59 
VI. On the Cultivation of Flax upon Captain Dixon's 
Estate of Skelton Castle, on the River Isis, Tasmania. 
By Mr. Ropert Crawrorp. [ead 8th October, 1851.] 
THE cultivation of Flax on the farm of Skelton Castle has 
been prosecuted for the last five years, and in every season 
good crops have been obtained. 
The climate has been found eminently adapted to its 
growth, and to the after-processes of steeping and grassing. 
During the first four years it was tried on small portions of 
land; the breaking and scutching, then effected by hand labour, 
alone absorbing the value of the Flax raised, and rendering 
its cultivation unprofitable. In 1849 ascutching machine was 
put up, which, together with other appliances to lessen the 
amount of manual labour and the benefit of imcreased expe- 
rience, occasioned from that year a greater breadth of land 
to be sown. ‘ 
Flax has been sown after grass, after wheat on new land, on 
fallowed land, and upon land wader fallow ;—that is, instead 
of fallowing the land and allowing it to be idle the whole 
year, Flax seed has been sown in the spring, and wheat, as 
usual, the following autumn. 
When sown on new land, or after grass, one ploughing 
only has been given, immediately preceding the sowing ; but 
after wheat, or other grain crop, the land has been ploughed 
as early as possible in the autumn, and again in the spring 
before sowing. 
The last week in August and the month of September has 
been found the best time for sowing. Of thirty acres of land in- 
tended for Flax this season, seventeen have just been sown,— 
