392 THE FORAGE AND FIBER CROPS IN AMERICA 



desirable. The seed should be sown from one-half to one inch 

 deep. For the production of fiber, broadcast seeding may be 

 practised. Great care in obtaining uniform distribution is de- 

 sirable. When sown in drills the outer plants of the drill row 

 are coarser and more branched than the inner ones, and thus 

 materially reduce the uniformity of the product. Seeding should 

 follow rather than precede spring wheat and oats. 



Unlike the cereals, the plant is much modified by the thick- 

 ness of seeding. When the stand is thin the stems produce many 

 branches, and consequently many seeds. When sown sufficiently 

 thick, branches develop only at the top, and few seeds are pro- 

 duced, but the fiber is of superior quality. When seed is the 

 sole object, two or three pecks are used; when both seed and 

 fiber are desired, twice the amount of seed is employed, and 

 when fiber only is produced, three to four times the amount is 

 used. Because of the wilt disease, special care in the selection 

 and treatment of the seed should be observed. (495) 



Flax is an easy crop to harvest with the self-binder, is pleas- 

 ant to handle, and is not readily damaged while standing in the 

 shock. It may be threshed with an ordinary threshing ma- 

 chine. In Ontario the crop, when grown for fiber, is pulled by 

 hand, the work being done by men, women, and children. A man 

 may pull one-third of an acre a day. The crop is tied in small 

 bundles, placed in shock, and when dry sold, without removing 

 the seed, to the scutching mills. Under favorable conditions 

 two to three tons per acre are produced. 



"The best flax is pulled, for the following reasons: (1) to secure straw 

 of full length; (2) to avoid stain and injury, which would occur from soil 

 moisture soaking into the cut stems while curing in the shock; (3) to secure 

 better curing of the straw and ripening of the seed; and (4) to avoid the 

 blunt cut ends of the fiber. Flax that has not grown well enough to produce 

 first-grade fiber is sometimes cut with a self-rake reaper. After curing in the 

 shock for two or three weeks the seed is threshed out, usually by holding an 

 unbound bundle in the hands, and passing the heads two or three times 

 between rapidly revolving rollers which crush the seed pods, the seed after- 

 wards being cleaned in a fanning mill. The straw is then bound into bundles 

 and stored until time for retting, in October or early November. Nearly all 



