SCIENCE 



NEW YORK, JUNE 5, 1891. 



FLAX CULTURE IN RUSSIA. 



Flax is cultivated in all parts of European Russia for local con- 

 sumption, but, according to a recent report by the United States 

 consul at Odessa, it has an importance for manufacture only in 

 twenty-three governments, which sow more than 3,105,000 acres 

 in flax, the remaining twenty-seven governments sowing less than 

 675,000 acres. With regard to the object for which flax is sown, 

 European Russia can be divided into two regions, the northern 

 and the southern. In the first flax is sown chiefly to obtain the 

 'fibre, although with the fibre seed is also obtained, and in the sec- 

 ond nearly exclusively for the seed. The northern region of the 

 cultivation of flax for manufacturing purposes e.ttends from the 

 south-eastern part of the Baltic Sea to the central part of the Ural 

 ■Mountains, within which are the governments of Livonia, Kovno, 

 Vilna, Vitebsk, Pskov, Smolensk, Tver, Yaroslav, Vladimeer, 

 Nijni Novgoi'od, Kostroma, Vologda, Viatka, and Perm. More 

 flax is cultivated in the governments of Viatka and Pskov than in 

 the others. In the first about 251,000 acres are sown in flax, and 

 in the second about 221,000 acres. These two provinces may be 

 considered as the centres of the cultivation of flax, around which 

 the other flax-producing provinces are grouped. The yield of flax 

 per acre in these provinces is very different, and depends on the 

 quality of the soil in which the flax is sown. An acre of good 

 land gives 400 pounds or more of fibre and from 400 to 535 pounds 

 of seed, but an acre of poor, exhausted soil will not yield more 

 than 160 to 200 pounds of fibre and about 365 pounds of seed. 

 The average yield for the entire region may be considered to be 

 from 365 to 330 pounds of flax fibre and 400 pounds of flaxseed 

 per acre. 



The southern region of the cultivation of flax for the sake of 

 the seed consists of the following territory and governments : The 

 Don-Cossack territory, sowing 363,000 acres; Yekaterinoslav, sow- 

 ing 251,000 acres; Kherson government, sowing 175,000 acres; 

 Tauiida (Crimea), Samara, Saratov, Voronezh, Tambov, and Pol- 

 tava. In the last two provinces flax is grown both for the seed 

 and fibre. Flax for the seed is mostly sown either in virgin soil 

 or in old fallow lands. The yield of seed in this region varies 

 from 400 to 670 pounds and more per acre, and, for an average, 

 may be estimated to be about 585 pounds per acre. The total 

 harvest of flaxseed for all of European Russia attains to about 

 1,800,000,000 pounds. Considering the average value of the flax 

 fibre to be $186 per ton, and that of the seed to be $44.10 per ton, 

 it will be seen that the value or gain to Russia from the cultiva- 

 tion of flax is about $113,000,000 annually. 



The advantages derived from the cultivation of flax would be far 

 more if the qualities of the Russian fibre would correspond with 

 its quantities, and if a larger portion of it were to be exported in 

 a manufactured state. As regards its quality, Russian flax is not 

 only surpassed by Irish flax, but also by flax of many other coun- 

 tries of western Europe (Belgian, Dutch, French, and Bohemian), 

 and is valued in foreign markets lower than any other flax. The 

 low qualities of the Russian fibre are not the results of natural 

 causes, but of the ignorance as to the proper method of treating 

 the flax. The cultivators of flax are chiefly peasants, who partly 

 do not know, and partly do not possess the means to acquii-e, the 

 latest improvements in the primary technical manipulation of the 

 fibre. Another cause of the imperfect working out of the flax is 

 to be found in the absence of a home demand for a high quality 

 of fibre. Russian factories do not produce linen from the flinest 

 numbers of thread, and therefore do not require the highest class 

 of flax. This latter circumstance is unfortunate, as it is a strong 

 impediment to improvements in the manipulation of the flax 

 flbre. 



The aim of the producer is a large quantity rather than an im- 

 proved quality, and the result is a progressive reduction in the 

 flbre. Of late years this has become particularly apparent in the 

 government of Pskov. Formerly Pskov flax had a high reputa- 

 tion all over Russia, but now it is quoted much lower than flax 

 from Velogda, Kostroma, Yaroslav, and Tver. About one-half of 

 the flax fibre produced in Russia is exported abroad only half 

 worked (the unbrushed fibre together with the tow), and the 

 greater part of the fibre remaining in the empire is worked up by 

 the peasants in their farmhouses into thread and linen for their 

 own use, as well as for sale. A much smaller part of the flax 

 goes to the spinning and weaving factories, which are chiefly 

 situated in the governments of Vladimeer, Kostroma, and Yaro- 

 slav. 



As regards the internal or home trade of flax, it is almost en- 

 tirely in the hands of small dealers, who drive from village to vil- 

 lage and make their purchases in small lots. The flax thus col- 

 lected is then sent in considerable quantities to the towns which 

 serve as centres to the flax trade. 



The Liiiimi usitatissimum vulgare and crepitans are being cul- 

 tivated in Russia in several varieties of both kinds, but the differ- 

 ence in these varieties is so slight and they so easily blend that 

 even those initiated in the trade of the article often fail to per- 

 ceive it. Both have blue blossoms and occasionally white blos- 

 soms. The blue-blossom varieties are preferred. About 31,000,000 

 bushels of seed are annually raised in European Russia. 



Flaxseed, as understood in Russia, comprises sowing seed and 

 crushing seed. The first named is a more carefully sorted quality, 

 exported exclusively for sowing purposes. Crushing seed is the 

 surplus seed of the fiax plant, which is exported for making oil, 

 etc., as there is no demand for it as sowing seed. With this 

 quality the seed received from the interior is mixed and the whole 

 exported as crushing seed. Of the total quantity exported, viz., 

 13,000,000 bushels, about two-thirds is described as sowing seed. 



The seed is sown in April, May, and early in June. It is sown 

 earlier in the south and south-east than in the centre, west, and 

 north ; much depends on whether the seasons are early or late. The 

 harvest begins as early as July and as late as August and Septem- 

 ber, earlier in the south and later in the north. The number of 

 bushels of flaxseed raised per acre depends on the object to be 

 attained ; when the seed is the object, a much less quantity is sown 

 per acre, and when the fibre is desired, a much larger quantity is 

 sown. In the south and east of Russia a little over a half bushel 

 per acre is sown, and the yield is about ten bushels. In those 

 parts of central Russia where the fibre is not utOized, a little over 

 four-fifths of a bushel is sown, and the yield is about ten bushels. 

 In western Russia and those parts of central Russia where the 

 fibre is utilized, a bushel to a bushel and a half per acre are sown, 

 and about five bushels is the yield. In northern Russia, where 

 the fibre is the chief consideration, nearly three bushels per aci'e 

 are sown, which gives about six bushels of seed and from three 

 hundred to six hundred pounds of fibre. 



Flaxseed is usually sown by hand, and the land should be care- 

 fully prepared and be of good quality. The plougliing should not 

 be less than nine inches in depth, and the land should be as free 

 as possible from weeds, and thoroughly prepared beforehand for 

 the reception of the seed. After the sowing, the seed is covered 

 by passing a harrow once or twice over the ground. Moist and 

 mild weather favors the development of the plant in all of its parts ; 

 a hot and dry climate, with occasional showers, will produce a 

 good development of the seed, but the fibre is usually coai'se and 

 brittle, as the lignin parts of the stems then develop at the ex- 

 pense of the fibre. The cultivation of flax, whether for seed or 

 fibre, requires for its proper development a rich and black loam 

 (ten to fourteen inches) having a clay subsoil. Good crops, how- 

 ever, are grown whether the subsoil is gravel or gray sand. 



