Book VI. 



FLAX. 



91: 



SuBSECT. 1. Flax. Lmnm usitalissimum'L. j Pentandria Pentagi/ma h., and hviea; 

 Dec. Lin, Fr. ; Flacks, Ger. ; and imo, Ital. and Span. (fig. 791. a.) 



^880. The Jlax has been cultivated from the earliest ages, and for an unknown length 



of time in Britain, of which it is now considered a 

 naturalised inhabitant. It is cultivated both for its 

 fibre for making thread, and its seed for being 

 crushed for oil ; but never has been grown in suf- 

 ficient quantity for either purpose. The legisla- 

 ture of the country, as Brown observes, has paid 

 more attention to framing laws regarding the 

 husbandry of flax than to any other branch of 

 rural economy ; l)ut it need not excite surprise 

 that these laws, even though accoirpanied by pre- 

 miums, have failed to induce men to act in a 

 manner contrary to their own interest. The fact 

 is, the culture of flax is found on the whole less 

 profitable than the culture of corn. It is one of 

 the most severe crops when allowed to ripen its 

 seed ; but by no means so when pulled green. 



.5881. T/ie varieties of the common fax are few, 

 and scarcely deserving of notice. Marshal 

 mentions the blue or lead-coloured flax as being 

 cultivated in Yorkshire, and Professor Thaer mentions a finer and coarser variety ; he 

 also, as well as some other agriculturists, has tried the iirium per^nne (6), but though 

 it affords a strong fibre, it is coai-se and difficult to separate from the woody matter. 



5882. The soils most proper for flax, besides the alluvial kinds, are deep and friable 

 loams, and such as contain a large proportion of vegetable matter in their composition. 

 Strong clays do not answer well, nor soils of a gravelly or dry sandy nature. But 

 whatever is the kind of soil, it ought neither to be in too poor nor in too rich a 

 condition : because, in the latter case, the flax is apt to grow too luxuriantly, and to 

 produce a coarse sort ; and, in the former case, the plant, from growing weakly, affords 

 only a small produce. ( Tr. on Rural AffairS' ) 



5883. If there is water at a small depth below the surface of the ground, it is thought by some still 

 better; as in Zealand, which is remarkable for the fineness of its flax, and where the soil is deep and 

 rather stiff, with water almost every where, at the depth of a foot and a half or two feet. It is said to be 

 owhig to the want of this advantage, that the other provinces of Holland do not succeed equally well in 

 the culture of this useful plant; not but that fine flax is also raise<l on high lands, if they have been well 

 tilled and manured, and if the seasons are not very dry. It is remarked, in the letters of the Dublin 

 Agricultural Society, that moist stiff soils yield much larger quantities of flax, and far better seed, than 

 can be obtained from light lands ; and that theseed secured from the former may, with proper care, be 

 rendered full as good as any that is imported from Riga or Zealand. M. Du Hamel, however, thinks that 

 strong land can hardly yield such fine flax as lighter ground. 



5884. The place of flax in a rotation of crops is various, but in general it is considered 

 as a corn or exhausting crop, when the seed is allowed to ripen ; and as a green, or pea, 

 or bean crop, when the plant is pulled green. " "'^ " *"" ' ' " ^" 



5^i). Flax, Donaldson observes, is sown after all sorts of crops, but is found to succeed best on lands 

 lately broken up from grass. In Scotland, the most skilful cultivators of flax generally prefer lands from 

 which one crop of grain only has been taken, afte* ^having been several years in pasture. When such 

 lands have been limed or marled, immediately before being laid down to grass, the crop of flax seldom 

 or never misgives, unless the season prove remarkably adverse. In the north of Ireland flax is generally 

 sown by the small farmers after potatoes. In Belgium, it is supposed not to do well after peas or beans ; 

 nor to succeed if sown oftener on the same soil than twice in nine years. {Von Thaer.) 



5886. The preparation of the soil, when grass land is intended for flax, consists in 

 breaking it up as early in the season as possible, so that the soil may be duly mellowed 

 by the winter frosts, and in good order for being reduced by the harrows, when the seed 

 process is attempted. If flax is to succeed a corn crop, the like care is required to pro- 

 cure the aid of frost, without which the surface cannot be rendered fine enough for 

 receiving the seed. Less frost, however, will do in the latter than in the former case ; 

 therefore, the grass land ought always to be earliest ploughed. At seed-time, harrow 

 the land \a ell before the seed is distributed, then cover the seed to a' suflficient depth, by 

 giving a close double harrowing with the harrows. Water-furrow the land, and remove 

 any stones and roots that may remain on the surface, which finishes the seed process. 



5887. The ordinary season of sowing flax-seed is from the middle of March to the 

 middle or end of April, but the last week of March and the first ten days of April are 

 esteemed the best time; and accordingly within these periods the greatest quantity of 

 flax-seed is sown in this country. In France and Italy it is often sown in the autumn, 

 by which a larger crop is produced, especially when seed is desired. 



5888. The quantity of seed depends on the intention of the crop. When a crop of 

 seed is intended to be taken, thin sowing is preferable, in order that the glai^ts.njfty have 

 room to throw out lateral shoots, and to obtain air in the blossoming and filling seasons. 



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