J. V. Eyre and E. A. Fisher 127 



harvesting and drying the crop. The seed was black and of poor 

 quahty and had a distinct " musty" odour ; and it was a matter of some 

 surprise that the oil content was as high as it was actually found to be. 



Variety to Sow. 



Many so-called varieties of hnseed are cidtivated at the present day 

 and they exhibit differences sufficiently well marked for them to be 

 classified by some authorities as varieties of different species. It is 

 probable that in some cases they are not real botanical varieties at all 

 but rather " economic " ones brought about by long continued cultivation 

 in different climates and different methods of treatment. These 

 differences, however, persist for a reasonable period when the crop is 

 grown awa}' from its natural environment, and this being so, linseed 

 grown in or exported from any particular region is generally called a 

 variety if it shows any well marked and fairly persistent characteristic. 



In deciding which are the most profitable varieties to grow, not only 

 the percentage of oil, but also the yield per acre must be taken into 

 account. In other words we should be able to express the return of oil 

 per acre before we can effect a strict comparison between the different 

 varieties. And this comparison should be made between the more 

 commonly grown varieties in as many different localities as possible 

 and during several seasons before any certain conclusions can be drawn. 

 In the present communication we have endeavoured to obtain some 

 information on the point in the case of those varieties which were 

 grown in 1913 at four of the Centres already mentioned {vide Tables II a 

 and II b). By multiplying the percentages of oil in the samples by the 

 jaelds in cwts. per acre and dividing the products by 100 we obtain 

 the yields of oil per acre, and the numbers so obtained afford some 

 indication of the relative merits of the different varieties dealt with. 

 Considering the wide variations in yield and the great differences in 

 the quality of the seed grown at the different centres, the results as set 

 forth in the accompanying tables are remarkably consistent and bring 

 out the relative merits of the difl'erent varieties in a very striking 

 manner. Plate seed comes an easy first, Steppe seed a moderate 

 second, Moroccan third, while Dutch is the poorest of the four; except 

 in the case of the Harper- Adams crops of which the Plate and Moroccan 

 varieties do not appear to have done as well as was the case at Wye 

 and Camblesforth. It is noticeable that even the very poor crops from 

 the Seale-Hayne centre still indicated the marked superiority of the 

 Plate seed over the other varieties as an oil-prodijcing crop. 



