13 



in June, and we can ordinarily make no provision against June frosts. On the other 

 hand, there are numerous examples of low yields due to a curtailment of the giuwing 

 season, which would have been offset by earlier sowing. It is regretable that flax ia. 

 usually relented to the last place in the order of sowing. 



So vital a matter is timely sowing that flax growers will do well to keep in toucfo 

 with a few skilful hand sowers to supplement the work of the broadcast seed drills. 

 A good hand broad-caster working one-handed, can cover from 6 to 10 acres in a day 

 of ten hours, and from 12 to 15 acres when using both hands in sowing. The capacity 

 of an ordinary 8-foot broadcast flax seeder, operated by a horse and man, is about 18 

 acres a day. 



An important advantage of hand broadcasting over machine sowing is that a 

 man's tracks leave no deep pits in which seed may be lost or buried too deeply for a 

 uniform growth to result. Unless the hand work is well performed, however, the use 

 of the drill is to be recommended. 



Though the best flax is obtained from fields (chiefly in Europe and Japan) on 

 which no horse is allowed after the seed is sown, the prevailing Canadian practice has 

 been to cover the seed with a harrow. 



WEEDING. 



The proper time for weeding in the culture of flax is before the weeds appear. 

 The following influences, however, favour weed infestation to such a degree that con- 

 stant attention to the subject is necessary: 



(a) The carrying of weed seeds by washing, wind, and animals. 

 Examples. Milkweed, sow thistles, burrs, bindweed, Russian thistle, 

 (fe) The retention of vitality for years by certain weed seeds when deeply 

 buried in dry soils. 



Examples. Wild mustard and penny cress. 



(c) Deceptive resemblances between pairs of seeds, of plants, and of 

 blossoms. 



Examples. False flax seed and plant with true flax seed and plant. Wild 

 mustard flower and salad rocket flower. 



(d) The indigestibility of certain weed seeds and their occurrence in 

 barnyard manure. 



Example. Tumbling mustard. 



(e) Changeable shapes and exteriors of weed seeds. 

 Examples. Evening primrose, black bindweed. 



Flax, moreover, like the grasses, is sometimes blamed for the introduction of 

 certain noxious weeds. The time to prevent trouble of this nature is during the opera- 

 tion of seed cleaning. 



In Canada it has been customary to conduct one thorough weeding on crops of 

 fibre flax before the plants have attained a height of 6 inches. The day selected should 

 be a fairly dry one, when neither will the foot prints of the weeders make permanent 

 impressions on the ground, nor the soil particles be so hard that the flax plant will be 

 crushed by the weeders' feet. At early stages of growth, flax will recover after con- 

 siderable trampling of a moderate degree, providing the plants are not bruised. 

 Weeders are preferably well-disciplined children of light weight, barefooted or shod 

 with socks or pliable soled shoes. Where possible the direction taken should be toward 

 the prevailing winds, in order that the flax plants may be assisted in regaining a 

 vertical position. Spudding the weeds is more speedy and less destructive to the flax 

 than pulling them. 



Late-sprouting weeds are necessarily missed by these regular weeders, some- 

 times even when two weedings tcke place. The painstaking flax grower sees to it 

 that such noxirus weeds as wild mustard are hunted down before the tell-tale 

 bloi-soms have been shed. 



