4 CIRCULAR NO. 114, BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY. 



flax is sown instead of oats. Sometimes the meadow is plowed up 

 after one year and sometimes it produces hay for three years or more, 

 but the rotation just described is the customary one. 



How or when the practice of sowing flax in wheat originated has not 

 been definitely determined. It has been followed around New Lon- 

 don, however, for a period of approximately twenty years. Although 

 careful inquiry has been made, no information has been obtained that 

 flax is sown on winter-wheat fields in any other locality in the 

 United States. There is apparently no reason why the practice would 

 not be applicable in other parts of the country where flax thrives and 

 where wheat is subject to winterkilling. 



CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH FLAX IS SOWN. 



Ordinarily when wheat has been injured by winterkilling, the 

 farmer either harvests a light crop that does not pay for the cost of 

 producing it or else he prepares the soil for a crop of spring grain, 

 which not only involves additional expense, but also often seriously 

 interferes with his regular rotation of crops. It is under such condi- 

 tions that the practice of sowing flax in the wheat field has been 

 found to be a means of avoiding loss and interference with the regu- 

 lar system of crop rotation. 



It is a common practice of the farmers in the vicinity of New 

 London to sow timothy seed at the same time as the wheat. The 

 weather conditions in the fall of 15)11 were very favorable for the 

 growth of the timothy seedlings. In the spring of 1912 there was 

 such a well-developed stand of timothy in some of the wheat fields 

 that it was evident that the fields would produce a good crop of mixed 

 wheat and timothy hay or, if left to mature, a light crop of wheat 

 and a fair crop of timothy seed. Flax is not sown, as a rule, in fields 

 where the indications are that the timothy will produce a fair crop. 



SEEDING. 



The flax is generally sown about April 1, or as soon as the weather 

 has become warm enough to be favorable for plant growth and dan- 

 ger of freezing weather is past. Light frosts that sometimes occur 

 after the flax seedlings are up do not seem to harm them. The seed 

 is sown as early as it is safe to do so; otherwise, the flax does not 

 mature until somewhat later than the wheat. When the flax is sown 

 as early as April 1 it matures in time, so that there is practically no 

 loss of wheat through shattering, as is the case when it is sown after 

 the middle of April. 



The flax is ordinarily sown broadcast with one of the various types 

 of hand seeders. A few farmers mix the flax with timothy and 

 clover and sow them together. As a rule the flax is sown separately 

 and sometimes at a later date than the clover. 



[Cir. 114] 



