10 



FLAX CULTURE 



DIAGRAM. 



The above is introduced merely for the purpose of illustrating the judicious rotation of 

 crops under cultivation. It is assumed that a portion of the farm is undergoing the neces- 

 sary renovation by lying in pasture for some years. No arbitrary rules can be laid down for 

 rotation. The intelligent farmer should be best qualified to judge of the proper course to 

 follow upon his own farm, the peculiarities of which he is fully acquainted with. The sug- 

 gestions here made, however, may serve to guide him in this respect. 



PREPARATION OF THE SOIL, 



Weeds may properly be regarded as the worst enemy of the Flax crop. They not only 

 appropriate from the soil much of the nutrition required by the Flax plants, which is a 

 great injury even when the crop is raised solely for the seed but they are chiefly injurious 

 when Flax is grown for the fiber for the reason that in harvest-time the flax stalks get so 

 entangled with weeds that it is impossible to separate them, and thus the value of the straw 

 is seriously impaired. The necessity of clean culture, therefore, is at once apparent. 



The preparation of the land intended for Flax must be governed mainly by the character 

 of the soil. A light plowing immediately after harvest is essential upon all soils ; but if the 

 ground be heavy and stiff it should be laid in ridges before winter sets in, and so remain 

 until some two or three weeks before sowing time, when it should be deeply plowed. Light 

 soils may have their last plowing before the ground is frozen up for the Winter. Medium 

 soils may require a second plowing, which should not be done less than a month previous 

 to sowing ; this second plowing of medium and heavy land should be shallow, not exceed- 

 ing four inches in depth. The soil should be sufficiently loosened and mellow to allow the 

 roots to penetrate about J^ as far into the ground as the stem reaches above. 



Strong soils, and such as are coarse and wet, are usually cross-plowed before Winter. 

 Where Flax follows clover the land which has been enriched with farm-yard manure or peat 

 ashes receives in Autumn a like quantity of the same manure, which is covered with the 

 plow and well harrowed to make the soil mellow. In Spring a vigorous harrowing is given, 

 and the seed is sown. 



