178 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



entirely remove the nuisance. If you cannot plow 

 them up, mow them often, and by no means let them 

 go to seed. 



Have your compost heap or jDlace convenient for 

 the same, and deposit there every thing susceptible of 

 decay, it hardly matters what — weeds, turf, loam, 

 muck, straw, chips, &c., and let your hogs tmni it over 

 and mix it ; wet it with soap-suds, urine, &c., and you 

 will find the summer's accumulation of much value 



for the ensuing spring crops. 



Yours, &c., 



CuLTOB. 



ROCKY MOUNTAIN FLAX. 



flax that have before been discovered in the United 

 States, would also seem to be clear. A tract of 

 uinety square miles of flax, such as Mr. Oaki.ky 

 desi-ribed, would be a sight in any country, and would 

 rival the grass covered prairies of Illinois. 



Now, in relation to it being superior to any of the 

 wild flax in the United States, is, I think, a mistake, 

 for I have recently discovered a lint on the Butterfly- 

 weed, also called silk-weed and pleurisy root, (Ascle- , 

 pias Tuherosa,) that surpasses any thing that I have 

 seen in strength of fibre, belonging to that family of 

 vegetables, "if the variety described by Mr._ Parker 

 is fn any way superior to the silk-wped, it is in height, 

 and not in the strength of the lint, for that cannot 



Mr. Editor:— If you think the following worthy 

 of a place in your valuable journal you are at liberty 

 to insert the same. I know of no plant which seems 

 to better deserve an eflbrt for its introduction into the 

 class of cultivated crops, than the above named. The 

 common flax plant is an annual; it is exposed to the 

 depredations of many insects; and to get the full 

 amount of the crop, it is necessary it should be pulled; 

 and yet, with all these drawbacks, it is a valuable 

 crop, and indispensable for many purposes. If a 

 plant possessing the same valuable qualities as the 

 common flax, and perennial, and cradled or mown at 

 maturity, thus giving an annual succession of crops 

 from the same root, could be discovered and brought 

 into use, particulariy in the fertile valleys and prairies 

 of the Western States, the advantages would be very 

 great. Such a plant is the flax of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains; and the iudi\ddual or the society that shall in- 

 troduce it into cultivation, should it answer present 

 indications, will be considered as essentially benefitting 

 the agriculture of the country. Of the various 

 notices which I have seen of this plant, I select the 

 following as most particularly describing its appear- 

 ance and the extent of its growth in those regions. 

 Mr. PARKaR, in his excellent narrative of his journey 

 across the Rocky Mountains, from the Mississippi to 

 the Pacific, says: "Flax is a spontaneous production 

 of this country. In every thing except that it is 

 perennial, it resembles the flax that is cultivated in 

 the United States — the stalk, the bowl, the seed, the 

 blue flower, closed in the day time and open in the 

 evening and morning. The Indians use it in making 

 fishing nets. Fields of this flax might be managed 

 by the husbandman in the same manner as meadows 

 for hay. It would need to be mowed like grass, for 

 the roots are too large and run too deep into the 

 earth, to be pulled as ours is; and an advantage that 

 this would have is, that there would be a saving of 

 plowing and sowing." This was on a branch of Lewis 

 or Snake River. In a late journal of a passage across 

 these mountains, by Mr. Oakley, of Iflinois, under 

 date of the '21st of July, 1839, occurs the foUowing : 

 "Encamped to-night in a beautiful valley, called 

 Bayou Salard, twenty-eight miles from the head of 

 the South Fork of the Platte. It is a level prairie, 

 thirty miles long and three wide, and covered with a 

 thick growth of flax, which every year springs up 

 Bpontaneously." 



Whether the Rocky Mountain Flax will prove to 

 be as near the common flax as is supposed by Mr. 

 Parker, mny be doubted ; but that it is unlike and 

 far superior to the two or three kinds of native vrild 



be, and in all probability it is the same plant, as Mr, 

 Tucker seemed to doubt the description of Mr. Par- 

 ker, and that he had only seen the nets and lines that 

 the Indians used, and guessed at the rest. There are 

 two kinds of this jilant, one is found in uplands, and 

 the other in low sandy river or tributary valleys, anc 

 sandy plains, corresponding exactly to the locatior 

 which Messrs. Parker and Oakley have mentioned 

 and it is also a perennial ; and there is very littk 

 difference in the appearance of the two, both growing 

 from two to five feet high. In an open exposure U 

 the sun they grow from two to three feet high, witl 

 a thick stalk, and branching out most profusely at th' 

 top, and when they grow in a shaded situation am 

 thick on the gi'ound, they often attain the height o 

 five feet, with a smooth, straight stalk, and but Ics 

 branches at the top. (For a general description o 

 this plant see U. S. Dispensatory, p. 127.) It pro 

 pagates from seed, then spreads at a rapid rate unde 

 the ground, coming up in every direction, which wouL 

 greatly aid the process of propagation, I hay 

 transplanted some roots- this Spring, to ascertai 

 whether they would bear transplanting, and if so, th 

 variety peculiar to low lands might be advantageousl 

 cultivated on barren, sandy ground, or otherwise 

 while the other could be cultivated on land peculia 

 to it ; thus gi^nng us a natural advantage of a grea 

 scope of country for cultivation, and at the same tim 

 be producing a great medical plant as well as one c 

 the most durable lints in the world, which you wi" 

 perceive by the specimens I have sent you. No. 

 is a section of a stalk with the fibre on the same, an^ 

 also the lint and a cord of two others, which wer 

 collected March 20th, 1854, that grew in the yea 

 1852, and which had been out ah that lapse of tim 

 exposed to the inclemency of the weather, withou 

 destroying its lint, hence you will see the great utilit 

 of this fibre in making cables and other goods tha 

 are exposed to the weather. From the fineness an^ 

 whiteness of it, I believe the best linen might be mad 

 of it. No. 2 is a section of two stalks and the lin 

 of two others stripped off; and a cord twisted b; 

 hand ; it grew last year and stood out till the 5th c 

 the present month. You wiU also perceive that th 

 stalk is hoflow, which would render it easy of bein{ 

 broke with the flax break or machine, and the shov 

 easily dispensed with. 



Medical Properties and Uses. — The root of Af 

 clepias Tuberosa is diaphoretic and expectorani 

 without being stimulant. In large doses it is oftei 

 also cathartic. In the Southern States it has lonj 

 been employed by regular practitioners in catarrh 



