FLAX. 9 



cellence: the fibres are long, soft, and silky, and 

 would make beautiful cloth ; but the spinners are so 

 bad that their linen is very coarse." 



Although flax is easy of growth, its quality depends 

 very much on fitness of soil and situation. Low 

 grounds, and those which have received deposits left 

 by the occasional overflowing of rivers, or where 

 water is found not very far from the surface, are 

 deemed the most favourable situations for its cul- 

 ture. It is attributed to this last circumstance that 

 Zealand produces the finest flax grown in Holland. 

 Preparatory to the cultivation of this plant, it is not 

 necessary that the ground should be very deeply fur- 

 rowed by the plough, but it should be reduced to a 

 fine friable mould by the repeated use of the harrow. 

 Two or three bushels of seed are required for each 

 acre of ground, if scattered broad-cast, but half the 

 quantity will produce a better crop if sown in drills. 

 Care is taken to distribute the seed evenly, and the 

 earth is then raked or lightly harrowed over. When 

 flax is raised to be manufactured into cambric and 

 fine lawns, double the quantity of seed is sown in 

 the same space of ground, the plants growing 

 nearer to each other have a greater tendency to 

 shoot up in long slender stalks, and, as the same 

 number of fibres are usually found in each plant, 

 these will be of course finer in proportion. 



The usual time for sowing the seed is from the 

 middle of March to the end of April, and sometimes 

 May. In some parts of the south of Europe the cul- 

 tivators of flax sow part of their crop in the autumn : 

 this is perhaps a judicious plan in low latitudes, but 

 where the winter is severe, if this method were pur- 

 sued, the tender shoots would be in danger of 

 destruction from the frost. The plant blooms in 

 June or July, and is considered ripe and fit for pull- 

 ing towards the latter end of August. When the 



