104 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



disposed in j^avcls, or by the mower for gathering, after the manner of Lay. 

 If a profit of $50 to $G0 per acre has in former years been made in England, 

 with former pi'ocesses and machinery, requiring tilhige, pulling, steeping, 

 beetling, breaking, and scutching, cannot Americans be expected to thrive on 

 its simple culture and harvesting, the manufacturer quickly and cheaply trans- 

 forming the straw into strong and beautiful goods ? If we get less of seed and 

 fibre hero — 400 pounds of the one, and 10 bushels of the other per acre — we 

 do it with far less labor. 



CULTURE. 



In the cultivation of flax in this country consideration must be given to the 

 question of labor, however necessary clean culture and good tilth may be. 

 The Belgian practice of hand-weeding by women and children on all fours, 

 with coarse cloths interposed between their knees and the damp ground, is not 

 admissible. Our husbandry is not yet so systematic that we^ may place flax, 

 as iu Flanders, in the third year of a seven years' course, or the fifth in a ten 

 years' rotation ; nor can we imitate the clumsy and slow processes of the Rus- 

 sians, whose labor is abundant and cheap ; nor can we, except in regions 

 remote from factories, and iu quantities suited to the wants of home manufac- 

 turing, indulge in the costly pastime of pulling flax and preparing the fibre iu 

 the old way. Flax soil must be well pulverized, but by a rapid as well as 

 thorough process ; it should be free of weeds, but by clean culture by horse 

 or ox power, (or by steam,) of the previous crop mainly; and it must be cut 

 by the machine mower, cured, and delivered to a neighboring manufactory at 

 as little expense as hay is made and mai-keted. Farmers will never increase 

 very materially the flax product, at least in the present generation, if they are 

 compelled to add to the business of legitimate farming the special knowledge 

 and manipulative skill of the manufacturer. And the most encouraging fea- 

 ture in the flax business is the fact that advancing progress in manufacturing 

 iias already off'ered a good market to flax fibre thus prepared. Such fibre, 

 •'in the rough," farmers stand ready to supply in unlimited quantities and at 

 »ow prices. 



SOIL. 



Flax grows well in a variety of good soils ; that which has been usually 

 »t,coiiimeuded is a deep, lively loam, with a clay subsoil. If the subsoil is 

 tHili, or near the surface, it should be thoroughly svxbsoiled and properly 

 uidiued. The rich loams of New York, that give a vigorous growth of barley, 

 are liit-re preferred for a flax crop. Timber clearings, with a rich soil, free 

 from aCids, are good ; and pasture lands of the better quality are frequently 

 oiiosen. Tlie conditions requisite are good drainage — that the atmosphere, 

 rather than btagnant water, may occupy the interstices of the soil — that the 

 roots of the ^laut may seek moisture instead of being drowned by it ; and a 

 climate of medium temperature, free from aridity on the one hand, and unex- 

 posed to excessive moisture on the other, as in some low bottom lands of our 

 "western rivers. Alluvial soil produces a fine crop, if somewhat silicious, and 

 not subject to flooding iu spring and drought in summer. 



DOES IT IMPOVERISH THE SOIL? 



This is an important inquiry, which has been answered in the affirmative 

 without due consideration of obvious fiicts. As its seed is saved for oil and its 

 fibre for textile fabrics, it has been hastily assumed to be, like tobacco, (a vigor- 

 ous grower, which is removed in toto from the soil,) very exhaustive. Its most 

 valuable inorganic elements are phosphoric acid and the alkalies. An average 

 product of flax requires about the same amount of phosphoric acid as wheat, 

 ajid nearly twice as much of alkalies, the former withdrawing from a rood of 



