180 AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 



small quantities may be given to the soil, but the Flemings 

 who raise flax extensively, never allow it to follow a heavy 

 liming, till seven years intervene, as they consider it injures 

 the fibre. A good wheat is generally a good flax soil. Salt, 

 ashes and gypsum are proper manures for it ; the last has the 

 greatest effect if applied after the plant is developed and 

 while covered with dew or moisture ; all the saline manures 

 used as a top-dressing benefit the plant and check the rav- 

 ages of worms which frequently attack the young plants. 



CULTURE on a finely prepared surface either of fresh sod, 

 or after corn or roots which have been well cleared, sow 

 broadcast, from sixteen to thirty quarts per acre if wanted 

 for seed, or two bushels if wanted for the fibre. When thin 

 it branches very much, and every sucker or branch is termi- 

 nated by a boll well loaded with seed. When thickly sown, 

 the stem grows single and without branches and gives a long, 

 fine fibre. If the soil be very rich, and fibre is the object of 

 cultivation, it may be sown at the rate of three bushels per 

 acre. There is a great difference in seed, the heaviest is 

 the best, and it should be of a bright brownish cast and oily 

 to the touch. It should be lightly harrowed or brushed in 

 and rolled. When three or four inches high, it may be care- 

 fully weeded by hand, and for this it is best to employ child- 

 ren, or if adults are put on the field they should be barefoot, 

 and any depression of the plants by the feet will soon be re- 

 covered by the subsequent growth, which on good soil, will be 

 sufficiently rapid to prevent the weeds again interfering with 

 it. Grass seed or clover may be sown with flax without any 

 detriment to it. 



HARVESTING. When it is designed for cambrics and the 

 finest linen, flax is pulled when flowering ; but in this country 

 it is seldom harvested for the fibre till the seed is entirely 

 formed, and although not ripe, most of it will mature if pulled, 

 while the fibre is in its full strength. If required for seed, 

 it should be left standing till the first seeds are well ripened. 

 It is then gathered and bound in small bundles, and when 

 properly dried is placed under cover. If it falls before ripen- 

 ing, it should be pulled at once, whatever be its stage of 

 growth; as it is the only means of saving it. 



AFTER MANAGEMENT. The usual method of preparing 

 flax in this country after removing the seed by drawing the 

 heads through a comb or rake of finely set teeth, called rip- 

 pling, is by dew-rotting, or spreading it thinly on a clean 

 sward, and turning it occasionally till properly rotted, after 



