4 BULLETIX 1092, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTURE. 



used Tvith some success during' the past three seasons on -well -ripened 

 fields of flax. 



The remainder of this bulletin is devoted to tlie solution of the 

 problem of developing and increasing a long-stemmed variety of 

 fiber flax. 



EARLY SELECTION WORK. 



The selection Tvork with fiber flax was begun in the United States 

 Department of Agriculture in 1909 by Mr. A. E, Mayland. He se- 

 lected several thousand plants from the fields of commercial fiber 

 flax in Michigan. (Fig. 2.) Only where a plant was distinctly taller 

 than the surrounding plants was it selected. Each plant was weighed 



Fig. 2. — The beginning of fiber-flax selection in America. These individual plants, selected 

 because of their superiority to others in a field of fiber flax at Pigeon, Mich., in 1909, 

 are the ancestors of the best varieties developed by the United States Department of 

 Agriculture. 



and measured separately, and fuU}^ nine-tenths of them were dis- 

 carded. Only the seeds from the very heaviest plants were saved. 



In 1910 Mr. Leroy Y. Crandall took up the work. Seeds from each 

 plant retained the preceding year were sown in separate plats. The 

 rigid selection methods with the centgener tests which had been de- 

 vised at the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station were used. 

 (Fig. 3.) The seeds were spaced 3 inches apart each way and cov- 

 ered by soil to the depth of 1 inch, so that each plant would have an 

 equal chance to develop. Xotes were taken on the selections, and if 

 at maturity any were short or uneven they were discarded. In case 

 any were uneven and at the same time promising for height, indi- 

 vidual plant selections were made from them for further testing. 

 The selections which were still regarded as promising were harvested 

 and thrashed by hand, taking pains to keep the seeds from each plat 



