14 



HARVESTING. 



The stage at which fibre flax is ready for harvesting is slightly variable accord- 

 ing to the products to be obtained. Generally speaking, the sooner the flax is pulled 

 after one notices the yellowing of the stems and the withering of the lower leaves 

 the finer will be the quality of the fibre obtained. At this stage, however, the seed 

 is still too doughy and immature for successful after-ripening of the same in the 

 shock. Canadian flax men, therefore, ordinarily wait until the lower stems have 

 turned yellow to a point about one-third, the distance upward. A growing scarcity 

 of help, especially at harvest time, has caused several growers to start pulling the 

 first fields on the green side, thereby losing somewhat in yield of seed, rather than 

 suffer loss of fibre by over-ripeness of those fields last to be harvested. 



A ten-day extension of the harvesting time is afforded by the adoption of both 

 the white blossom Dutch and the blue blossom Dutch flaxes. 



FIBRE FLAX AND SEED FLAX. 



Fibre flax, shown at the left, has tall slender stalks with few branches; seed flax^has shorter, 

 thicker stalks with numerous branches. 



