On the Cultivation of Flax. 



367 



favourable, and tlie plant will flourish at a considerable altitude 

 under such circumstances, having been grown with success in 

 county Wicklow, Ireland, at a height of 1060 feet above the sea- 

 level. Our climate is better adapted to flax, in some respects, 

 than that of Belgium, since the severe droughts which frequently 

 occur there in spring often destroy the crop, it being calculated 

 that once in every three or four years it fails from this cause. If, 

 after springing to the height of two or three inches, a long conti- 

 nuance of drought should occur, with a hot sun, the heat parches 

 up the earth, as the delicate leaves of the plant are unable to 

 exclude the scorching rays from the surface-soil, and the roots 

 have not penetrated sufficiently deep to secure a supply of mois- 

 ture. When the plant acquires a sufficient height to thoroughly 

 cover the ground, dry weather becomes comparatively harmless, 

 but occasional gentle showers are very needful to produce a 

 regular and vigorous growth. Hail-showers, if severe, fre- 

 quently destroy the young flax. While we possess a superiority 

 over our continental neighbours in the spring, we are not so 

 favoured in summer, as at the near approach to the pulling-time, 

 towards the end of July, the rains often injure the crop greatly, 

 by laying it and causing it to rot on the ground. Flax sufrers 

 greatly by lodging, the stems becoming discoloured, when they 

 are not absolutely rotted, and no after-care will eradicate the 

 tinge from the fibre. Hence, fields much sheltered by trees are 

 unsuiiable. 



This plant will grow on a great range of soils. Sandy loams, 

 light and heavy clays, alluvial soils, marly, peaty, or chalk soils 

 will all produce it well under favourable circumstances. But a 

 mixture of sand and clay is the most suitable, and especially 

 where the subsoil is red or yellow clay. Very light sandy soils 

 will not produce good crops without a large supply of manure, 

 and the root-ends of the flax are generally dry and discoloured. 

 An admixture of peat, if the subsoil be clay, produces good 

 crops. I have known flax grown on an Irish bog, reclaimed three 

 years previous, bring 701. per ton. In this case the subsoil was a 

 gravelly clay. In choosing land for flax, care should be taken 

 that it be deep and easily pulverisable. This infers the absence 

 of water in a stagnant state ; but soils which are very permeable to 

 moisture, and let it off quickly, are not to ""be selected. The 

 fibres of the flax-root penetrate from 20 to 30 inches in a straight 

 line downwards, if they meet with no obstruction, and have been 

 known in some cases to go 40 inches deep. 



Annexed are two tables, showing the analysis of seven different 

 flax-soils, three Irish and four Belgian. The first table is from 

 the Report of the Flax Improvement Society of Ireland^ fur- 

 nished by Sir Robert Kane. 



