CHAPTER XIII 



LINACEAE 



LINUM USITATISSIMUM 



THE flax family is not a large one, and common flax is the only 

 member of economic importance, except for a few species that 

 are grown for decorative purposes. In addition to commercial 

 fiber, the plant produces oil which is extracted from the seed, the 

 residue being pressed into cakes that are used as food for livestock. 



There is evidence that flax was grown during the Stone Age, 

 and its cultivation and preparation for fiber constituted one of the 

 earliest textile industries. It has been cultivated so long that it 

 is not now known in its wild state, although an annual form grows 

 as an escape in the vicinity of the Persian Gulf and the Caspian and 

 Black seas. The first cultivated form was a biennial type with 

 small, narrow leaves, Linum angustifolium Huds.; but the annual 

 or common flax, Linum usitatissimum L., has been grown in Meso- 

 potamia for at least 4000 years. 



The major portion of the crop is produced in Russia, but fiber 

 of the finest quality is grown in Belgium and Holland. Other 

 countries which raise flax commercially include : Austria, Hungary, 

 France, Ireland; and, to a lesser degree, Germany, Italy, Rumania, 

 and Japan. In Argentina, India, and the United States, the crop 

 is grown chiefly for the linseed oil, rather than for the fiber, and is 

 known as seed-flax. This is produced in North and South Dakota, 

 Wyoming, and Montana, where the climate is too dry for fiber flax. 

 Robinson (19) has pointed out, however, that it is possible to grow 

 fiber flax of excellent quality in the United States, and this is being 

 done in the Willamette Valley in Oregon, as well as the Puget Sound 

 region in Washington, where cool, moist weather obtains from 

 March to June, followed by a warm, dry climate in July. 



All the varieties used in the United States are regarded as be- 

 longing to one species, L. usitatissimum; and, although much of 

 the seed is imported from Europe and Russia, that of several vari- 



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