PREPARING THE LAND FOR FLAX. 15 



frost and air to act on it during winter; lie shovels up the 

 furrows clean, so that free vent for top water may be had. It 

 remains in this state till March, when he makes another deep 

 ploughing to prepare it for the sowing in April, and as his 

 ground has been for years under spade cultivation, by annually 

 planting one field of Potatoes on the ridge method, he has the 

 surface earth well cleaned and a good deal of the subsoil 

 worked up amongst it, so that it is, although naturally shallow, 

 now deep soil. He ploughs it in March, when the harrows are 

 put on, previous to commencing to sow his Flax seed, all flat , 

 without ridges, and he incurs considerable expense in cleaning 

 the ground from weeds and roots, which having cleaned, he 

 gives it a turn of the roller to insure the seed an even bed 

 and as it is of a light, loamy soil, he finds a thorough rolling 

 requisite, for it consolidates the earth and insures him a better 

 crop, a more even, and a finer quality of Flax than when he 

 omitted what he esteems to be the most important part of his 

 labour in cultivating Flax. 



DEEP DRAINING INDISPENSABLE. 



As thorough draining is now admitted to be of the greatest 

 importance in the cultivation of all kinds of crops, it would be 

 superfluous of me, after the celebrated Mr. MEG HI'S practice, 

 to dwell upon the fact, and I need but remark how requisite it 

 is in the cultivation of Flax, to have this part of the prepara- 

 tion of the soil attended to, for if the land be neither drained 

 nor subsoiled, so as to take off the under water, as soon as the 

 roots of the Flax plant reach the cold till, or water, it imme- 

 diately stops its growth, (just as a worm will turn that is 

 trodden on) and it becomes so much injured that in a few 

 days it causes the stem or straw of the plant above ground to 

 become yellow, and that frequently when the plants are not 

 more than from twelve to fifteen inches long, therefore the 



