PREPARING THE LAND FOR FLAX. 13 



alluded to had been worn out and exhausted under the 

 ordinary management of growing surface rooted plants, such 

 as Wheat, Barley, Oats and Potatoes, ~as they receive the 

 principal part of their food out of the surface soil, and as the 

 rain had year after year washed down the richest portions of 

 the manure from the upper surface, or active soil, until it 

 became lodged in the subsoil, it lay there unused till the Flax, 

 which has been known to grow 10 inches in 12 days from the 

 time of sowing, reached it, and as Flax, like Beans, Peas, 

 Carrots and other deep-rooted plants, will grow on land that 

 has been exhausted from producing surface-rooted plants, it is 

 quite clear from this fact, that the Norfolk gentleman's land 

 must either have had on the surface soil, matter sufficient to 

 nourish the Flax he grew, or the subsoil must have had the 

 benefit of the manures that escaped downward from the reach 

 of the surface-rooted plants, for the Flax found its support in 

 abundance, in some of the tivo, if not in both, hence, arises the 

 necessity of spade labour, or subsoil ploughing, in preparing 

 Flax as well as the necessity for a system of rotation, so that 

 surface-rooted plants be always followed by the growth of 

 deep-rooted plants ; and the practice of taking two grain crops 

 off the land without a green crop being produced between 

 them, be totally discontinued, as such a system will ever 

 produce deficient crops, and the land, if not thrown down in 

 grass for years to rest, will become exhausted and overrun with 

 scutch) daynettle, docks, and all kinds of pernicious, annual 

 weeds. Farmers should also know that the roots of some 

 plants will grow from three quarters to one inch daily, and 

 that frequently the roots will grow deeper in the soil in one 

 day than the top will grow in five or six, and that as Flax 

 ranks in this class, it is requisite to call their attention to the 

 necessity there is for their devoting their energies towards 

 having their ground properly prepared, so that the roots may 

 push onward without obstruction ; and as experience tells us 



