 1980.
More About Figurative, Functional, and Fantastic Brooms
Broomcorn’s Uncle: “Broomcorn’s Uncle” is a poker term meaning one who waits for great hands before entering the betting and goes broke on the antes. E.g., “Simply put, I played too tight, allowed myself to go like Broomcorn’s uncle, and folded small and middle pairs when I could’ve used them to double up. …”7 The term derives from a joke8 by Doyle Brunson illustrating the idea that it can be correct to play any 2 cards. The joke is – get ready – Broomcorn’s uncle was ‘auntied’ (anted) to death.9
Brooms In Classic Animated Films: While the specimen may not have been made from broomcorn, the most fantastic of brooms may have been those featured in the Sorcerer’s Apprentice portion of Disney’s Fantasia.
Wikipedia documents two uses of brooms in cultural customs:
Brooms & Weddings: An African American wedding tradition incorporates the use of the broom. The custom is called “jumping the broom.” During the years of slavery in the United States, some slave owners would not let their slaves marry in a church ceremony. Instead a broom was placed across a doorway. The bride and groom jumped over it into their new life as a married couple. Today the custom incorporates a broom decorated to the bride’s specifications, and it becomes a wedding keepsake.
Broom Dancing: The Métis people of Canada have broom dancing in their cultural heritage. There are broom dancing exhibitions where people show off their broom dancing skills. The lively broom dance involves fast footwork and jumping.
Baseball, Apple Pie, and Brooms: Baseball teams closing in winning all the games of a series (having won the first two games of a three-game series or first three games of a four-game series) will be cheered on by fans wielding brooms, symbolizing a “sweep.”
Present Brooms: Broomsticks have been used to replace rifles in drill sessions by armies without sufficient weapons or for safety.
Broom Ahoy: Many navies around the world have a tradition of lashing a broom to the mast or highest antenna or tower on their ships when they are returning to port after successful missions. This is a sign that there has been a “clean sweep” of the seas.
Brooms On Ice: Curling is a team sport ice by two teams of four players each. Teams slide heavy, polished granite stones on the ice towards the target are. Two sweepers with brooms accompany each rock, using brooms to direct, speed up, or slow down the curling stone.
The Final Word
Excerpted from Broom Shop:
- Photos submitted by Diane Gann to OKGenWeb – Garvin County Historical Pictures. No dates given. [↩]
- See Broom Shop [↩]
- From Oberle Botanical [↩]
- More agrarian sorts may purchase seeds for $10.50 per packet from B & T World Seeds [↩]
- From Thread of History 2003 – Portage County Wisconsin [↩]
- Although the Arcola Broomcorn Festival is by far the best known celebration of broomcorn, it is not the only one. The Hockaday family of Selmer, Tennessee has been growing broomcorn and creating brooms since the early 1990’s. Each September, the Hockaday family celebrated with an annual Broomcorn Festival until 2006 when it was expanded to Selmer in September with over forty folk artists making and selling their wares along with live music, food, and entertainment for the whole family. [↩]
- From Up For Poker Blog [↩]
- Oh OK, it was indeed a “corny” joke. [↩]
- From Biggestron Writes [↩]
::Shaking my head and laughing:: I did not believe that there could be even one person other than me who would write about corn brooms, now you have, twice. You are delightful.
I am going to have to up the ante and move on to roombas.
i used to grow that stuff as a privacy fence – it turns gold and looks good through the winter – also it makes far better tooth picks than what is sold as such -
Broom crafts is wonderful! Thanks for the descriptions.