SOME CONSIDERATIONS AFFECTING THE GROW- 

 ING OF LINSEED AS A FARM CROP IN 

 ENGLAND. 



■ 1. V'ARIATIONS IN THE OIL CONTENT. 



By J. VARGAS EYRE, M.A., Pn.!). and E. A. FISHER, M.A. (Oxon.). 

 (Research Department, South Eastern Agricultural College, Wye, Kent.) 



(With 2 Text-figures.) 



Owing to the rapid rise in the price of linseed and linseed products 

 during recent years, the (juestiou has arisen as to whether the farmer 

 can grow linseed, for home consumptioD, at a smaller cost than he can 

 buy it for under existing conditions. This question involves considera- 

 tions as to wliich of the several kinds of linseed would be the most 

 profitable to grow, and it becomes necessary to consider not only the 

 agricultural requirements of the crop^, but also the fact that the value 

 of this crop is largely, if not entirely, determined by the quantity of 

 oil produced per acre. 



Numerous experiments on quite a small scale have been carried out 

 at different times in difTerent parts of the country and, notwithstanding 

 much discordancy, the general indication seems to be in support of the 

 opinion that given the most suitable variety and an average season, 

 linseed growing in this country is a profitable undertaking. 



In some parts of the world flax is grown for seed only — i.e. as linseed- 

 — while in other parts it is grown for fibre (seed being a secondary 

 consideration) — i.e. as a line^ crop, and the belief has gained general 

 credence, that high quality fibre alone could be obtained combined with 

 inferior seed — inferior, that is, from a feeding point of view. The work 



1 " Notes on Linseed. I. Lin-seed as a Farm Crop." Journ. South Eastern Agric. Cottege, 

 Wye, 1914. 



" Vide "The Growing of Linseed for Feeding Purposes," Journ. Bd. of Agric. 1013, xx. 

 pp. 377-385. 



' Vide J. V. Eyre, Science Progress, April 1913, pp. 596-628, Supplement to Journ. 

 Bd. of Agric. No. 12, Jan. 1914, and Journ. Boy. Agric. Soc. England, 1913, 74, pp. 127-141. 



