CULTIVATION OF PLANTS. 



are gathered from an Essay on Flax Husbandry, by S. W. 

 POMEROY, Esq., of Brighton, Massachusetts. This essay is 

 filled with practical information. The author very correctly 

 remarks in the introduction, that flax, though a necessary crop, 

 has never, at any period, been considered as a profitable one 

 with us. But it is presumed that such has been the acquisi- 

 tion of knowledge and improvements, especially in those 

 branches of mechanical knowledge connected with it, that an 

 entire new view may be taken of flax husbandry that it may 

 be made to enter into the agricultural system of the country 

 much more extensively than heretofore. 



Notwithstanding it is an opinion well established among experienced flax- 

 growers in this country, that a change of seed is advantageous, it is appre- 

 hended that they are not aware of the extent of the benefit to be derived by se- 

 lecting seed from a soil or climate essentially different; and it may be owing 

 to a want of attention in this particular, that the flax crops are so uncertain, 

 and the quality inferior, however perfect in other respects the system may be 

 conducted. 



Mr. YOUXG observes, that "foreign flaxseed was universally used in Ireland 

 when it could be obtained, otherwise they were careful to procure seed which 

 grew upon a soil of an opposite quality from that which was to be sown;" that 

 "American seed was preferred, and produced finer flax than any other. Baltic 

 seed produced more, but of a coarser quality." It is well known that American 

 seed always bears the highest price in the Irish market. 



We next look to Flanders, where flax was cultivated at a period as early as 

 the commencement of the Christian era.* Fortunately we are furnished with 

 "Directions for Cultivating Flax after the Flanders Method," published by 

 commissioners and trustees appointed by the British government, to promote 

 the linen trade in Scotland, at the head of whom was the celebrated Lord 

 KAIMES. From this high authority we.find that it was the practice to sow seed 

 from Riga, if it could be obtained, otherwise the produce oi Riga seed sown in, 

 Holland, and if that could not be had, that which Riga seed had produced in 

 their own country being careful to choose that which had grown on soils of a 

 different texture 'and quality. 



What is the practice in Germany, where the cultivation is very extensive? 

 By a respectable British publication now before me, in which an account is 

 given of the trade of Stettin, a city of Prussian Pomerania, situated near the 

 mouth of the river Oder, it appears that the extent of the linen trade is esti- 

 mated by the quantity of flaxseed imported; and it is stated, that on an average 

 of ten years preceding 17JG, twenty-one thousand six hundred and forty-five 

 tons of flaxseed were annually imported into that port to be sent up the Oder, 

 and the waters connected with it, which, at forty bushels to the ton, amounts 

 to upwards of eight hundred thousand bushels! sufficient for half a million 

 of acres at the rate it is sown in this country! and it is not improbable that large 

 quantities are imported into other ports connected with the large German 

 rivers. 



Foreign flaxseed was sought after even in the remote valleys of Switzer- 

 land, as appears by the following extract from a treatise on the culture of flax, 

 by M. TSCHIFFELI, president of the Economical Society of Berne. "In general, 

 the best flaxseed is produced on strong soils and in cold climates. Expe- 

 rience has long convinced us, that what is brought from Livonia, (Riga 

 seed,") is to be preferred to all others, but when this cannot be procured, we 

 must make use of that which grows on our own mountains, for instance, Ges- 

 senaria, Jura," &c. 



A Flemish colony first settled the island of Fayal, and introduced flax. They 

 have become amalgamated with the Portuguese, but the culture and manufac- 



* Pliny's Natural History, book 19. 



