At tlie Penrith Fai-raei-s' Club, Mr. Rome, a practical former who has been engaged 

 in the culture of Flax for some time, gave a lecture on the subject from which we will 

 make a few extracts : 



"Tlie vahje of a crop of Flax, standing in a field, is from $40 to $60 an acre — the purchaser to 

 pull the Flax. The yield of Flax will vary from 30 cwt. to 40 cwt. per acre ; the produce of seed 

 about sixteen bushels. Tlie price of the Flax, after threshing out the seed, $14 to $15 per ton. 



"Soils. — ^Tlie flax crop may bo grown with advantjige on all moderately cohesive soils, resting on 

 a sound clay subsoil, pro\'iding the land is naturally dry, or thoroughly drained ; but gravels or very 

 light soils, or lands u]>on a weak tilly subsoil, are not suited to its growth. 



'■RoTATiox. — Flax will succeed best after Clover sod, or Oat stubble properly prepared on good 

 'hmd ; and after a white crop following a green crop, or after potatoes or bare fallow (>n inferior land. 



"PaEPARATioN OF SoiL. — Deep plowing in early autumn by one plow following another in the s.ame 

 furrow, is necessary to the success of tlie crop under all circumstances, (except when the land has been 

 previously subsoiled), to break the crust or pan formed below the surface soil, so as to allow tlie 

 roots of the Flax and the surface water to go freely down ; a second furrow will in some cases be 

 necessary in Spring before sawing, but generally running through the soil with the cultivator will be 

 found preferable. Diy lands should be laid into flats, but cold ground ought to be plowed into 

 twelve feet ridges, very slightly raised in the centre ; tlie manure should then be applied, the land 

 well harowed and rolled, the seed sown on the rolled surface and harrowed in with light sfred 

 harrows, taking care to keep the hoi-ses as much off the ridges as possible on cold land. It is very 

 desirable that the ground selected for flax should be perfectly clean to begin with. 



"Manure. — ^Superphosphate of lime, at the rate of four bushels per acre, has proved to be the most 

 suitable manure for the flax crop. Guano raises a soft inferior fibre and injures the crop ; and farm- 

 yard manure is not approved of. The crop is found to derive most of its nourishment from the 

 atmosphere and the sulwoil. 



"Seed. — ^The best seed is Riga, or the produce of this country, grown from Riga seed the previous 

 year. Great care is necessary in the selection of the seed, so as to get it plump and heavy, and clear 

 of the seeds of weeds. The seed should be sown at the rate of three imjjerial bushels oh good land, 

 and 2| imperial bushels per acre on inferior land, as soon after the 20th March as the land can be got 

 into proper order, and the weather will permit, but not later than the 20th April. Great care should 

 be taken that the seed is distributed evenly over the surface. It is not desirable to sow grass 

 with the flax crop, as it usually injures the fibre of tlie flax unless sown after the crop has been 

 weeded. A crop of rape may be taken after flax with great advantage on good land, the same year, 

 and the ground sown down with grass seed if desirable. 



"Weeding. — If clean land has l>een selected for the crop, and plowed early in the autumn and 

 exposed to tlie winter frosts, few weeds will generally appear, if the seed used be thoroughly cleaned; 

 but if there be anj^ they must be carefully pulled. This operation is best done by boys and girls 

 properly superintended. It is necessary that they should always work facing the wind. 



"Pulling. — Tlie crop is ready for pulling when the seed in the boles is beginning to change from a 

 green to a pale brown color, and the stalk becomes yellow for about two-thirds of its height from the 

 ground; this is rather a nice i>f)int to determine and requires attention, as pulling too soon or 

 allowing the crop to get too ripe are both injurious to the fibre. In pulling, it is necessary to clean 

 tlie flax from all weeds (if any) to pull it when perfectly dry, to keep the root ends even, and tie it 

 tip in small sheaves to be stocked up and stacked when perfectly dry and thorougldy winned, which 

 will be in the course of eight or ten days after pulling." 



Some have thought the fiax crop an exhausting one, but it is not considered so either 

 by formers who have cultivated it or by agricultural chemists. Dr. Anderson, chemist 

 to the Highland Agricultural Society, states, it is scarcely po.ssible that the flax crop 

 should produce greater exhaustion than a grain crop, certainly not greater than wheat ; 

 if a portion of linseed or oil-cake is consumed on the farm, we should have less exhaustion 

 than from a grain crop. Mr. Brisco and Mr. Barker have both sown clover and grass 

 seeds with flax and other grain crops — the ground occupied by the flax producing 

 double the eatage in the following autumn of that produced where grain crops were 

 sown, while the grass on the ground still remains superior. 



Mr. C. Bedell, Berlin, Mahoning Co., Ohio, writes us his method of raising flax, and 

 the one u.sually adopted in Nortliern Ohio. "If on sod ground., i->\o\v ver^ dee]) in the 

 spring, as early as frost will allow ; harrow well till it is mellow ; then sow about three 

 pecks of seed per acre, and diag it lightly. We think three pecks little enougli on sod 

 ground, but less might do on com stubble or fallow. It is less labor, covers the ground 

 from the scorching rays of the sun, and leaves the soil in a better preparation for wheat 



