222 ECONOMIC PLANTS 



Flax is grown in this country less for its fiber than for 

 its seed. It will grow almost anywhere in the United 

 States, but it needs a strong, rich soil and careful 

 handling at every stage of its production and manu- 

 facture, its culture demanding a greater amount of 

 labor than almost any other crop. Much depends upon 

 the thickness of the sowing of flax. When sown thick 

 and pulled before the seed is ripe, it yields a fine fiber, 

 but if a coarser fiber is desired, the plants must be given 

 more room. If grown for a coarse fiber and for seed, 

 the plants must reach maturity before being harvested. 

 It is then sown at the rate of from two to three pecks 

 an acre. Flax plants are usually pulled, but in the 

 western part of the United States and Canada, where 

 the flax is grown for the seed only, it is cut with a 

 reaper or with a binder. 



It has been thought that flax drains the land of fer- 

 tility, but experiments have shown that it does not 

 equal corn or oats in this respect. It does deplete the 

 soil of nitrogen, hence it should be preceded by clover 

 or some other legume in the rotation. Almost the entire 

 flax crop of this country is grown west of the Mississippi 

 River. The largest yields are obtained from virgin 

 prairie land. On account of a fungus disease, flax wilt, 

 the yield, when grown on a field two years in succes- 

 sion, is materially lessened, or it may be a total failure. 

 (See page 283.) 



Hemp. --This plant, which produces a coarse fiber 

 used in the manufacture of sailcloth, ropes, and the like, 

 is an annual, native of warmer parts of Asia, but has been 

 naturalized in many parts of Europe and America. 

 It adapts itself to wide diversities of climate. It is 

 easily injured by frost, but its rapid growth enables it 



