572 HORTICULTURE, FORESTRY, FLORICULTURE 



without twine. In this case, the bunches are left on the ground to 

 cure or dry the straw. This is not as good a practice as binding be- 

 cause of the danger of producing moldy seed, thus lowering the 

 market value. Binding is by far the best method of cutting. Seed 

 flax should be saved from the best, most uniformly ripened portion 

 of the field. Only very plump seed should be kept. (Colo. E. S. 

 Cir. Apr. 1911.) 



Seed Demand. The demand for flax seed arises from the de- 

 mand for linseed oil. The by-products of oil manufacture, oil cake 

 and oil meal now have a distinct value. Linseed oil is used in paint, 

 oilcloth, linoleum and many other articles commonly in use. As yet 

 no satisfactory substitute has been found for linseed oil. According 

 to good authority, the industries of the United States use annually 

 about 20,000,000 to 25,000,000 bushels of flax. They could and 

 would use 30,000,000 bushels if they could get the seed. 



Harvesting the Fiber. As to the special mode of harvesting the 

 crop, nearly every experimenter states that the straw was pulled. 

 This is not the usual practice of the Western flax grower, who culti- 

 vates for seed, however, and it has been urged that it is absolutely 

 essential, where the object is to produce both fiber and seed, or, to 

 state it more precisely, when the object is to produce a common grade 

 of fiber and at the same time save the seed. If the land surface is 

 made very smooth, so that the knives or the reaper may be set low, 

 cutting by machine (rather than pulling) may answer. Several 

 inches of the best portion of the stem will be lost and the square ends 

 of the fiber will not work into the "sliver" as smoothly as pulled flax 

 when the fiber is being manipulated in the first stages of manufac- 

 ture. (F. B. 27.) 



Summary Notes on Flax. 1. Flax does not remove an exces- 

 sive amount of fertility from the soil. An average yield of fifteen 

 bushels of flax per acre will remove less fertility from the soil than 

 one hundred and fifty bushels of potatoes, forty-five bushels of corn 

 or thirty bushels of wheat. 



2. Flax is a weak feeding crop, possessing but little power of 

 obtaining its food from the soil. It absorbs the larger portions of its 

 nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash during the first forty or fifty 

 days of its growth. In order to supply the food in so short a time 

 the soil must be in a high state of fertility. Raw stable manure, ap- 

 plied directly, is unsuited to flax because the plants are incapable of 

 feeding upon such crude forms of food. In order to be beneficial the 

 manure must be applied to the preceding crop, as corn, so as to be- 

 come thoroughly rotted and mixed with the soil. 



3. Home grown flax seeds are equally as rich in stored up plant 

 food as imported seeds. There is only a slight difference in chemical 

 composition between home grown and imported seed. 



4. The best flax soils are composed of sand, silt and clay in the 

 following proportion : one-fourth medium sand, one-fourth fine and 

 very free sand, one-third silt, usually spoken of as clay, and about 

 one-eighth of the finest clay. Any soil capable of producing a good 



