38 FLAX CULTURE 



factories or Flax mills. The Flax, including the seed, should be purchased from the farmer 

 by the mill which prepares the fiber for market. This should be equipped with the best 

 machinery and provided with a force of competent operatives, trained to the work and fully 

 acquainted with the most approved methods of retting, etc. 



By such a system the cultivation of Flax can be made a leading and remunerative branch 

 of American agriculture, and at no distant period there would be in successful operation all 

 over the country (especially in the western states) large industrial establishments for spin- 

 ning and weaving the Flax fiber in the manufacture of linen fabrics, thereby effecting a 

 saving of over $25,000,000, which we now annually send abroad for this description of 

 merchandise, to enrich foreign nations. 



No country in the world is in a position to rival the United States in respect to climate, 

 soil, and many other advantages which enable us to compete in Flax production with the 

 most favored nations, and there is no reason why Flax products should not become, within 

 a comparatively brief period, one of our most important articles of export. All we have to 

 do in the attainment of this desirable end, is to abandon the present slovenly system of Flax 

 husbandry, and adopt the careful and pains-taking methods of cultivation of our European 

 competitors. The introduction of a system comprehending the erection of Flax mills in the 

 principal Flax growing centers would be a powerful stimulus to farmers to improve their 

 present mode of culture in order to obtain remunerative prices for their Flax crop, and 

 encourage them to devote to it the care and attention it so richly deserves. 



IS FLAX AN EXHAUSTIVE CROP ? 



The objection is frequently urged against the cultivation of Flax that "it is an exhaust- 

 ive crop." Of course it is true that Flax exhausts the soil that feeds it to some extent, so also 

 does almost every other crop. But that it is more so than others is a statement not sup- 

 ported by the facts ; in reality, it is much less exhaustive than most of our other staple 

 crops, as I shall show by the testimony of competent judges. 



Sir Robert Kane, of the Dublin Royal Academy, says : ' ' Every farmer is aware that 

 crops exhaust the soil ; that the plants take out of the ground a number of materials, and 

 that it is necessary to restore similar materials to the soil, in order to keep up its fertility ; 

 therefore, the manure which the farmer puts in with or before his seed, is in a degree the 

 raw material of which the crop is made. It is just as much a part of the plant as the seed 

 itself. When the farmer sells and sends away his grown crop to be used for food, as in the 

 case of wheat, oats, and potatoes, he thereby sends away and sells the essence of the 

 manure which he had put into the ground ; and as he thus gets paid for the manure which 

 he has exhausted, he must put in as much more for the next crop, which is to be dealt with 

 in the same way. Now, in the case of Flax, there is the important peculiarity that it is not 

 eaten, and hence does not return to the land any manure in the ordinary way, while it takes 

 out of the soil just the same materials as oats and potatoes (though not by any means the 

 same quantity), so that it is indeed quite an exhaustive crop if we look only to the growing 

 of it. But the Flax differs from other crops in this, that the value of oats or potatoes, and 

 all food crops depend upon what they take out of the ground, whilst the valuable part of the 

 Flax is the fine fiber or thread, which has taken nothing out of the ground. 



If you burn a bundle of Flax stalks it will leave behind a large quantity of white ashes, 

 which consist of the different substances which the plant took out of the ground ; but if 

 you burn a bundle of well-dressed Flax it will leave no ashes. Their substance has been 

 carried off with the waste part of the plant in the steeping and scutching. This is thrown 

 away, and yet they are materials which the plant has appropriated from the soil, and which 

 should be given back to the land in order to keep up its fertility. 



