164 Journal of Agriculture, Victoria. [10 March, 1919. 



TESTS WITH FLAX VARIETIES. 



STATE RESEARCH FARM, WERRIBEE. 



By George 8. Gordon; Field Officer, State Research Farm, Werrihee. 



Flax (Linum), the cultivation of which has been carried on in some 

 of the older countries for centuries, is to-day one of the most important 

 ** dual purpose " crops. The fibre of the flax plant has a wide range 

 of usefulness, supplying the raw material from which the finest 

 linen, as well as strongest cordage, can be manufactured; while the seed 

 — known as linseed — is one of the most concentrated and fattening of 

 stock foods. Even when the oil is extracted from the seed, the residue, 

 linseed cake, is still very valuable for cattle. Linseed oil has many uses, 

 and supplies one of the chief ingredients of most of the paints for wood- 

 work, &c. 



Though attempts have at times been made to encourage the industry, 

 the quantity of flax raised is very small. Unfortunately, little or no 

 systematic endeavour has been made to produce a variety suited to our 

 climatic and soil conditions, and the average sample of commercial flax 

 seed obtainable is of a mixed and unreliable character. 



The great war has helped to teach us the advisability, if not necessity, 

 of encouraging new industi'ies which will make us more independent of 

 outside seiwices, but it is essential that these industries should be estab- 

 lished on a sound foundation. Just as improved varieties of wheat 

 have proved to be one of the most, if not the most, economical method 

 of increasing the wheat yield, and the greater sugar content of improved 

 varieties of sugar beet has enabled us to successfully compete with cane 

 sugar grown in the tropics, so improved varieties of flax will assist to 

 place the flax industry on a sound basis. 



Experiments with English Seed. 



During the past two years, several varieties of flax have been grown 

 with encouraging results at the Central Research Farm, Werribee, and, 

 in view of the increasing interest which is being taken in fibre produc- 

 tion, the following brief account of the tests will no doubt be of interest. 



Experiments have been made with two varieties, the seed of which 

 was kindly given to the Victorian Department of Agriculture by Mr. 

 E. "W. Peters, Director of the Queensland Acclimatisation Society at 

 Lawnton, Queensland. For some years, Mr. Peters was engaged with 

 Professor Bateson in plant breeding at the John Innes Horticultural 

 Institute, in England, and the flax seed which he brought with him was 

 the result of several years' scientific hybridizing and selection. These 

 selections have been grown alongside '' check " or control plots sown 

 under similar conditions Avith flax seed obtained from reputable seedsmen 



