32 TLAX. 



ensuing winter corn Is required than to give the land a 

 single ploughing. Upon broken-up ground, that was 

 naturally rich and fertile, I have thus obtained an 

 excellent crop of wheat following after a crop of flax. 

 "What decided me to give the preference to this king of 

 the cereals was, that the preceding year, after a similar 

 crop of flax on fresh-broken ground, the rye was laid. I 

 am aware of no crop under which a layer of tough and 

 tenacious turf becomes equally friable and easy to 

 work. 



" When I have no pieces of broken-up ground, I 

 merely devote to the culture of flax all the hollows in the 

 fields of winter corn which I either fear will be covered 

 by standing water during the coming winter, or which 

 actually suffered from that inconvenience in the former 

 season. If these spots are of no great size, I go to the 

 expense of having them dug, and, shortly before sowing 

 them, I dress them with compost mixed with lime, which 

 I harrow in together with the seed. In this way, I con- 

 trive to obtain as much flax as I require, and even more, 

 without employing more profitable land for the purpose ; 

 and I also retain in cultivation portions of ground which, 

 without that, would soon become sterile patches, and 

 would be covered with rushes and other marsh plants. 



" Flax does not bear to be repeated on the same ground 

 at short intervals of time. It is believed that the space 

 of at least nine years ought to intervene between two 

 crops of this plant, even in countries where the soil 

 appears the most suitable to its culture, and where it is 

 grown by the most successful methods, as for instance, 

 in Belgium," 



Van Aelbroeck, in his " Agriculture Pratique de la 

 Flandre," says, " on light lands, flax is most frequently 

 sown after turnips that have followed rye; on strong 

 soils, it is generally made to succeed an oat crop. On 

 light lands, after the rye is carried, and before the turnips 

 are sown on the land destined to flax, some give a deep 

 ploughing, manuring with cow's dung; they then sow 

 the turnips, which are cleared off by Christmas j after- 



