186^. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



81 



For the Xew England Farmer. 

 FLAX CULTURE— No. 1. 



Mr. Editor : — I notice an article in the De- 

 cember number of the Farmer, written by your- 

 self, on the importance of cultivating flax to suji- 

 ply the place of cotton, and as you very truthfully 

 remai-k, that but very few ])eople know anything 

 about tlie cultivation and after preparation neces- 

 sary to lit it for market, a few remarks on that 

 suliject may not be inappropriate. As for myself, 

 I have been in the business for the last fifteen 

 years, and live in a town which produces as much 

 flax, I presume, as any town in the United States — 

 the amount raised tHis year being some over 1,300 

 acres 1 The counties of Rensselaer and Washing- 

 ton are said to be the greatest flax growing coun- 

 ties in York State, and Xew York and Ohio are 

 the two principal flax growing States of the Union. 

 In Ohio, it has heretofore been raised for the seed, 

 exclusively, no use hanng been made of the fibre, 

 but in this State it is raised fully as much for the 

 lint as seed. In two or three towns in Rensselaer, 

 flax dressing machines are as plentiful as saw- 

 mills in Maine, and just at present, much more 

 profitable. In your article, you quoted from a 

 speech of Stephen M. Allen, Esq., in which he 

 makes some pretty large estimates of the yield of 

 an acre of flax, estimates Avhich would raise expec- 

 tations in the minds of the new beginner never to 

 be realized. Although flax is a profitable crop for 

 the farmer at any time, and doubly so at the pres- 

 ent time, and every legitimate means should be 

 employed to induce farmers to cultivate it, in or- 

 der that we may have a substitute for cotton, still, 

 if they ai-e induced to embark in its cultivation by 

 exaggerated estimates of its yield and profits, they 

 will l)ecome discouraged with the first exj)eriment, 

 and abandon it altogether. 



I mean no disresjject towards Mr. Allen in re- 

 viewing his speech a little, for I presume he de- 

 rived his estimates from the most correct data at 

 hand, which he, not being a practical flax grower, 

 had no means of knowing the truth of. lie esti- 

 mates the yield of lint, or fibrilia, as he terms it, 

 at 500 pounds to the acre, which he says is a small 

 estimate, and he also gives 25 bushels of seed to 

 the acre as a fair yield of seed. I never have 

 known but very few pieces of flax that would yield 

 500 pounds of dressed lint to the acre ; 400 ]jounds 

 is called an excellent yield, and 300 ])ounds is 

 more than the average. The average yield for the 

 past five years in this county was as follows, viz. : 

 in 1857, the best; of all the five, it was 3S7 lbs. ; in 

 1858, 237 lbs.; in 1859. 323 11)S. ; in 1860, 311 

 lbs.; and in 1801,238 lbs. The average for the 

 five years being 29.:> 1-5 lbs. The yields of seed 

 were as follows, respectively: 12^ bushels, 9^, 13, 

 8, and 10 ; and the average for the whole time, 

 10 3-5, bushels, which is rather below Mr. Allen's 

 estimate. 



He also says that the unrotted straw from an 

 acre is worth .S20 for food for cattle. Now it is 

 positively impossil)le to make stock of any kind 

 eat the straw of flax in any shape whatever. They 

 would sooner eat the bark from trees, broom corn, 

 potato vines, or anything you might name, than 

 flax shives. Tons of it may be seen piled uji near 

 most flax machines, although in some few cases it 

 is mixed with the manure and put on the land, 

 and if it was done so to a much greater extent, it 



would be a source of considerable i)rofit. It is 

 valuable for bedding in the stable, absorbing the 

 liquids, thereby adding to the value of the manure. 

 When plowed under, it renders tlie soil light and 

 loose, and for putting around currant, gooseberry, 

 and all other bushes in the garden, if is unsur- 

 passed by anything, as it prevents the weeds and 

 grass from growing, and keeps the moisture in the 

 soil during droughts. When used in this way, it 

 has precisely the same eflect on the soil that 

 leached ashes do, keeping it as light as an ash- 

 heap, (to use a homely phrase.) They are also 

 excellent for banking where we wish to stop frost. 

 A potato hole covci-ed one foot deej) with them, 

 can be opened at any time during the winter, as 

 they will not freeze through. In my next, I will 

 explain the manner of cultivation. 



Agriculturist. 

 Xew York, December, 1862. 



WHITTEMORE'S PATENT VEGETABLE 

 CUTTER. 

 We have been long an earnest advocate for rais- 

 ing roots for our neat stock dvring the long period 

 when they must be fed on dry fodder. Every 

 year's experience adds to the strength of our con- 



'^^■^ 



victions that they can be raised and fed out with 

 a decided profit to the farmer. They not only 

 make uji a certain amount of food for the stock, 

 but in addition to the actual nutriment which they 

 supplv, they have an important influence in kec])- 

 ing animals healthy, and in the most vigorous and 

 growing condition. 



When the roots have been prodMC4.-d. however, 

 the same economy which suggests raising them, 

 also suggests that they sliould be projierly pre- 

 pared before being fed to the cattle. Various con- 

 trivances are resorted to in order to reduce their 

 size, so that they can be eaten without danger of 

 choking the animal. Some persons chop them 

 with a hatchet, and others with a shovel, but both 



