333 
pp. 272-4), says it is believed to love well-drained heavy, loamy 
soils, especially if rich in lime, such as those often under mustard or 
til crops. It requires more or less the same soil, in fact, as wheat and 
gram. The land should be prepared in September, aud thorough 
and deep ploughing is desirable. Before the close of the monsoons 
the sowings are usually completed. The seed rate has been given 
as 8 to 12 lb. to the acre, If sown late, irrigation may be neces- 
(say 500 to 700 lb.) is the average produce per acre. The straw is 
useless as fodder, and indeed it is even said that green plants eaten 
by cattle have been known to prove fatal. The seed is held to 
yield one-fourth of its own weight of oil.” 
An interesting account of the “ Culture of Flax in India” is to 
be found in “ The Fibrous Plants of India,” by Dr. Forbes Royle, 
pp. 135-232. This was published in 1855, and gives a detailed 
account of the condition of the crop at that period. 
output of these countries. 
Australia.— Attention has been given to both linseed and fibre 
production in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, aud South 
Australia, but so far neither crop can be said to be of any particular 
importance. Articles on the position of the crops in Victoria are 
i) in the Journal of the Agricultural Department, 
Victoria, April 1906, p. 211, and May 1906, pp.-298-308. 
Other references to flax in Australia are given in the Journal of 
Agriculture, South Australia, January Ist 1904, p. 370, and the 
same journal for September 1908, p. 189. 
The Bulletin of the Imperial Institute, vol, ix., 1911, Dp. 370, 
records the receipt of a sample of seed grown in Anglo-Egyptian 
Sudan, which was valued by experts at 47s. 6d. per quarter if 
marketed in limited quantities, and at about 44s. Od. per quarter if 
imported in large supplies. (May 1906.) 
for the sake of the seed than the fibre, however. In the event of 
flax proving a suitable crop for the country it is more than likely 
that the fibre will be given consideration likewise. The following 
crop continues to do well here, Ten acres were sown on the 
21st November and cut on the 22nd March 1912 ; the yield was 
