BREEDING FLAX. 71 



The farmers of Ireland, Scotland, Holland, and l^eli^ium import their 

 seed from the vicinity of Riga, Russia, and after growing two crops 

 of fiber they import fresh seed. Americans wlio grow flax for fine 

 fiber have also imported part of their seed from Riga and i)art from 

 Holland. There 'is apparently only one variety of this Russian seed 

 generally recognized commercially. At the Minnesota experiment 

 station, Minnesota or Dakota grown flax has been repeatedlj'^ grown 

 beside that from the Russian seed recently imported. The two were 

 apparently identical, whether sown thinly for crops of seed or thickly 

 for crops of fine fiber. It is reported that in some Russian districts 

 are to be found varieties better suited for growing fiber in dry cli- 

 mates, and an effort is being made to secure them. 



For the States of the middle Northwest two kinds are wanted — one 

 to sow at the rate of 3 pecks, or less, of seed per acre for large crops 

 of seed; the other to sow at the rate of 2 bushels or more of seed per 

 acre to grow lai'ge crops of long, fine fiber. If a number of such fiber 

 varieties were developed here some of them might be found especially 

 suited to growing flax fiber in Ireland, Holland, and Belgium, and in 

 other countries which now purchase their flaxseed from other coun- 

 tries; arrangements have been made for testing some of the new 

 varieties already formed in the European districts which import the 

 flaxseed for their fiber crops. 



The plan developed for breeding flax may be briefly stated, as 

 follows : 



1. Secure various stocks or varieties of flaxseed, and, having tested 

 them so as to choose one or more of the best, sow broadcast at the 

 rate of not over 1 bushel per acre in plots of at least one-tenth of an 

 acre. 



2. With great diligence seek among the plants growing in the field 

 plot a number of plants which are strong, tall-growing, or medium 

 tall fibei" plants, and a like number of ordinary heiglit wliicli l)ear 

 heavil}^ of seed. 



3. From each of these plant a centgener, placing three seeds in liills 

 5 or 6 inches apart each way, and when several inches high thinning 

 to one plant in the hill. 



4. ^Vh('n mature, take notes on each centgener on a blank form, 

 with headings somewhat as follows: Centgener No. ; Height; Strength; 

 Average yield ; Tendency to tiller; Tendency to branch; Evenness of 

 ripening. Doubtless the content of oil and of nitrogen in the seed 

 can be increascnl, and also the fineness and the (pumtity per acre of 

 the flber, together with tlie ability to stand erect, though tliese latter 

 qualities, being somewhat antagonistic, are blended in one variety 

 with difiiculty. 



