On the Cultivation of Flax. 



389 



Sir R. Kane reasoned from this analysis that " restored to the 

 soil the steep-water should g-ive back all that the crop of flax has 

 taken from the soil, and thus the valuable fibre being generated 

 bj the atmosphere, the great source of expense in the cultivation 

 of the plant will be removed.'' The quantity of nitrogen, phos- 

 phoric acid, potash, magnesia, and lime taken up by the flax- 

 plant from the ground renders it a highly exhausting crop ; but 

 if the above analysis be correct, the conclusion may be safely 

 drawn that as the great mass of these substances is found in the 

 steep-water, with a portion also in the woody part of the stem, 

 and as the pure fibre is generated at the expense of the atmos- 

 phere alone, if the refuse parts of the plant be returned to the 

 soil, the exhausting effects of the crop are of course completely 

 neutralised. This analysis excited much attention in the flax- 

 growing districts of Ireland, and was received with considerable 

 incredulity. Trials of the efficacy of the flax-water as manure 

 have, however, been since made by several individuals in all cases 

 with successful results.* 



Different modes of rendering the steep-water available, without 

 much cost in carrying and applying it, have been suggested. 

 When the flax-pool is situated on an acclivity it can be ladled into 

 troughs, and carried by irrigation over grass lands ; or the steep- 

 pool may be filled up with weeds, chaff, or refuse of any kind 

 that will absorb the water, and more added from time to time, 

 until the whole becomes a fermented mass of sufficient consist- 

 ency to carry in waggon-loads to the fields. Watering-carts used 

 for liquid manure, with a perforated pipe to diffuse the water, 

 will also answer the purpose. The water should be applied soon 

 after the flax has been removed from the pool, as it loses much 

 of its value by exposure to the atmosphere, giving off gaseous 

 matters and depositing a sediment. The pool, when cleared out, 

 should be paved so as to preserve it from impurities until the 



* The subjoined experiments were made at Market-hill, county Armagh. 

 An acre of two-year old lea was flooded with flax-water, and in the season 

 after the produce of oats was double that obtained for fifteen years. 



A two-acre field was divided, and one half dressed with 20 barrels of 

 lime, the other half with flax-water. The latter gave the best crop by 305., 

 and the additional cost of the lime on the other was 305., which niadc a 

 difference of 3/. on the profit of the acre. 



Another person applied the water to part of a field of potatoes, which 

 gave nearly double the produce of the undressed part. A crop of flax 

 afterwards grown on the same field showed a remarkable difference on the 

 two portions: applied to oats, the portion dressed gave 128 stones ; an 

 equal portion, undressed, 96 stones. 



In another case, flax grown on land where the same crop had been 

 grown three years previous, and thus watered, produced a better crop than 

 another portion of the same kind of soil and on the same farm, in which 

 flax had not been grown for fourteen years. 



VOL. VITI. 2 D 



