222 USEFUL FIBER PLANTS OF THE WOBLD. 



interested in the processes to be "stronger than cotton or wool and capable of taking 

 better color than either; and be spun and woven on the existing cotton and woolen 

 machinery at a co^t below cotton or wool at anytime, there being less waste" In 

 the Report of the Flax and Hemp Commission of 1863 is an account of the various 

 processes under experiment for this purpose, the substances produced being vari- 

 ously known as "fibrilia," " flax cotton/' "clausenized llax" (and hemp), and 

 '•eroliu'* or "flax wool." The series of specimens that were received during this 

 inquiry was deposited in the Mus. U. S. Dept. Ag., and formed a valuable and inter- 

 esting historical exhibit. They are not in the present museum, however, nor b the 

 writer aware of their existence. 



Varieties of imported flax.— The following statement concerning the kinds 

 of flax imported into the United States-, with tin- names and marks of grades, has 

 been jirepared for the Department by Robert Ik Storer& Co.. Boston. Massachusetts: 



Russia: Russian flax is known as Slanetz (or dew retted and Motchenetz (water 

 retted), and the shipments from St. Petersburg are largely of Siretz, or ungraded 

 kinds of the several districts. The llax from these districts is known under the 

 name of Bejedsk, Krasnoholm, Twer, Kashin, Gospodsky, Nerechta, Wologda. Jara- 

 slav. Graesowetz. Kostroma — all Slanetz. The Motchi-netz sorts are Pochochon, Oug- 

 litz, Rjeff, Jaropol, and Stepurin. From Archangel are shipped Slant ': sorts, known 

 as First Crown. Second Crown, Third Crown, Fourth Crown. First Zabrack, and 

 Second Zabrack. From Riga shipments are entirely of Motchenetz sorts and the 

 marks are graded from the standard mark K, the others being UK. PK, HPK, SPK, 

 HSPK, ZIv! GZK, and HZK. 



Holland: Dutch flax is graded by the marks ^ p, VI, VII, VIII, IX. 



Belgium: Flemish llax (or blue flax) includes Bruges, Tbissalt, Ghent, Lokeren, 



n i ii 



[VI V7 XI 



St. Nicolas, and is graded — - - VI, VII, VIII, IX. Courtrai flax is graded 



iil? in iv} fvj vj \"j VI " Eernes and Bergues llax is graded A, 15. C, D. Walloon 

 flax is graded II, III, IV. Zealand llax is graded IX, VIII. VII, VI. Friesland flax 

 is graded D, E, Ex, F, Fx, Fxx, G, Gx. Gxx. Gxxx. 



Frame: French flax is known by the districts of Wavrin, 1 lines. Douai, Haze- 

 brouck. Picardy, and Harnes. 



Ireland: Irish flax comes as scutched and mill seutehed. and is known by the 

 names of the counties where raised. 



Canada : Has no standard of marks or qualities. 



Growth for seed and fiher. — It has been said that, good seed and salable liber 

 can not be produced from the same plant, and this statement has been reiterated 

 again and again. Experience in other countries, as well as our own, disproves the 

 assertion. 



The finest tiax produced in Europe is grown in Belgium, where the seed is not only 

 saved, but is used in some cases to produce the next year's crop of flax. The usual 

 practice in that country is to import the seed annually, though in some localities a 

 different custom prevails, as in the Brabant. Imported seed (Dutch or Russian) is 

 planted the first year and the seed produced by this crop is planted the second year. 

 giving, it is claimed, a better quality of llax than the first year: but for the next, 

 or third, year's sowing new seed is again seemed. 



"About the fiber being coarse if the seed is saved, this will not be the case if the 

 llax straw is pulled before being too ripe and hard. In France and Belgium our 

 spinners get the finest fiber, and the growers there save the seed." {John Orr Wal- 

 lace. 



"'fhe crop must he grown with a view toward netting from the land the highest 

 yield of straw that will produce the finest quality of liber. The seed, which ought 

 to he a large factor in profit, should be saved, etc. " Irish Textile -Journal.) 



Irish experiments have shown that an acre of land has produced 5 tons 9 hundred- 

 weight of green flax one week pulled, and L'2 bushels prime seed. Experts in the 



