hand looms. Yet the competition of the English machines and hun- 

 dreds of thousands of spindles, crippled the business and caused 

 the hand looms and spinning wheels to be consigned to the garret, 

 entirely destroying the "Amour propre" of the peasant wife in 

 her handy work, causing a disregard for home industry, and an 

 all-absorbing hunt after cheapness above every other considera- 

 tion. 



The peasant cannot now grow the quality of flax necessary 

 to meet the requirements of the more perfect machines, which 

 expose the minor defects unapparent under former conditions, so 

 long as he continues to work in the old beaten track and there- 

 fore cannot compete with modern demands. 



The Government assistance in Austria, to the encouragement 

 of increased effort in flax culture, has not been exhausted by 

 the work of Maria Theresa and Emperor Joseph 2nd, but in 

 1892, the Government appropriated funds and sent specialists to 

 the flax growing regions to report on the system adopted in those 

 countries; a synopsis of the information thus collected has been 

 published for the instruction of agriculturists and others inter- 

 ested. Owing to the above conditions, the supply of the finer 

 grades of flax fiber has greatly diminished, and the demand 

 greatly exceeds the supply. 



As many of the details of European practice are not now 

 adapted to existing conditions in the U. S., it becomes necessary 

 to elaborate a distinctively American system of flax culture and 

 treatment, more especially adapted to Puget Sound, Western 

 Oregon and Western Washington. A region so highly favored 

 by nature, that it is the only region in our broad United States, 

 where the highest grades of flax fibre can be produced, such 

 grades as can successfully compete with the celebrated Courtrai 

 flax of Belgium, which can only be produced in a very restricted 

 region in Europe. 



The necessity of modifying the system of flax manipulations 

 adopted in Europe, became a question of flax or no flax on 

 Puget Sound, if we would slavishly follow the old-time notions 

 of European flax growers, the details of which are contrary to 

 the spirit of the age and American progressiveness. Where would 

 we procure American women to go into the flax field on their 

 hands and knees, and weed flax with draggled skirts day after 

 day or, American men with two or three pair of woolen stock- 

 ings on their feet go and pick weeds? THEY SIMPLY WOULD 

 NOT DO IT AND THERE WOULD BE THE END OF FLAX 

 CULTURE ON PUGET SOUND. Whereas, by a distinctively 

 American system, (Americanizing the European practice), cut- 

 ting off useless corners and crossing lots we get there all the 

 same. 



Using labor-saving machinery and having our land clean of 

 weeds BEFORE SOWING the flax seed, as herein set forth, we 

 can establish a profitable and far-reaching industry that will not 

 only prevent our sending millions Of dollars to Europe, but ow- 

 ing to our climatic conditions and special adaptability for produc- 

 ing the highest grades of fine flax, will enable us to compete with 



