FIELD CROPS 297 



weed and break it, then work it with your fingers, you 

 can get out the fine silky fiber and try how strong it is. 



Then again, very many of the plants which elsewhere 

 are grown for the production of commercial fibers, 

 grow excellently in California. Such are flax, hemp, 

 cotton, ramie, and many others, which not only 

 yield first-class fiber, but also very heavy crops. Flax 

 and hemp also grow finely in Oregon and Washington. 

 Why then are these crops so seldom grown by farmers, 

 and when grown soon abandoned? 



The cause is simply the excessive cost of hand labor, 

 which in these crops cannot be replaced by machinery 

 to sufficient extent. 



The only fiber plant grown on a large scale in the state of 

 California at this time is flax, and this not so often for its 

 fiber as for its seed, from which linseed oil is pressed. Poul- 

 tices are made from flaxseed in cases of sickness, because 

 the seeds are coated with a layer of gum which swells up in 

 water; so that the seeds will take up four or five times the 

 room they took when dry. Try this in a vial nearly full. 



The cultivated flax, which is a native of the Old World, 

 has very pretty blue flowers. Another flax with red flowers 

 is often seen in gardens. In the Great Valley of California, 

 and also in Oregon and Washington, we find on the drier 

 lands a wild flax with small yellow flowers, which also has a 

 very strong, fine fiber. So you see that California and the 

 Pacific Coast, generally having native flax, would be just 

 the place to grow it to the best advantage, if hand labor were 

 not so expensive. Linen, made from flax fiber, is on this 

 account more expensive everywhere than cotton goods. 



