402 



HISTORY OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



the year 1175 that flax and hemp wave, by the 

 council of Westminster, included among the 

 tithahle productions from whence the clergy had 

 their dues. 



Notwithstanding that the British government 

 for many years held out every encouragement 

 for the cultivation of both flax and hemp in this 

 country, its production has rather declined than 

 increased. Indeed, it was found by no means so 

 profitable a crop for our soils as many other sub- 

 stances ; and as it could readily be procured from 

 abroad at a cheaper rate, we now wisely depend 

 upon foreign importation, and devote our fields 

 to more suitable and less scourging crops ; yet 

 in some of the counties a considerable quantity 

 is stiU raised, both in the north of England and 

 in Scotland and Ireland. 



Russia, Holland, and America, supply Britain 

 with flax and hemp seed, as also with consider- 

 able quantities of the raw products of them. The 

 flax plant seems to flourish in all varieties of cli- 

 mate, in cold, in temperate, and in torrid re- 

 gions. One species yields its products to Europe, 

 North and South America, Africa, and Asia. 

 The Hindoos cultivate it for the seed and the 

 expressed oil alone, rejecting the stalks as useless. 



There are numerous species of this plant. The 

 perennial (I. perenne) may be cultivated for the 

 same purposes as the other. It has several strong 

 upright stalks, rising to the height of four or 

 five feet. The leaves are small^ alternate, nar- 

 row, and dark gi'een. The flowers are in large 

 clusters. The fibres are very strong and tena- 

 cious ; but do not bleach so white, or become so 

 soft and fine, as the common species. 



Although flax is easy of growth, its quality 

 depends very much on fitness of soil and situa- 

 tion. Low grounds, and those which have re- 

 ceived deposits left by the occasional overflow- 

 ing of rivers, or where water is found not very 

 far from the surface, are deemed the most favour- 

 able situations for its culture. It is attributed 

 to this last circumstance that Zealand produces 

 the finest flax grown in Holland. Preparatory 

 to the cultivation of this plant, it is not neces- 

 sary that the ground should be very deeply fur- 

 rowed by the plough, but it should be reduced 

 to a fine friable mould by the repeated use of 

 the harrow. Two or three bushels of seeds are 

 required . for each acre of ground, if scattered 

 broad-cast; but half the quantity will produce a 

 better crop if sovrai in drills. Care is taken to 

 distribute the seed evenly, and the earth is then 

 raked or lightly harrowed over. When flax is 

 raised to be manufactured into cambric and fine 

 lawns, double the quantity of seed is sown in the 

 same space of ground — the plants growing nearer 

 to each other have a greater tendency to shoot 

 up in long slender stalks; and as the same num- 

 ber of fibres are usually found in each plant, 

 these will be of course finer in proportion. 



The usual time for sowing the seed is from the 

 middle of March to the end of April, and some- 

 times May. In some parts of the south of Eu- 

 rope the cultivators of flax sow part of their crop 

 in the autumn. This is perhaps a judicious 

 plan in low latitudes ; hut where the winter is 

 severe, if this method were pursued, the tender 

 shoots would be in danger of destruction from 

 the frost. The plant blooms in June or July, 

 and is considered ripe and fit for pulling towards 

 the latter end of August. When the crop grows 

 short and branchy, it is esteemed more valuable 

 for seed than for its fibrous bark, and then it is 

 not gathered until the seeds are at full maturity. 

 But if the stalks grow straight and long, then all 

 care of the seed becomes a secondary considera- 

 tion, and the flax is pulled at the most favourable 

 period for obtaining good fibres. Experience 

 has shown that when the bloom has just fallen, 

 when the stalks begin to turn yellow, and before 

 the leaves fall, the fibres are softer and stronger 

 than if left standing untU the seed is quite ma- 

 tured. 



It has been found from experience, that most 

 seeds, though not quite mature when gathered, 

 ripen sufiiciently after being plucked, provided 

 they be not detached until dry from the parent 

 plant ; all the sap which this contains contri- 

 buting towards farther nourishing and perfecting 

 the seed. 



The Dutch avail themselves of this fact with 

 regard to their flax crop. After pulling the 

 plants they stack them. The seed by this means 

 becomes ripe, while the fibres are collected at the 

 most favourable period of their growth. They 

 thus obtain both of the valuable products from 

 their plants, and supply their less careful neigh- 

 bours with the seeds. 



The plants which have been sown thickly are 

 liable, if left without support, to be laid by the 

 wind, and consequently to be spoiled; provision 

 is therefore made to prevent this accident. Forked 

 sticks, a foot and a half or two feet high, are 

 fixed in the ground in rows three or four feet 

 asunder. Poles from ten to fifteen feet in length 

 are then laid horizontally on the sticks, and long 

 branchy brushwood is placed across these paral- 

 lel rows of poles; this is laid very thick, and the 

 vacancies are fiUed up with smaller brush. Oak 

 brushwood is never employed for this purpose, 

 as it is found to tinge the flax. Thus the whole 

 forms a support and shelter to the plants, which, 

 as they grow, find an effectual prop in the hang- 

 ing brushwood. Another more simple and 

 equally efi^cacious plan is pursued by some cul- 

 tivators. Small ropes are extended both across 

 and along the fields, intersecting at right angles, 

 and fastened at their points of intersection; the 

 whole is propped up by stakes fixed in the 

 ground, and forms a kind of netting. 



After the plants have been pulled and sorted, 



