64 , BOAED.OF AGRICULTURE. 



than one liundred and sixty tons, occupying about two hundred 

 and twenty acres of land. It is thought by many to be a very 

 exhausting crop. From what has been said, it will be seen 

 that it requires very tliorough and careful cultivation, and the 

 free use of manure. 



Flax. 



There is another crop to which certain sections of this State 

 are peculiarly adapted, both on account of their soil and their 

 nearness to markets, where there is a constant and increasing 

 demand for it. I refer to Flax. There was a time when it was 

 cultivated in most parts of the Commonwealth in small quanti- 

 ties J but an impression grew up that it was an exliausting crop 

 and very injurious to the land, and its culture was generally 

 abandoned. It is now found only in a few localities, and that 

 to so limited an extent as hardly to deserve mention as one of 

 the present products of the State. 



The demand for flax fibre in this country will undoubtedly 

 lead to the study of the plant and its more extended culture, 

 and experiments will probably prove it to be profitable in many 

 situations. The farmers of the "West find it for their interest 

 to raise it for the seed alone. The amount of seed raised in 

 the United States in 1850, was reported by the census to be 

 562,312 bushels. In 1852 there were about 250,000 acres in 

 flax, producing on an average from eight to ten bushels of seed. 

 The yield of seed must have been about 2,250,000 bushels. By 

 far the largest portion of this is raised in the Western States, 

 and though the fibre is worth nearly the price of hay, it is left 

 in large quantities to rot on the ground on account of the ex- 

 pense of transportation, and because the old processes of pre- 

 paring the straw made it necessary to take it from the field 

 before the seed was fully ripe. New and improved methods of 

 preparation have been lately introduced however, by which the 

 process of preparing the fibre is very much shortened and sim- 

 plified. By the present modes of preparation, the fibre of the 

 mature flax may be taken and used, so that the cultivator can 

 make his profit both on the seed and the straw. The introduc- 

 tion of new machinery into this ^tate for the manufacture of 

 flax, will give our farmers a great advantage over the western 



