IRRIGATION OF FIELD CROPS. 229 



or the plants will scald. Use the smallest amount of 

 water possible for irrigation. The plants will stand 

 fully as much dry weather as oats, and a few showers 

 of rain at the right period might make a full crop 

 without irrigation even in the arid regions. It should 

 be cut as soon as the majority of the bolls show a light 

 brown color and the seed itself the same color, not 

 waiting for the straw to turn, for the seed will shell if 

 left until the straw ripens. Almost any harvester can 

 be used, but do not use the binding attachment. It is 

 better to have a man follow the machine, putting about 

 a half dozen gavels in a shock with the heads up, and 

 if the work is properly done these small shocks will 

 soon settle and withstand any amount of rain without 

 heating or sprouting. 



Leave the bunches in the field until ready to thresh 

 and then haul diredlly to the machine without stack- 

 ing, using a hay-rack upon which is placed a wagon or 

 stack cover to catch the loose seed. A good yield of 

 flaxseed under irrigation should be fifteen bushels an 

 acre, although here in Colorado we have produced 

 crops averaging twenty-eight bushels an acre. The 

 ground should be left level and smooth after sowing, so 

 that the straw may be cut as low as possible. If the 

 land could be watered diredlly after cutting it would 

 make a quick second growth and excellent fall feed. 

 Some people have thought that flax culture could not 

 be successfully practiced on the high plateaus of the 

 arid region for the reason that the woody substance of 

 the straw could not be rotted so as to make the fiber 

 in condition to hetchel, but quite to the contrary this 

 is the country to perfecftly put the straw in condition 



