914 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Tart III. 



But it is a mistake to sow thin when flax is intended to be taken ; for the crop then 

 becomes coarse, and often unproductive. From eight to ten pecks per acre is the proper 

 quantity in the last case, but when seed is the object, six pecks will do very well. [Brown.) 

 Thick-sown flax runs up in height, and produces fine soft flax ; if sown thin, it does not 

 rise so high, but spreads more and puts forth many side branches, which produce abun- 

 dance of seed, and such seed is much better filled, plumper and heavier, than the seed 

 produced from thick-sown flax. (Donaldson.) 



5889. In the choice of seed, that which is of a bright brownish colour, oily to the feel, 

 and at the same time weighty, is considered the best. 



5890. Linseed, imported from various countries, is employed. That brought from Holland is, however, 

 in the highest estimation ; as it not only ripens sooner than any other that is imported, but also produces 

 greater crops, and flax of that quality which best suits the chief manufactures of the country. American 

 seed produces, in common, fine flax'; but neither the quantity of flax nor of the pods, provincially the 

 " bolls," which contain the seeds, is so large as the produce from Dutch linseed. Riga seed yields a very 

 coarse sort of flax, but a greater quantity of seeds than any other. It is common in some parts of Scot- 

 land to sow teeds saved from the crop of the preceding year, especially when that crop was raised from 

 seed imported from Holland The success of this practice is found to depend greatly on changing the 

 seed from one sort of soil to another of an opposite nature ; but the saving in the expense of purchasing 

 that sort of seed, in place of what is newly imported from Holland, is so inconsiderable, and tiie risk of 

 the crop misgiving so much greater in the one case than in the other, that those only who are ignorant 

 of the consequences, or who are compelled from necessity, are chargeable with this act of ill-judged par- 

 simony. Flax-seed is by some farmers changed every three years, but many have sown the same seed 

 ten years in succession without perceiving any degeneracy. When any degeneracy takes place, the seed 

 of flax grown on a difft-rent soil, as moss, moor, sand, &c. without any view to the produce in fibre, will, 

 it is said, answer as well as foreign seed. 



5891. The manner of sowing is almost always the same; but when seed is the main 

 object, drilling may be adopted, by which seed will be saved in sowing, cleaning con- 

 ducted at less expense, and the plants rendered more vigorous and branchy by the stir- 

 ring of the soil and the admission of air between the rows. The fibres of flax grown 

 in this way, however, will be shorter, and less equal in thickness throughout their length, 

 than flax grown by the broad-cast mode, and tolerably thick. 



5892 The a/ier-culture of Jiax consists chiefly in weeding, but sometimes it com- 

 mences with rolling the surfac-e, which is a very proper operation when the soil is very 

 dry, the season advanced, or the earth very porous. By this process the earth is pressed 

 firmly to the seeds, and they are thereby stimulated to vegetate sooner, and the drought 

 is kept out. On some soils, and in wet or stormy seasons, flax is apt to be laid, to guard 

 against which some cultivators run across their flax field slender poles fixed to stakes : 

 but a better method is to run small ropes across the field, both lengthwise and l)readth- 

 wise, where necessary ; for these being fastened where they intersect one another, and 

 supported by stakes at due distances, form a kind of network, which is proof against 

 almost every accident that can happen from tempestuous weather. 



5893. In Scotland a crop of flax, it is said, has been sometimes weeded by turning a flock of sheep at large 

 into the field. They will not taste the young flax plants, but they carefully search for the weeds, which 

 they devour. 



5894. The flax crop is taken by pulling, on which there is a considerable difference 

 of opinion. None, however, think of pulling it before it comes into flower, when fibre 

 is the sole object ; or before the seed in the capsules acquires a brownish colour, when 

 fibre and seed jointly are required, or when seed alone is the object. 



5895. Some argue for it pvlling while green, in order that its fibres may be softer and finer ; others, with 

 the same view, pull it up before its seeds are quite formed ; and others again think that it should not be 

 pulled till some of the capsules which contain the seeds have begun to open, being of opinion that the 

 fibres of green flax are too tender, and that they fall into tow. On the other hand, it is certain the fibres 

 of flax which has stood till it is very ripe are always stiff" and harsh, that they are not easily separated 

 from the reed, and that they do not bleach well. Here, therefore, as in most other cases, both extremes 

 should be avoided ; and it consequently seems most reasonable to think that the properest time for pulling 

 flax, is when its stalks begin to turn from a green to a yellow, when its leaves begin to fall, and when its 

 seeds begin to be brown. Donaldson observes, that a crop of flax frequently grows short, and runs out a 

 great number of seed-bearing branches. When that is the case, the seeds, not the flax, ought to be the 

 farmer's chief object, and the crop should be allowed to stand till the seeds are in a great measure per- 

 fected. But that when the crop thrives, and is likely to become more valuable for the flax than the seeds, 

 it should be pulled soon after the bloom drops off, and before the pods turn hard and sharp in the points. 

 When flax is grown for its fibre, Brown considers it the safest course to take it a little early, any thing 

 wanting in quantity being, in this way, made up by the superiority of quality. 



5896. The operation of pulling flax differs according to the intention of the crop. When it is grown for 

 the fibre it is pulled and tied into sheaves like corn, and carried off' immediately to be watered. But 

 when the seed is to be taken from the plant, it is pulled and laid in handfuls. 



5897. In fulling Jlax, it is usual, when it is intended to save neither lie qu te in a line with each other, nor directly across, 

 the seeds, to lay it in handfuls, partly across e^ch other; the but a 'itlle slanting upwards, so that the air may easily pass 

 reason for which is, 'that the business of rippling is thereby through them. Some, instead of this method, tie the handfuls 

 facilitated, as the ripplers, in place of having to separate each o' flax loosely at the top, then spread out tht ir roots, and thus 

 handful from the bundle, tind it by this simple precaution set several of them together upright upon their rooU. In either 

 already done to their hand. Although it is of much import- of these ways, the flax is g n rally left twelve or fourteen days 

 ance, yet it very seldom happens that much atten ion is in the field to dry it. This drying is certainly not ntcessary 

 bestowed to separate the different sorts of flax from each other, for the rippling, because the npple will separate the capsules 

 in pulling the crop. In most fields, th-re are varieties of from the flax as effectually before it has been dried as it w ill 

 soils ; of course some parts of a fi-ld will pro<luce fine flax, afterwards; and if it i> done with a view to ri^ien the seed, it 

 others coarse ; some long, and some short : in a word, crops of should be considered, that the fiix will be more hurt by the 

 mfferent lengths and qualities. It cannot be supjxKed that all longer time of steeping, which wi 1 become necessary in conse- 

 these sorts of flax .ill undergo an equal degree of watering, auence of ( his drying, than th seed can beben.fitid ; because, 

 prassiiig, breaking, and heckling, without sustaining great the more the membrane which connects the tibres to the reed 

 "U'i^- . . * ^'^ ^> *^ gre Iter must be the degree of putrefaction neces- 



.^HSS. As the Jlax u pulled, it is laid together by handfuls, sary to loosen and de.stroy the cohesion of this conncciing 

 with the seed end turned to the south. These handfuls should membrane ; the finer parts of the flax itself must necessarily be 



