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in patches all over the Goulburn Valley, and in other parts of 

 the colony. A light loam on a clay subsoil is said to be good ;, 

 in fact, flax may be cultivated in any fairly good land, but perfect 

 drainage and a moderate amount of moisture are indispensably 

 necessary. It will not succeed in soddened wet soils, or in harsh 

 clay liable to get hard, nor is it likely to do well in sand where 

 there is a substratum of coarse dry gravel only a fevr inches 

 beneath the surface. Although in ricli soils no manure need be 

 used, it is never wise to crop with flax too many years in succes- 

 sion. Some Continental and American growers limit it to five, 

 others to three years. Many cultivators adopt a judicious rotation 

 of wheat or oats, clover, vegetables of various kinds, such as 

 potatoes and turnips, for the purpose of maintaining the fertility 

 of tlie soil, but the latter vegetable, it is said, should never imme- 

 diately precede flax. There is no plant which needs more careful 

 attention in regard to cleanly cultivation. Weeds are its greatest 

 enemy, and should be kept down, or freed from the crop at inter- 

 vals, before it has become 6 or 7 inches high. In some soils, 

 however, flax grows so rapidly that any weeds which crop up 

 (excepting, of course, such strong growers as docks and thistles) 

 are smothered at once, and thus a considerable amount of labour 

 is saved. But should weeding be necessary, an industrious man, 

 who, by the way, should be either barefooted or shod with 

 woollen socks, to prevent permanent injury to the plants by 

 treading them down, can get over an acre of ground in three or 

 four days, perhaps less. Children also can be made useful for 

 the work, which should always be performed in moist weather- 

 (because the weeds are more easily pulled up), and facing the 

 wind, so that the trodden-down plants may the more readily 

 regain an upright position. 



The preparation of the ground for sowing is a very important 

 matter, and to do this thoroughly means ploughing deeply in the 

 autumn for spring sowing. Heavy lancl will probably require 

 deep cross ploughing again during the winter. Ground which 

 has already been cropped with wheat or potatoes, &c., needs 

 only shallow ploughing — say 3 to 4 inches after the first 

 deep ploughing — and should be stirred up with a cultivator 

 (the Planet is the best, I think), the weeds removed, and then 

 harrowed several times diagonally. If the soil happen to be of a 

 loose friable character, so much the less trouble in rolling, which 

 must he done prior to sowing, so as to render the ground as 

 smooth and uniform as it can be made. The object of this is, the 

 seed can be scattered evenly broadcast, and the crop thereby made 

 regular and better for pulling or mowing. As regards the proper 

 time to sow, there is great diversity of opinion, and the farmer 

 must be guided by circumstances, and the climate with which 

 he has to deal. I think that the advice given by an old flax 



