570 HORTICULTURE, FORESTRY, FLORICULTURE 



for flax culture. If however, the soil naturally possesses much avail- 

 able nitrogen, the flax is placed at as distant a date from the legumin- 

 ous crop as possible and is usually preceded by grass or hay crops. 

 The most common procedure in all countries seems to place flax in 

 the series after several years of grass and pasture. This seems im- 

 portant when considering escape from destructive action by wilt. 

 (N. Dak. E. S. B. 71.) 



Control of Weeds. Very little need be said of weeds. It is not 

 supposed that they should be allowed in any carefully grown crop; 

 yet there is probably no crop in which their presence is more perni- 

 cious than in flax culture. In the case of the fiber crop they must all 

 be removed from the straw by hand before retting, a very costly 

 process. Their presence in the crop also causes unevenness of growth 

 and maturing, with the associated evils. In the seed crop they oc- 

 casion by their extra foliage great difficulty in properly drying and 

 curing the seed bolls for thrashing. The greatest difficulty is also 

 experienced in attempting to grade weed seed from flaxseed; and 

 whether the seed is being purchased for oil or for sowing purposes, 

 there must be a loss to the grower on account of the low price obtain- 

 able for such inferior seed. As the Russian peasant, even though he 

 pulls the crop by hand, always puts into the seed he sells all of the 

 weed seeds available, and as the seed exported by Russian seed houses 

 is made up of many separate small collections of flaxseed from many 

 different districts, one is apt to find many types of very bad weeds in 

 any importation. Among the destructive weeds sure to be repre- 

 sented in such seed are flax dodder (Cuscuta epilinum}, cornflower 

 (Centaurea cyanus), and many types of mustard, including false 

 flax (Camelina sativa) and various species of Roripia. (F. B. 274.) 



Quantity of Seed to Soiv. In sowing for seed and fiber, 1.^/2 

 bushels is the smallest quantity that should be used, and 2 bushels 

 will be better. Two and three peck sowings, the rule in flax culture 

 for seed, will never give a crop of flax fiber that will return a reason- 

 able profit. Three bushels to the acre is the rule in Europe when a 

 superior fiber is desired, for the more thickly the seed is sown the 

 finer the straw and, other conditions being equal, the higher the 

 grade of fiber that will be yielded. In the reports of experience the 

 range was shown to be from 3 pecks to 2 a /2 bushels. (U. S. Fiber 

 Inves. R. 10.) 



Seeding Time. This is always essentially the same in all re- 

 gions. The seed is sown as soon in the spring as the work can be 

 accomplished and not have the young plants injured by frost. The 

 date varies according to the latitude and climatic features. The 

 rather cool, rapid-growth months of spring and early summer tend to 

 produce long and fine types of fiber. The fiber plant can not with- 

 stand the hardening influence of the high dry heat of the late sum- 

 mer months. In the case of the seed 'crop the same features will be 

 found to hold true in regions having a long dry summer season. 

 Northward and northwestward in America, including the Dakotas 

 and Minnesota, the crop may be sown with hope of success even until 

 the 10th or 20th of June, as the crop often takes on a very heavy 



