Cultivation and Prober Management of Flax. 185 



Ashes are the only manure that can be safely ploughed in, the 

 same season with the crop, and that at least three months before 

 the sowing. Flax demands that all manure should be assimilated 

 with the soil. 



Pi'ejmration of the Soil. — In ordinary friable lands — such 

 as loams or crofts — there are two modes of preparing the soil 

 that are about equally approved of: 1st., to plough in No- 

 vember across the ridges as if for green crop. This ploughing 

 should be very deep and heavy. Then about the 1st of March 

 when the ground has been mellowed with the frost, to harrow 

 well and plough again in the direction of the permanent ridges. 

 This ploughing should be very shallow. It is merely to secure 

 a fine mould for the seed. After the second ploughing a month 

 will elapse before sowing, during which time the seeds of 

 annuals will have germinated and budded, so that they can be 

 killed afterwards by the action of the harrow. During the 

 second ploughing is the time to sow salt, if it be deemed neces- 

 sary to prevent the crop fi'om lodging. The 2nd plan is to 

 plough but once, and that about the middle of January. Then 

 at sowing-time to cross the furrows with a grubber, and harrow 

 well before the seed is cast in. In either case the ground should 

 be thoroughly picked and cleaned ; for no crop abhors weeds 

 more than flax. Little narrow ridges and inequalities in the 

 surface should, as a general rule, be avoided. The harrow pulls 

 the hard clods into these furrows, and from among these an 

 aftershot or late growth is sure to spring up, which never comes 

 to be of any value. Flats or lands 16 feet wide, or where the 

 soil is well drained, of 21 feet, will be the most suitable, and 

 will afford but few receptacles for the dry clods or coarse mould. 

 In every case the roller is an indispensable implement, and the 

 heavier the better. Some condemn the two ploughings because 

 they open up the bottom too much, which should always be kept 

 close and cool. But a heavy roller consolidates the ground 

 sufficiently, and at the same time renders the top fine and even. 

 For greater exactness in sowing a good ploughman should mark or 

 score off the different flats so that they are all of the same breadth 

 before the last turn of the harrow, and the last round of the 

 roller. Then the ground is ready for the seed. 



Deep cultivation is advisable for the following reasons : — 



1. The prevalent opinion that the roots of flax are very shallow 

 is a mistake. It has a very fine and minute tap-root that pene- 

 trates the soil to a considerable depth, but which is invariably 

 broken at pulling-time. 



2. If the cultivation were not deep, the disintegrating influences 

 of the winter frost would benefit nothing but the mere surface. 



3. Shallow cultivation is the very worst for both very wet, and 



