SOWING FLAX ON WINTERKILLED WHEAT FIELDS. 5 



Flax germinates very readily. The farmers sow the seed without 

 harrowing- the soil either before or after sowing. When the first 

 rain occurs, the seed germinates and usually makes a good stand. A 

 light harrowing, however, would no doubt be beneficial to both the 

 flax and the wheat. 



When a flax crop is grown alone, the farmers in this vicinity gen- 

 erally sow 1 bushel of seed to the acre. When the flax seed is sown 

 on winter-wheat fields, different farmers sow amounts of seed varying 

 from '2 to 4 pecks per acre. The quantity of seed sown also depends 

 somewhat upon the extent to which the wheat has been winterkilled. 



HARVESTING. 



As the wheat ripens somewhat earlier than the flax, the crop is 

 harvested as soon as possible after the flax is mature. As has already 

 been stated, the date at which the flax is ready to harvest depends 

 largely upon the date on which the seed was sown. 



As flax matures, its stems become woody, so that it is compara- 

 tively difficult to cut. The knives of the machine used must therefore 

 be sharp. Flax is harvested in various ways. Farmers who own a 

 drop-rake reaper usually use that machine. Where there is a large 

 proportion of wheat growing in all parts of the field in mixture with 

 the flax, a binder does excellent work. In fields where the flax pre- 

 dominates, the binder does not work so well. Where the flax grows 

 alone, particularly if it is short and fine, it tends to get under the 

 canvas and become wound around different parts of the machine, so 

 that it sometimes becomes necessary to stop the machine and remove 

 the flax. 



Most of the flax grown in this locality is cut with a mowing 

 machine, with an attachment behind the cutting bar which leaves it 

 in light windrows, out of the way of the horses' feet and the wheels 

 of the mower when the next swath is cut. By means of a 1-horse 

 wheel rake, two windrows may be gathered at once into small 

 bunches, where the flax lies until dry. The flax may be loaded, pref- 

 erably with large wooden forks, on hayracks and hauled directly 

 to the thrashing machine or stored in a barn or stack until it can be 

 thrashed. 



THRASHING AND SEPARATING THE SEED. 



The wheat and flax mixture is thrashed in the same way that 

 wheat alone is thrashed. They go through the same sieves and come 

 out through the grain spouts together. The two kinds of seed are 

 later separated with a fanning mill. The work of separating is 

 usually done at the grain warehouse by the dealer who purchases 

 the seed. 



[Cir. 114] 



