tion, as only the best of pedigree seeds (that is seed sown thickly 

 and fully ripened in order to intensify the non-branching habit). 



I here come to one of my fundamental principles which may 

 be subject to controversy. The question at issue is simply in 

 harvesting flax, pull the straw, or cut it with a harvester ma- 

 chine. This question first came up to me in my inexperienced 

 days, and as is often the case, the less experts really know the 

 more positive they were in asserting unsound opinions. One 

 gentleman who had charge of a large flax mill in Minnesota, 

 wrote to me that FLAX COULD NOT BE CUT WITH 

 SAFETY, BUT MUST BE PULLED, and to add force to his 

 opinion he said when flax was cut square off the ends would not 

 enter easily into the machines. IF HE HAD BEEN CONTENT 

 to drop the subject there, I might have been outwitted, but he 

 graphically went on to say THAT IN RETTING THE WATER 

 WOULD SOAK INSIDE of the hollow straw and cause an un- 

 even ret. ( ! ) 



THE FACT BEING, THAT FLAX STRAW IS SOLID, AND 

 NOT HOLLOW LIKE AN OATEN OR WHEATEN STRAW, 

 and I allowed him to step down and out of the investigation 

 as an unreliable witness. I therefore submitted the question to 

 Mr. F. Barbour. He replied that so far from being injurious 

 to cue the flax straw, he said it was a common practice, both 

 in Ireland and in Belgium to cut the long flax straw into three 

 lenghths with a tool something like a circular saw, which they 

 called "bottoms," "middles" and "tops," and use the "middles" 

 for the finest work. With our improved harvesters and with 

 our flax fields nicely leveled, and by having the knives kept 

 very sharp we can cut our flax within one or two inches of the 

 ground and practically no loss, but really at a saving of $3.00 

 or $4.00 per acre and upwards. 



By careful attention to those fundamental principles, suc- 

 cess in flax culture may be assured to the most inexperienced 

 grower. It may be well in this place to give an epitome of the 

 report of Messrs. Langer, Stanka and Lamach, who were sent 

 in 1892 by the Austrian Government, to visit the several flax 

 growing countries of Europe, and report on the present condi- 

 tion of flax culture and manufacture, from which may be learned 

 the great difference of systems practiced in each. I do this 

 the more readily because the report is hardly within reach of 

 the American flax growers. 



GERMANY (SAXONY.) 



"It is a known fact that 1,000 years ago the flax industry 

 was one of the most important and profitable in that country, 

 but has since steadily decreased and passed from the hands 

 of the peasant farmer to the hands of the large land holder. 

 The competition of cotton and jute being responsible for this 

 decline. In 1883 an appropriation by the state of Saxony: First 

 ^for establishing technical schools for flax culture. Second — to 



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