24 FLAX CULTURE 



made a most elaborate report to Congress. 1 

 These efforts of the General Government, 

 combined with the high price of flax, stim- 

 ulated the growth of flax, and the amount 

 of flax fibre produced was large. When, 

 however, the close of the war supplied the 

 mills with cotton, the production of flax 

 fibre began to fall off, so that, to quote 

 from the Agricultural Report of the United 

 States for 1879, " It is impossible to esti- 

 mate the amount of American dressed flax 

 consumed at the present time. It is a 

 ridiculously small amount at best, too 

 small for a country boasting such diversity 

 of soil and climate. The quality of the 

 last crop was considerably below the aver- 

 age, and the yield was likewise small." 2 

 To-day, in 1888, the best-informed men 

 in the flax-fibre industry are unable to 

 estimate the amount of American flax pro- 

 duced. A good deal of flax is still sown, 

 but merely for the seed. Nothing is so 

 convincing as the actual statistics, and that 

 is our excuse for the tables below. 



