282 CULTURE OF FARM CROPS. 



coarse, producing much seed, and a very inferior quality 

 of fibre. To give an equable supply of seed the land 

 should be marked off in divisions of 8 or 1 feet broad, if it 

 has been laid without ridges. Cover it with a seed harrow 

 after sowing, and to avoid the small drills otherwise made 

 by the teeth, go twice over it, once up and down, once 

 across or angle wise. Finish with the roller, which will 

 leave the seed covered about an inch, which is the proper 

 depth. This rolling after sowing is much recommended; 

 care, however, should be taken not to do it when the 

 ground is so wet as to cause the soil to adhere to the 

 roller. 



84. The ridges should be little raised in the centre when 

 the ground is ready for the seed, otherwise the crop will 

 not ripen evenly. Where it can be dispensed with, it is 

 recommended not to sow clover and grass seeds with the 

 flax, as these plants injure the root ends of the flax. 

 Carrots may, however, be sown in drills where the soil is 

 suitable ; and when the flax is being pulled, the work- 

 people can step over the rows, and afterwards hoe and 

 clean them, finishing with a top-dressing of liquid manure. 

 After <j^ie flax is pulled, a stolen crop of rape or winter 

 vetches, or of turnips of the Stone and Norfolk globe 

 varieties, may be taken. As to the rotation of crops, dif- 

 ferent soils require a different system. In the best soils 

 of Flanders, flax is grown in the third year of a seven 

 course, or the fifth of a "ten course rotation. Flax has 

 been much abused as a very exhaustive crop, and is con- 

 sequently to be charily cultivated ; but from the ex- 

 perience of many years on the Continent, and the last few 

 in this country, it has been clearly proved that it is not a 

 more exhausting crop than any other ; two facts or axioms 

 in its cultivation being, however, borne in mind first, 

 that " a considerable interval of time is necessary to enable 

 successful crops of the same kind to be grown on the same 

 soil ;" secondly, " that the best, surest, and easiest method 

 of re-fertilizing, whether by volatile or mineral compounds, 

 is to be found by re-applying, as far as possible, whatever 



