CULTIVATION OF FLAX. 287 



indeed a finer fibre, when the seed is thickly sown, may be obtained upon meagre soils. A clay 

 loam may be regarded as the best adapted to flax. As in other cases, when the seed is small, 

 some peculiarity must be adopted in sowing it. The land should be ploughed with a light 

 plough, and laid in fine furrows ; after which it should be dragged evenly, with a light harrow, 

 when the seed sown should be bushed in, and pressed down with the roller. Upland is far 

 more suitable to the production of flax than meadows, especially meadows which are situated 

 in vallies and lie nearly level. The roots of flax do not penetrate deeply ; indeed it seems to 

 grow in the most superficial manner. The composition of flax indicates that the manures the 

 most suitable to the growth of flax are the mineral. The lands of Rensselaer, Washington and 

 Columbia counties are, many of them, adapted to the growth of flax : even those which are re- 

 garded as poor, yield fine crops, with proper care and attention. Toward the tops of the 

 ridges of the Taconic ranges much flax has been hitherto produced, while the richer alluvial 

 lands have been devoted to the cereals. In the excellent essay on the cultivation of flax, by 

 William Newcomb, of Pittstown, Rensselaer county, he remarks that a rich loam is the best 

 land for this crop, and he says it will grow on almost any soil but a sandy one, provided it be 

 high and hilly. In low lands it is subject to mildew, which is of two kinds, a red rust, which 

 destroys both seed and lint, and a black rust, which destroys the lint only. The seed is to be 

 sown as early as possible in the spring : one bushel to the acre is regarded as suflicient. One 

 great and essential point to be secured, is to have a clean soil, or freedom from weeds ; care 

 then should be be taken to use such fertilizers as are free from seeds, and to apply them to a 

 preceding crop, as potatoes or corn, or any thorough hoed crop. I have stated that the com- 

 position of flax indicates the application of the mineral manures. The following will be found 

 a good one : phosphate of lime, half a bushel ; plaster one bushel ; ashes one bushel. These 

 are to be intimately mixed ; it will suffice for an acre. Mr. Newcx)mb recommends plaster, 

 one bushel ; common salt and wood ashes, one bushel each ; to which may be added one bushel 

 of slaked lime. If phosphate of lime is omitted, there should be two bushels of wood ashes to 

 supply the plant with the phosphates ; and when plaster is used there is less necessity for using 

 slaked lime. The yield of lint should be, from one acre, 350 to 375 pounds. The weight of a 

 crop, per acre, amounts to 3000 pounds. 



It is not so difficult to raise flax as to rot it properly, or to expose to the weather or atmo- 

 spheric agents to such an amount and degree, as shall give brittleness to the woody and inter- 

 nal part, without injury to the fibre or outer coat, called the lint. The old method, is that of 

 spreading it on a meadow, where il can remain undisturbed, until the fibre will separate from 

 the stem. The degree of change, when thus exposed, is tried or determined by breaking it in 

 the hands. Another method is to immerse it in water, : the advantage which water rotted 

 flax has over the dew rotted is, it is stronger and less subject to mildew. If the flax is exposed 

 to the weather it is exposed to attacks of fungi and cryptogamous plants ; mildew is but a 

 fungus, which seats itself in the fibre, and weakens and renders it more liable to attacks after it 

 is manufactured. When immersed in water it is protected by that element from the adherence 

 of the spores of the fungi. To water-rot flax, it is well bound in bundles ; it is ready then to 



