SOWING FLAX ON WINTERKILLED WHEAT FIELDS. 7 



approximately 11 bushels of flax and 13 bushels of wheat to the 

 acre. Another farmer harvested from a 9-acre held 11 bushels of 

 flax and 6| bushels of wheat per acre. A third farmer produced 12 

 bushels of flax and !> bushels of wheat to the acre. 



UTILIZATION OF SEED AND STRAW. 



The flax seed is usually sold to a local grain dealer. It is then 

 shipped to mills which manufacture linseed oil and linseed meal. 



Large quantities of thrashed flax straw produced on fields where 

 the flax has been grown alone are sold at a local tow mill. When the 

 flax is grown in mixture with wheat, however, it can not be used for 

 making tow unless it contains only a very small proportion of the 

 wheat straw. The price of clear flax straw is at present $8 per ton. 

 Flax straw containing a small amount of wheat or timothy was sold 

 from a few farms for $7 per ton. As a rule, the mixed flax and 

 wheat straw is retained on the farm, to be used for bedding or to be 

 i'vd in the barnyard to stock during the winter. 



EFFECT OF THE FLAX ON THE WHEAT, TIMOTHY, AND CLOVER. 



It is the general opinion of those farmers who have sown flax in 

 their wheat fields that the amount of wheat produced is not appre- 

 ciably decreased by the presence of the flax. In those spots in the 

 field where there may be a good stand of wheat plants the flax seed- 

 lings make only a small growth. In those portions of the field where 

 the wheat has been winterkilled w T eeds would grow if the flax were 

 not present. 



Timothy and clover are sown in a field where flax is growing in 

 mixture with the wheat in the same way that they are sown with 

 wheat growing alone. Many good meadows have been obtained where 

 timothy and clover have been seeded with wheat and flax. 



CONCLUSION. 



This method of sowing flax in wheat fields is not recommended as 

 a regular farm practice. It is merely a plan that may be resorted to 

 in years when wheat has been injured by winterkilling. After being 

 given a trial of 15 or 20 years in the locality where the method was 

 originated it is looked upon as one of the best ways to make use of a 

 wheat field that has been injured by winterkilling. There is appar- 

 ently no reason why it could not be adapted to a large proportion of 

 the winter-wheat area throughout the Eastern and Central States, 

 where it could be made a means of decreasing the loss that frequently 

 occurs in seasons following a winter unfavorable to the wheat crop. 

 [Clr. 114] 



