224 JPLAX. [APRIL, 



that the other provinces of Holland do not succeed 

 equally well in the culture of this useful plant. Not 

 but that fine flax is also raised on high lands, if they 

 have been well tilled and manured, and if the sea- 

 sons are not very dry. 



It is justly remarked in the letters which the Dub- 

 lin Society have published on the culture of flax, 

 that moist stiff soils yield much larger quantities of 

 flax, and far better seed, than can be obtained from 

 light lands ; nay, that the seed procured from the 

 former may, with proper care, be rendered full as 

 good as any that is imported from Riga or Zealand: 

 but as M. Du Hamel rightly observes*, strong 

 land can hardly yield so fine flax, as that which 

 grows on lighter ground. In southern countries, 

 the husbandmen who raise ilax, sow part of their 

 seed in September and October ; so that the plants 

 which spring from thence remain of course in the 

 ground all the winter ; and this is a judicious prac- 

 tice in those places, because plants which have not 

 covered the earth well before the summer heats 

 come on, are apt to be parched by the heat and 

 drought which usually prevail in that season. 

 They sow linseed again in the spring ; but this last 

 does not yield an equally abundant crop : however, 

 the flax which it produces is more esteemed, be- 

 cause it is finer than that of the seed sown in au- 

 tumn. M. du Hamel seems indeed to think, that 

 the autumnal sowing yields the best seed ; but 



* Elements d'Agriculture, liv. x. c. 2. 



however 



