30 FLAX. 



carried away to servo for other purposes. In this way, 

 the land would obtain all the goodness of the manure, 

 which the flax crop requires, without the straw's causing 

 it to lie too light and hollow. Instead of this method, 

 the land, no doubt, might be advantageously folded with 

 sheep, and by means of a single ploughing it would 

 be in a good state to receive the seed. Peas will succeed 

 exceedingly well upon land which has borne flax the pre- 

 ceding year, and the winter corn which is made to follow 

 the peas will give a better return than if it had been 

 sown immediately after the flax. It may have been 

 preferred, however, to sow clover amongst the flax ; for 

 clover does not succeed so well in combination with any. 

 other crop, unless it be with buck-wheat. 



"But flax also succeeds perfectly after clover, on a 

 single ploughing, and better even if the clover has been 

 two } r ears on the land. The clover ley is broken up 

 in autumn or in spring, carefully and not too super- 

 ficially, after which it is harrowed and rolled. Before 

 sowing the flax, the ground is sharply harrowed, with the 

 teeth of the implement pointing forwards; the extirpator 

 answers even better. The seed is then harrowed in, and 

 the roller follows and makes all smooth. If it is thought 

 that the flax will require it, the above-mentioned mode 

 of manuring can also be employed in the present 

 instance ; but it will be found more efficacious to employ 

 a light dressing of lime, of soap-boilers' ashes, or of 

 fowls' dung, especially that of pigeons, sown broad- 

 cast. 



" As a set-off against this, according to the observa- 

 tions of the Belgian growers, flax does badly after 

 leguminous plants, especially after peas. After crops 

 that have been well weeded and abundantly manured, 

 flax succeeds perfectly. It is grown with equal advan- 

 tage after hemp ; but the contrary turns out to be the 

 case when hemp is made to follow flax." 



A vast breadth of flax is grown in the valleys of the 

 upper and lower Maine, where it is very productive, on 

 first-rate land, qualified with quicklime and ashes ; it is 



