PROJECTED REVIVAL OF THE FLAX INDUSTRY 6n 



Few farmers show any inclination to drill the seed by 

 ordinary machines or by any modification of them, although 

 this method of sowing, besides ensuring even distribution, also 

 has the advantage of bedding the seed at a uniform depth. This 

 is a very important thing to achieve with flax because the 

 object is to raise a crop of great uniformity and when the seed 

 is deposited at varying depths irregular germination follows and 

 an irregular crop is the result. Flax must not be laid deeply 

 in the soil ; about half an inch is quite sufficient. After sowing, 

 the field is lightly harrowed crosswise and finally rolled lightly 

 so as to consolidate the surface, in order to bring moisture into 

 close contact with the seed and at the same time make the 

 surface of the field flat. 



Weeds and Diseases 



Well-farmed land is tolerably free from weeds and it is 

 possible by suitably cultivating during the previous season 

 to reduce weeds to a minimum. It must be observed, however, 

 that the nature of the conditions of flax cultivation and the 

 growth of the plant itself seem to be favourable to the growth 

 of weeds. In Holland and Belgium weeding is carefully and 

 thoroughly done by women and children, who go barefooted 

 about the field ; kneeling to weed, they go systematically 

 through the field twice and sometimes three times during the 

 months of May and June. Although the wage paid for this 

 class of labour is small (is. to is. 6d. per day of about twelve 

 hours), the cost of weeding in these countries when outside 

 labour has to be procured adds greatly to the cost of producing 

 the crop. Generally, however, the small farmers in those 

 countries have families sufficiently large to enable them to 

 provide most of the labour required for this purpose from their 

 own household. 



This necessity for repeated hand-weeding is not recognised 

 in France nor in Ireland ; the farmers in those countries are 

 content to remove convolvulus and weeds which make a large 

 and bulky growth, such as thistles, dock and charlock. Excellent 

 flax crops are to be seen in Ireland and also in the north of 

 France, where some of the finest quality straw is raised and 

 taken to Belgium to be retted. The impression produced is 

 that the necessity for close hand-weeding as practised in 

 Holland and Belgium is somewhat over-estimated. 



