How a 1912 newspaper campaign taught farmers across the Midwest and High Plains how to grow a forgotten crop

In the spring of 1912 the Springfield Democrat-Herald began running a series of articles under the headline:The articles looked practical and straightforward. They explained how to prepare the soil, how many seeds to plant per rod, when to harvest the brush, and how to cure and bale broomcorn for market. Some were written by experienced farmers. Others carried the voice of seed growers or broom manufacturers. Taken individually, each article seemed like a simple lesson in agriculture, maybe even something from the local extension service.  

However, as I dug further, the same series keep popping up in newspapers across the broomcorn belt of the American West.   I found the article header shown above  and clippings from digitized historic newspapers, including:

• The Democrat-Herald — Springfield, Colorado (1912)
• The Brownsville Herald — Brownsville, Texas (1912)
• The Dodge City Journal — Dodge City, Kansas (1912)
  The Clovis News — Clovis, New Mexico (1912)
• The Blair Progress — Blair, Oklahoma (1912)  

Farmers reading newspapers in Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Colorado encountered identical columns offering advice about broomcorn cultivation. What at first seemed like ordinary farm reporting was actually part of a coordinated promotional effort designed to encourage farmers across the Plains to plant broomcorn—and to plant it using better seed.  Interestingly the only seed company mentioned was the Coles County Seed Farm in Humboldt, Illinois.  

The campaign was subtle. The articles never read like traditional advertisements. Instead they were written in the tone of practical agricultural instruction. At the time, newspapers referred to this type of content as “reading advertisements” but  in modern terms we might call them “advertorials.” 

A “reading advertisement” is content designed to be read like an article, story, or blog post, but its primary purpose is to sell a product or service. Unlike a flashy billboard or a 15-second video, these rely on the power of the written word to build trust and persuade.

Rather than placing a simple display ad, companies often distributed articles written in the style of editorial content. Rural newspapers welcomed these columns because they provided useful information for their readers, while advertisers gained something more valuable than a simple advertisement: credibility.  This  broomcorn series fit perfectly into that system.  

To further document this campaign or series was pushed out by a company, every photo used in the series matches photos use in the Coles County Seed Farms Catalog.  

NOTE: I have lived in two of the communities listed in this article.  I grew up in Springfield and lived in Blair for many years while working in southwest Oklahoma. 

For farmers across the Plains in 1912, broomcorn was real economic powerhouse. Broomcorn was grown not for food or feed but for the long stiff fibers used in broom manufacturing. When handled correctly the brush could command a good price, and demand from broom factories remained strong.

Yet broomcorn had its challenges. Poor seed could produce weak or uneven brush. Improper curing could ruin an otherwise good crop. Even the color of the fiber mattered; manufacturers preferred broomcorn that retained a bright green shade rather than turning reddish or brittle in the field.

The newspaper articles written by people in the business addressed these problems directly. Each installment focused on a different step in the process, explaining the techniques that produced the best brush. One article emphasized the importance of careful soil preparation. Another described the timing of the harvest, warning growers that cutting too late could damage the fiber. Others explained the mechanics of seeding the brush and curing it on drying shelves before baling. Over and over, the articles returned to the same principle:

The success of the crop began with the seed.

Behind that message stood an agricultural industry centered hundreds of miles east of the broomcorn fields themselves. By the early twentieth century the region around Arcola and Coles County in central Illinois had become the heart of the American broomcorn seed trade. Seed growers there specialized in breeding and selecting broomcorn varieties that produced long, uniform fibers suited to the demands of broom manufacturers.

The catalogs themselves served as manuals for broomcorn cultivation. Pages devoted to “Broom Corn Culture” described the entire process of planting and harvesting the crop. Farmers were instructed how deeply to plow the soil, how widely to space the rows, and how many seeds should be planted per rod. The catalogs even explained how to construct curing sheds with open sides so that air could circulate through the drying brush.

Reading these pages today, the connection to the 1912 newspaper articles becomes clear. The same methods described in Toland’s catalogs appear almost word for word in the cultivation columns printed in newspapers across the Plains.

BROOM CORN CULTURE

Broom Corn is a tropical plant adapted to hot, dry weather, much as sugar cane or sorghum is. It is produced with good results on any good corn land. The quality of brush depends on the soil and climate, the best being raised in Central Illinois, Central Kansas and Oklahoma.

Preparation of the soil should have careful attention; all stalks and other field rubbish should be removed; the ground should be broken up as soon as the field is in proper condition; plow the same depth as for Indian corn or maize; let it stand until the ground is thoroughly warmed, usually about the 15th of May in Central Illinois, varying according to weather conditions and climate; then disk and give vigorous harrowing; if it is rough and cloddy, roll until it is fine and well broken up. It should be in the same condition as soil for a seed bed for wheat. The seed should be thoroughly cleaned, using one bushel to 20 acres. Adjust the planter three feet wide and drill from 55 to 60 seeds to the rod in the row. It should be planted from one and one-half inches to two inches in depth. As soon as the little plants appear above the ground, it should be rolled if the surface is dry. When it is in such condition, the weeder should be used, which improves the soil and destroys the little weeds, but if the surface is damp, use the three-shovel cultivator.

Sheds must be made before the harvest begins. One built 24 by 48 feet will hold 30 acres of brush as it usually requires three acres for the ton. To build a shed, set posts in the ground and cover with shingles or any good roofing. Gable the ends but leave the sides open. The strips to support the shelves should be one by three inches, nailed three inches apart; this will make the shelves six inches apart.

Seeders and balers may be procured from Mr. Reese of Paris, Ill., and the dump racks from Mr. W. E. Welch, Mattoon, Ill.

The proper time to harvest it is when it is in full bloom; if harvesting is delayed the brush will retain a bad color. When the brush is in the condition as stated above, break it cross wise of the row making a complete table convenient to the breaker; the stems should be six inches long after it is cut and laid on the table, laying off every third table for a drive table. Two men with a dump rack on the wagon, one on each side, drive through the field and gather the brush, laying the heads on the dump outward. Then draw it to the seeder and dump on convenient ground that it may be seeded. The seeding will require about 15 or 20 men. After the brush is seeded, it is spread on the shelves for drying. The condition of the brush governs the thickness of the layers, generally about three inches in depth. When it is well cured, which requires about ten days when the weather is favorable, it is ready to bale. By the use of the baler, it is made into neat bales weighing about 300 pounds.

References: Thomas Lyons, President of the Arcola State Bank, Arcola, Ill.; J. F. Wesch & Co., Arcola, Ill.; Harriman Bros., Charleston, Ill.; Rider and Harry Harriman, Wichita, Kan., and A. H. Grunewald, Proprietor of J. P. Gross & Co., Chicago, Ill. These men are all large dealers in Broom Corn with many years’ experience.

The Broom Makers

For broom manufacturers, the quality of the brush mattered enormously. Factories purchasing broomcorn looked for fibers that were long, straight, and bright in color. The brush had to be properly cured and tightly baled to withstand shipment by rail to manufacturing centers. Careless handling could reduce the value of the crop dramatically.

Several of the 1912 articles warned growers that poorly handled broomcorn might bring far less money than properly prepared brush. A crop that had been left too long in the field could lose both color and strength. Bales that were loosely packed might shift during shipment and damage the fiber.

The articles were not simply describing agricultural techniques. They were explaining the standards of a manufacturing industry.

Coles County Seed Farm. Seed Catalog. Humboldt, Illinois: Coles County Seed Farm, 1932. Henry G. Gilbert Nursery and Seed Trade Catalog Collection, U.S. National Agricultural Library.

Once the crop was ready for harvest, the work became labor-intensive. Workers cut the broomcorn stalks and laid them in rows. The brush was then hauled to a seeder where the seeds were stripped from the heads. After seeding, the fibers were spread on shelves inside curing sheds where they could dry evenly.

When the brush had fully cured, it was pressed into heavy bales bound with wire. From there the broomcorn began its journey by rail to broom factories located in Illinois, Missouri, and New York. In those factories the fibers were sorted, trimmed, and stitched into the familiar household broom.

For decades this system linked farms across the High Plains with manufacturing centers far to the east. The humble broom represented the final stage of a supply chain that stretched across thousands of miles of farmland.

Today broomcorn has disappeared from the collective memory of United States agricultural landscape. Synthetic fibers and imported materials gradually replaced the traditional broom industry during the mid-twentieth century. Fields that once grew broomcorn were converted to other crops, and the curing sheds that once dotted the countryside faded from view.

Yet the crop once played a significant role in the rural economy of places like Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and eastern Colorado. Farmers planted broomcorn because it offered a chance at profit. Seed growers promoted it because it created demand for their carefully bred varieties. Manufacturers depended on it to supply the fibers that filled American homes with brooms.

And occasionally the story of that industry appears quietly, as a look at the past, in the pages of a small-town newspapers across these regions.

The broomcorn cultivation articles printed in the Springfield Democrat-Herald in 1912 offer a rare glimpse into that world. They show how farmers learned about the crop, how seed companies marketed their products, and how an agricultural industry connected distant regions of the country, and more than a century later those articles still speak to us. They remind us that even the most ordinary objects—something as simple as a household broom—can carry within them the history of fields, factories, and the people whose labor tied them together.

About the Sources

The newspaper clippings reproduced in this feature originally appeared in the Springfield Democrat-Herald in 1912 as part of the “Broom Corn Cultivation” article series. Similar articles were printed in the other listed newspapers. The seed catalog illustrations come from the Coles County Seed Farm catalogs of 1917 and 1931, published by J. O. Toland in Humboldt, Illinois. These catalogs are preserved today in the Henry G. Gilbert Nursery and Seed Trade Catalog Collection at the U.S. National Agricultural Library.

The Democrat-Herald (Springfield, Colorado) · Fri, Mar 1, 1912 · Page 8

TWENTY YEARS EXPERIENCE IN
GROWING BROOM CORN.

(By Ira L. Milburn, Dermot, Kans.)

It depends on how much help a man has, whether he should plant a large or small crop, but consider that twenty acres is sufficient for one man to handle.

The following is my method or rule in broom corn. The selection of seed is the most important. A patch of the best brush should be picked out, cut out everything that does not show pure and good seed. Let it stand until ripened, cut and keep it separate from other brush.

Ground should be prepared by either disking or listing in the winter, any time that it is not freezing after the first of January, which should be followed by listing with blank listing. The seed should be planted about the first of May, beginning with a certain amount according to the acreage, and continuing to plant about every two weeks until the 20th. of June. This makes the crop come on in better shape, and gives more time to harvest the crop.

In this country, we use what is called the Knife Sled, and the first thing we do is to follow with the harrow. In a week or two the ground should be harrowed the second time, depending however, on the rain and growth of the crop. When about knee high a disk cultivator should be used, and later, it is our custom to use four horses to lay the crop by. The weeds very seldom bother after this time.

Cutting should begin when the bloom begins to fall, and continue until finished. The field should be gone over twice, as the brush dosen’t all ripen for the first cutting. Pile four rows of brush together, and mash down a bunch of sticks on which lay the brush. This will keep it off the broom corn. The brush will be ready to haul in and place in the rick, in from two to five days, and is hauled on a rack 2 x 6 sixteen feet long, and latter placed in ricks about thirty or forty feet long. It should be placed in the rick by laying the butts together, placing the seed out and gradually drawing it in until one layer wide on top, after which I place bound cane, or some other kind of feed to cover it, to keep dry and protect it from growing.

POOR BALING OF BROOM CORN
ONE OF THE GREAT-
EST FAULTS.

(By James W. Harris of Enterprise Broom Works, Chicago, Ill.)

If the farmer will take more care and interest in securing the very best broomcorn seed, and at harvest time take the proper precaution to see that the stock is cured and dried and free from seed and baled securely, he will have no trouble in getting a better price for his crop than the careless farmer who disregards all the above items.

The greatest fault of the broom corn from Oklahoma to manufacturers stationed as far east as Chicago, is the poor baling. A large percentage of western broomcorn unloaded from the tracks at Chicago is in such condition that it has to be tied in bundles before it can be hauled. The result is a large loss to the shipper and the manufacturer, all of which could be avoided by a little more care on the part of the grower.

We are positive that when manufacturers and their buyers secure corn that will protect them from this loss, the grower would find it financially to his advantage.

Editor’s Note:
Beginning with this issue, the Plainsman Herald will present a series of articles on broomcorn cultivation that originally appeared in the Springfield Democrat-Herald in the spring of 1912. Similar articles were printed in a number of newspapers across the Plains and Midwest during that year, sometimes in different order or form. The series will be reprinted in installments in the coming issues of the Plainsman Herald and is being preserved as part of the research for the forthcoming book I’d Rather Be in a Tulsa Jail Than Cutting Broomcorn.

Support Local News: Every purchase of the books below helps sustain independent coverage of Baca County and Southeast Colorado. Buy our books on Amazon—search “Kent Brooks Books” and Check out these titles on Amazon: