CHARACTER OF SOILS SUITABLE. 267 



food at its disposal, and thus aids materially the 

 development of its bulk. Although soils rich in 

 organic matters are not generally so suitable for flax as 

 those of a medium class, still it is always desirable that 

 the soil should be in good heart and condition, as the flax 

 crop occupies the ground only a short time fourteen to 

 sixteen weeks and must find its needed supply of food 

 within a limited range, and in an available form. This 

 condition of the soil is materially affected by the state of 

 division of its particles ; a fine tilth, by exposing an ex- 

 tended surface to the action of the air and of the rootlets 

 of the plant, assists directly in the preparation of the 

 food, and also in giving the plants better access to it. The 

 percolation of rain-water through the soil, as opposed to 

 its evaporation from the surface, not only materially 

 raises its temperature, but also carries down with it por- 

 tions of air, which act upon the mass of the soil through 

 - which they pass, and greatly advance those decompositions 

 of its constituents which form tfye food of plants, and 

 which, by the presence of water, are at once reduced 

 to and retained in an assimilable form. So much has 

 been already said in reference to cleaning the land des- 

 tined for any crop previous to sowing, that we need say 

 nothing here. It must be obvious to every thinking 

 farmer, that where two crops are growing in a field, one of 

 which brings him in a return either in money or in meat, 

 and the other he can neither sell nor consume, it is clearly 

 his interest to get rid of the latter by every means in his 

 power, as each weed occupies the place and consumes the 

 food of a more worthy plant, and thus robs him of so much 

 of his proper returns. These points, which are of direct 

 importance to all our " Farm Crops," are especially so to 

 the flax crop, as the plant is in its cultivated state of a 

 delicate and slender habit, but ill fitted to rough it in the 

 field with the stouter and stronger indigenous plants, of a 



