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BLUE BLOSSOM AND WHITE BLOSSOM FLAXES. 



The fact that, in Ontario, white blossom Dutch seed grows several inches longer, 

 ripens two weeks later, and yields several bushels more seed per acre than does blue 

 blossom Dutch seed, is of great consequence to flax growers. However, the advantages 

 may quite easily be overestimated unless flax men take care to avoid mixing the two 

 kinds. Some foreign authorities have declared that the fibre of white blossom is less 

 plentiful and poorer in quality than that of blue blossom. Canadian flax men have 

 not yet had time to come to any conclusion as to the soundness of this opinion. 



Nor is the matter of comparative qualities at all vital to us now. For the pur- 

 poses to which our flax is devoted the difference between the fibre of white blossom 

 and that of blue blossom is probably so slight as to be negligible. 



GERMINATION AND RATE OF SEEDING. 



The loss caused by an uneven stand of fibre flax is so great that the connection 

 between germination and rate of seeding needs careful study. To say that Canadian 

 growers sow at the rate of 84 pounds to the acre means nothing definite unless one 

 knows what percentage of the seed so sown is capable of germinating. If one grower 

 sows 84 pounds of 95 per cent seed, and a second 84 pounds of 80 per cent seed, there 

 will likely grow on the former's field, ninety-five plants to every eighty in the latter's. 

 These illustrative differences in germinating power represent actual average differ- 

 ences between Dutch and Russian seed, according to Dr. J. Vargas Eyre, in the Journal 

 of the Board of Agriculture, London. The reason for this difference is supposed to 

 be the Russian practice of oven-drying the seed. Dr. Eyre recommends that on the 

 basis of 84 pounds 100 per cent seed to the acre, one-quarter bushel extra should be 

 added for each 10 per cent drop in germinating power. 



Germinating tests are easily conducted. If groups of 100, not specially selected, 

 seeds be sown between strips of moist sod or wet cloths and set in a warm place, a few 

 days will suffice for the germination of the viable seeds. From these tests, the germina- 

 tive power of the whole lots can be determined. 



SEED CLEANING. 



Owing to the fact that flax, because of its slender rootage and thin crown, is not 

 a good weed fighter, extra precautions are necessary in cleaning the seed for sowing. 

 Certain weed seeds, from similarity in shape and size to flax seed, do not separate 

 readily. Such is the seed of false flax. Other seeds, like wild mustard and Russian 

 thistle, are globular in shape and hence are not so much affected by the blast of air 

 in the fanning mill as are flat seeds. These facts are mentioned to emphasize the 

 need of careful cleaning by means of various types of screen, and sometimes of clean- 

 ing by pouring the seed from a scoop across the blast of air. Every Ontario flax mill 

 uses a hand-made seed cleaner, and a few have installed the excellent Clipper mill, 

 which separates the seed into four divisions according to size and weight. 



SOWING. 



The shortness of our growing season, ninety to ninety-five days, as compared with 

 that of European flax countries, 100 to 110 days, makes it important to get the seed 

 into the ground just as soon as possible after the awakening of vegetation in the 

 spring. Time lost at the beginning of the season is rarely compensated for at the 

 close. A backward spring usually involves a short season. We have, however, dis- 

 covered no record of the exact loss in final yield of flax caused by each day's delay in 

 seeding after the land is fit. In the case of oats (the worst sufferer among cereals), 

 each twenty-four hours' delay in seeding is said to diminish the final yield on the 

 average about 56 pounds of grain to the acre. 



Although flax once frozen is permanently injured, there are few records of loss 

 from this cause in Ontario. In the few known cases, the damage was usually done 



