20 



BULLETIX 1092, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



acreage required, it was more practical after this time to follow the 

 method used with seed flax, that of sowing in 7-inch drill rows at 



the rate of about one- 

 half bushel per acre. 



If by a thin rate 

 of seeding 40 seeds 

 could be obtained for 

 each one planted, then 

 each harvest season 

 would multiply the 

 number of pounds of 

 seed by 40. From two 

 harvest seasons in a 

 year the number of 

 seeds started with 

 could be multiplied 

 by 40 twice, or by 

 40 and again by 40, 

 which is 1.600 times. 

 It is necessary to grow 

 flax as a winter crop 

 in a southern climate 

 in order to secure two 

 harvests the same 

 year, and Porto Eico 

 gave promise of being 

 a suitable place. 



In 1917 a small 

 trial plat of flax as 

 a spring crop in Porto 

 Eico gave a splendid 

 growth, and in the 

 spring of 1918 an in- 

 crease of 26 times was 

 secured, but owing to 

 delay in the shipment 

 the seed arrived too 

 late for spring plant- 

 ing in Michigan. The 

 idea was then con- 

 ceived of planting 

 a fall crop in Porto 

 Eico, so as to allow 

 time enough for the seed to be shipped north in the spring and arrive 

 in due season for sowing. The flax seed which had been increased 42 

 times in the summer of 1918 at East Lansing was planted the last 



Fif; 



9. — Fiber of pedigreed fiber flax (at left) compared witli 

 that of the Blue-Blossom Dutch variety (at right). 



