386 Transactions of the American Institute. 



New York mills is brought from Calcutta. There are mills in St. 

 Louis and Minneapolis where this gentleman can get information as to 

 price. 



Mr. Henry Stewart — To make good fiber, the flax is pulled before 

 the seed is ripe, and the seed broken off over a horse in which is fixed 

 an iron blade with teeth. In Minnesota and other western States it 

 is grown for the seed alone. The yield on good land is about twenty 

 bushels to the acre. He should sow two bushels to the acre. When 

 grown for seed it may be threshed in the usual way, but in that case 

 the fiber is much less valuable. 



The Chairman — It is one of the most exhausting crops he can raise. 



The Secretary — When fl.ax is raised for the seed, the straw loses its 

 value for manufacturing purposes. In some parts of the west, agents 

 are sent out who supply farmers with the seed at a certain price, 

 agreeing to take all the seed they raised. I know of an agent who 

 informed me that he added to the agreement that he would take all 

 the flax straw at ten dollars per ton. This straw he rotted by a steam 

 process, and then manufactured it into bagging, used by the planters 

 for their cotton bales, which he can sell less than the imported article, 

 flax is an exhausting crop, especially when the oil-cake is exported. 

 The business is now enormous. A friend informs me that his whole 

 time is taken up in traveling from Boston to New Orleans engaging 

 freight for this cake. The quantity exported was, according to his fig- 

 ures, so large that I could hardly credit the assertion. 



Mr. F. D. Curtis — The growing of flax, unless near a flax or linen- 

 mill, is not profitable, as it is a risky crop. Growing flax solely for 

 seed will not pay. It is an exhaustive crop, and the straw is danger- 

 ous feed, and worth but little except for manufacturing. Stimulated 

 by a good mill in the vicinity, at which a good price may be obtained, 

 and plenty of help on the farm to pull it and handle it, it might do to 

 raise flax, but under ordinary circumstances the receipts will not equal 

 the expenditures. 



Raising Poultry. 



Mr. Gerry Valentine, Hammonton N. J., forwarded the following 

 figures regarding his poultry experience for the year ending Novem- 

 ber 1 : " I had twenty-nine hens, which have laid 4,364 eggs, and if 

 my arithmetic is right, they averaged 150 and a fraction over. I raised 

 sixty chickens, worth thirty dollars. The eggs averaged twenty-four 

 cents per dozen, making $87.28 for eggs. Add thirty dollars for 

 chickens, and you have $117.28. The cost of keeping I am not so sure, 

 as the account has not been kept so exact, but about fifty-five dollars. 



