

BY \V^Y OK INTRODUCTION. 



TO AMERICAN FARMERS : 



In submitting this pamphlet on Flax Culture, I ask your attention to a plain state- 

 ment of facts. By ceasing from henceforth to neglect our own interests as we have done 

 in the past, and by resolutely entering upon reforms in Flax raising, we thereby prepare 

 the way for the development of the national linen industry which now is and will remain in 

 its infancy so long as the necessary raw material must be imported from Europe, chiefly 

 from Russia and Ireland, while we are destroying, or allowing to go to waste, valuable 

 raw material every year by hundreds of thousands of tons. 



The Flax fiber produced in the western states, has thus been annually destroyed in untold 

 quantities, and has also been through careless and improper cultivation, rendered unfit for 

 use by manufactories. By bestowing a little more care on our Flax crop, we might have 

 annually added to the wealth of the community ten million dollars, taking the very lowest 

 estimate of only $10.00 per acre on one million acres, which are every year under Flax in 

 Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas and Nebraska. One million 

 acres ought to have produced $35,000,000 worth of raw material, and even this sum falls 

 far short of the value of the product, as will be seen from the following : The aggregate 

 acreage under flax in Europe is estimated to be about 3,344,300 acres, producing annually 

 about 457,675 tons of clean Flax fiber. Therefore, proportionately, our western states should 

 be capable of producing over 160,000 tons of said raw material, which, at the rate of 

 $300.00 per ton, (supposing a fiber of good medium quality to be produced) would be worth 

 $48,000,000. 



Nor is this all. In addition to the above amount of Flax fiber, the countries of Europe 

 annually produce immense quantities of Flax seed for sowing and crushing, thus further 

 illustrating the glaring contrast between their perfect and rational system and our one- 

 sided and primitive mode of Flax cultivation for seed only, and allowing the more valuable 

 fiber to go to waste. 



This is even a more powerful reason why we are bound to abandon the course we 

 have followed hitherto, if our object is to earn the legitimate remuneration due to labor. 

 Raising Flax seed was, no doubt, remunerative-enough some fifteen or twenty years ago, 

 when its price was about treble what it is now, namely $2.65 to $2.85 per bushel ; but \ve 

 now get only 85 to 90 cents, and often the yield is only 5 to 8 bushels per acre. There- 

 fore, we are positive losers, as this yield does not cover the cost of production. Surely, 

 this should be sufficient inducement for us to at once abandon the present system, espe- 

 cially if, by a little better management, we can save both the seed and the fiber, so that, in 

 case of comparative failure of the crop, we are always certain of a reasonable profit over 

 and above cost of production. 



A few words on the patriotic aspect of Flax culture for the fiber. As long as we do not 

 produce Flax fiber of good quality suitable for manufacturing purposes, and in sufficient 

 quantity to supply even the present limited home demand, there is little prospect of a satis- 

 factory development of this industry in the United States, which is now confined to the 

 production of twines, threads, and the coarser flaxen fabrics. If, on the contrary, out of the 



