372 



On the Cultivation of Flax. 



shining slippery seed, not too plump, and of a brownish red 

 colour. To separate the small weeds from Riga seed, use a wire 

 sieve, 12 bars to the inch. This must be attended to, otherwise 

 great trouble will arise in weeding the crop. It would be well, 

 before making a purchase of seed, to test some samples, by 

 forcing a certain ascertained number of pickles in a hot-bed or 

 dung-pit, and counting the number of sprouts which appear. 

 Very few grains of good seed will miss, while of old or bad seed 

 but a small proportion will germinate. 



The quantity of seed to be sown per acre varies from 2 to 3 

 bushels ; the former for poor, the latter for rich soils. About 2| 

 bushels, or 126 lbs., of clean seed is a fair average. Thin sowing 

 always causes the plant to throw out branches, which yield an 

 abundance of seed, but the fibre is generally coarse ; and those 

 portions on the small branches are cut and knocked away in the 

 operation of scutching. Thick sowing, on the contrary, induces 

 the plant to spring upwards in a tall and slender stem, throwing 

 out only one or two little branches at the top, or, more strictly, a 

 mere bifurcation of the stem, of a couple or three inches, sup- 

 porting two or three seed-capsules. The fibre in this case is 

 line, but the yield of seed small. Flax should be sown, if the 

 weather be fine, as early in April as possible, or even sooner if 

 the season be mild and favourable. Many persons delay the 

 sowing until May, but the quality of the crop is very inferior to 

 the early sown. For a fine fibre early sowing is indispensable ; 

 vegetation is more rapid in the latter part of the season, and the 

 fibre has not time to fine and mellow, the slow steady growth 

 from an early period being necessary for quality. Another ad- 

 vantage in favour of early sowing is, that, in case of the crop 

 failing from bad seed or other cause, the farmer can plough it up, 

 and replace it with some other crop ; whereas, with late sowing, 

 he cannot know until an advanced period of the season if the crop 

 will succeed. The seed should be sown by single semicircular 

 casts of the hand, the sower walking down the edge of each flat. 

 Clover and grass seeds, when sown along with flax, should be 

 cast by another person following immediately after the first : this 

 crop is a better nurse for grass and clover than any of the cereals ; 

 but, by preventing the circulation of air about the roots of the 

 flax, they frequently cause the moisture to discolour them, and 

 thus reduce the value of the fibre. Cover, after sowing, with a 

 light seed-harrow, the teeth thickly set and short : if the weather 

 be showery a single turn will be sufficient ; but, if dry, two are 

 advisable. Finish with rolling, unless the ground be so wet as to 

 adhere in clods to the roller. 



Throughout Belgium and Holland it is the almost universal 

 practice to manure the land for flax. Horse or cow dung, wood- 



