ciples before laid down. Fundamental principles being of more 

 importance to the thoughtful and intelligent farmer than specific 

 instructions, which may or may noth be always applicable to the 

 condition present. BE SURE YOU HAVE ALL YOUR AR- 

 RANGEMENTS MADE BEFOREHAND TO SECURE PULLING 

 AND ALSO TIEING OF THE CROP, JUST AT THE RIGHT 

 TIME. A man growing five, ten or twenty acres of flax would 

 exhibit very poor judgment in providing the requirements neces- 

 sary to harvest only five acres and would be sure to meet with 

 disaster. As some guide on this point, I may say Mr. Eugene 

 Boss in Wisconsin, had his flax pulled at a cost of five dollars 

 per acre, if taking one man thirty hours to pull one acre. In Can- 

 ada, also in Minnesota, about the same experience has been ob- 

 tained. Flax-picking, like hop-picking, MUST BE DONE JUST 

 AT THE RIGHT TIME, OTHERWISE YOU WILL BE SUBJECT 

 TO DOCKING IN PRICE. I have tried as pickers, American men, 

 youths, boys and Indians, and unhesitatingly prefer American 

 men, unless you can procure Europeans, who have had practical 

 experience in the fields. Boys are a nuisance in the flax field 

 with the exception of just a few to set up the bundles of flax to 

 dry. The Chinaman will make good pullers because they will 

 do just as they are told like a machine. While Indians are un- 

 certain and hard to teach. In addition to securing a gang of 

 pullers to be on hand at the right time, it will be necessary to 

 prepare ties for tying the flax in bundles. The Irish system of 

 preparing before hand, large piles of rushes with loops at one 

 end, which are used for tying the flax, those are delivered over 

 the field by a boy in piles where convenient, and the men do the 

 tying, hang as many as possible of those clumsy ties around 

 their neck and draw one off to tie each bundle of flax when 

 pulled. The Belgians and Germans using rye straw for this pur- 

 pose, this practice is followed for two reasons: First, because it 

 is wasteful to tie the bundles with flax, and, second, because the 

 tie if made of flax, will ret as rapidly as the flax that it ties, 

 causing the tie to break or get loose and the bundle to fall to 

 pieces and require to be retted at considerable waste of labor and 

 extra cost. In Americanizing, this European practice, I recom- 

 mend the use of binding twine, cutting up the twine into strings 

 about thirty inches long, of which a large lot can be carried hung 

 around the neck and the labor of handling such bulky material 

 as rushes or straw avoided. By having the strings all cut the 

 same length and a suitable loop on one end of each string, 

 much time will be saved and the size of the bundles will be more 

 uniform. Having your ties and pullers in readiness and the 

 flax in the proper state of maturity proceed to the field and 

 commence pulling as follows: 



Gathering up a bunch of flax tightly a little below where the 

 branches start with both hands, your arms are lifted with a 

 jerk upwards, which draws the roots from the ground, still 

 continuing to lift the hands until the roots of the pulled flax in 

 handsfuls are clear of the top of the flax still standing with a 

 kind of sweep, you bring it over until the roots strike the ground 



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