On the Cultivation of Flax. 



463 



fetched, that is, only about 5^. per stone. With better culti- 

 vation and better management^ there can be no doubt that Mr. 

 Druce will obtain better crops and secure higher prices, and his 

 returns will then be proportionally increased. 



3. Preservation and Use of the Seed. 



The importance of preserving the seed, has been already ad- 

 verted to in the first part of this article ; and the mode of sepa- 

 rating it from the stalk, by thrashing or beetling when the flax is 

 dry, or by rippling when it is green (the former being, however, 

 in all respects the preferable mode), has been explained in the 

 second part. On these points, therefore, it is only necessary further 

 to add, that the seed must be kept dry, and treated like any other 

 grain. 



The great value of flax-seed, as a constituent portion of the 

 crop, cannot be too strongly impressed upon the cultivator. It is 

 in fact the element, by the preservation and right use of which, 

 flax culture will not only be rendered profitable in itself, but 

 may be made conducive to an increased production of other crops, 

 both grain and green, by the supply of valuable manure which 

 it will afford. 



At one time little care was taken in this country to preserve 

 the seed, and it was often altogether neglected, and thrown into 

 the steep-hole with the flax stalks : whilst in Ireland it was 

 common, even recently, to see the seed rotting in the steep-pool, 

 or floating along in streams by the roadside. This I have often 

 witnessed, and as often endeavoured, with more or less success, 

 to convince the peasantry of the wasteful folly of the practice. 

 Since the establishment of the Irish Flax Improvement Society 

 however, there has been a marked alteration in this respect ; and 

 I do not despair of seeing the Irish cultivators as careful in the 

 preservation of the seed, as under the tutelage of the Society they 

 are now becoming in the management of the other portions of 

 the flax crop. 



The great importance attached to the seed by the flax-growers 

 on the Continent is well known, and the large quantities annually 

 imported from Holland, Belgium, Germany, and Russia, prove 

 its value in this country.* As flax cultivation extends, our home- 

 grown seed will no doubt be purchased by the oil-pressers, for 

 whose purpose it must be at least as good as the foreign seed ; 

 but if the farmer, instead of selling his seed, shall find it more 

 advantageous to apply the seed grown on his own farm to fattening 

 his own cattle, the oil-pressers will continue to obtain foreign seed 



See page 441. 



