54 



GENERAL AGRICULTURAL NOTES. 



[June 1895. 



both for seed and fibre in Ontario. The price realised by the 

 flax-seed in 1894, the yield of which in Ontario is estimated at 

 10 bushels per acre, was from 4s. and upwards per bushel, the 

 fibre being also valuable. In Manitoba, nearly double the amount 

 of seed is raised, but the fibre in that province has no value. 

 It seems that the Mennonite settlers in Manitoba g^row flax in 

 large quantities, the seed finding a ready market in Ontario. 

 As an example of the demand for the seed, it is mentioned that 

 the flax mills of Baden in Waterloo County paid out 30,000Z. to- 

 the Pembina Mennonite settlers for this seed this year. These 

 mills extract linseed oil from the seed, and the residue, known 

 as linseed-cake, finds a ready market in Europe. The mills 

 above-mentioned export 100 tons of this cake per week to the 

 United Kingdom. Very little is, it appears, consumed in Canada, 

 only an occasional car-load being sent to Quebec for feeding- 

 purposes, where it realises 51. per ton. 



The Mennonites sow flax as a catch crop after they can no 

 longer sow wheat in the month of May, or on land newly broken 

 by the process of simple harrowing. Not more than half a bushel 

 of seed is used to the acre, experience having shown that by 

 sowing it thinly, the plant bushes out so as to obtain the largest 

 possible amount of seed. As the seed is very small in size, one 

 half bushel to the acre is said to give to that area a larger 

 number of grains to the acre than a bushel and a half or possibly 

 two bushels of wheat. Where the object is to obtain fibre, it is 

 recommended that the soil should not be too rich, and that the 

 flax should never be grown on the application of fresh manure. 

 It is asserted that the richness of the soil in Manitoba accounts 

 for the fibre not possessing the strength of that grown in Ontario, 

 and the same fact is reported in many of the Western United 

 States, where hundreds of thousands of bushels of flax are grown 

 for the seed alone, the fibre being found to be useless. The 

 manager of the Baden mills expresses the opinion, based on long 

 experience, that flax could not be considered an exhausting crop 

 as respects the soil, but the land requires to be kept perfectly 

 clean. Clean land is the test insisted on, rather than richness of 

 the soil, the latter not being favourable to the growth of fibre, 

 although conducive to large yields of seed. These are conditions 

 which seem to make the crop particularly valuable on the rich 

 prairies of Manitoba and the North-west for the seed product. 

 Owing to the drought of last summer in Manitoba, flax sown in 

 May by the Mennonites did not come up until June, but subse- 

 quently its growth was very rapid, and the seed ripened well. 

 This rapidity of growth is considered to render the crop a 

 valuable one for the short seasons of the Canadian North-west, 

 and if the seed grown there possesses the properties of the Baltic 

 seed, grown in similar conditions as respects land and climate, 

 it may have a very considerable value for export to meet the 

 growing demand for the products of this industry. 



