DIRECTIONS FOR CULTURE IN INDIA. 175 
PRACTICAL INFORMATION ON THE BEST MODE OF CULTIVATING 
FLAX IN BENGAL, BY MR. DENEEF, BELGIAN FARMER. 
“Tn accordance with my promise, I send you as follows, a detailed report 
af my observations since my arrival in India, on the cultivation of the Flax 
ant. 
I will not enter on an explanation of the mode adopted in the cultivation 
of this plant in Europe, because nothing is easier than to do so theoretically, 
but will content myself with informing you, from my own practical experi- 
ments, of the means at our disposal in this country, which can readily be 
made available for the production of Flax and its seed. 
1. Such portions of land as are annually renewed by the overflowing of 
the Ganges, or which are fresh and rich, are the best adapted’ for the culti- 
vation of Flax. 
2. After the earth has been turned up twice or thrice with the Indian 
plough, it must be rolled; because without the aid of the roller the large 
clods cannot be reduced, and the land rendered fine enough to receive the 
seed. The employment of the roller, both before and after sowing, 
hardens the surface of the earth, by which the moisture of the soil is better 
preserved, and more sheltered from the heat of the sun. About and near 
Calcutta, where manure can be obtained in great abundance for the trouble 
of collecting it, Flax may be produced of as good a quality as in any part of 
Europe. Manure is the mainspring of cultivation. It would certainly be 
the better, if the earth be well manured, to sow first of all, either Sunn 
(Indian Hemp), or Hemp, or Rice, or any other rainy-season crop ; and when 
this has been reaped, then to sow the Flax. The tillage of the land, by 
means of the spade (kodalee) used by the natives (a method which is far 
preferable to the labour of the plough), with a little manure and watering 
at proper seasons, will yield double the produce obtainable from land tilled 
without manure and irrigation. 
The mode of forming beds of six feet in width with intervening furrows, 
in use in Zealand and in Belgium, is very inconvenient in India, because 
great care must be taken to preserve the moisture of the soil; and on the 
other part, for the purpose of weeding, they are unnecessary. When proper 
Linseed, freed from mustard seed is sown, I think that the Flax requires no 
weeding at all in India. 
3. The proper time to sow the Flax in India is from the beginning of 
October until the 20th of November, according to the state of the soil. 
The culture must be performed, if possible, some time before the sowing. 
The Flax which I have sown in November, was generally much finer and 
much longer than that sown in the former month, which I attributed to the 
greater fall of dew during the time it was growing. The quantity of country 
seed required to the Bengal beega is twenty seers, but only fifteen seers of 
the foreign seed, because it is much smaller and produces larger stalks. 
The latter should be preferred ; it is not only more productive io Flas, but, 
owing to the tenderness of its stalks, it can be dressed much more easily. 
4. The Flax must be pulled up by the roots before it is ripe, and while 
the outer bark is in a state of fusibility. This is easily known, by the lower 
part of the stalks becoming yellow; the fusion or disappearing of the outer 
bark is effected during the steeping, which may be fixed, according to the 
temperature ; say, in December at six days, in January five, in February 
four days, and less time during the hot season. The steeping is made a day 
after the pulling, when the seed is separated, and then the stalks are loosely 
