410 On the Modes of Culture and Preparation of Flax, 
the proportion of flax may be extended, but not greatly in 
excess of this ratio. 
After potatoes or old pasture, off which one white crop has 
been taken, a good flax crop may be grown. Flax too frequently 
follows wheat or oats grown after a green crop the previous year, 
a practice which only answers when condition is kept up by 
extra manuring. 
Little need be said on the too frequent repetition of flax on 
the same ground, and for this reason, if the proportion pointed 
out is adhered to a sufficient interval will of necessity elapse ; 
it should not be repeated more than once in seven years. 
In the south of Ireland, flax is frequently put in lea land, and 
although heavy crops are often produced, the practice is objec- 
tionable ; one reason is the difficulty of bringing such land into 
a proper state of tillage ; another is the danger of cutworm, 
which attacks not only flax, but corn sown in lea land, and is 
often a source of much disappointment to the farmer. In flax- 
culture sufficient importance has not been attached to a judicious 
rotation ; and want of attention in this respect has been in a 
great degree the cause of a diminution in the yield per acre. 
Flax has also become too frequently a stolen or extra crop, 
without a compensating quantity of manure being given to the 
land. An examination of the following rotations will illustrate 
what is meant more clearly. When no flax is grown, the usual 
four-course rotation is pretty generally adopted, viz. : 
Potatoes and turnips. 
Wheat laid down in 
Clover and Grass, 
Oats. 
'When flax, however, is grown, the rotation has too often 
become one of five courses, viz. : 
Potatoes and Turnips, 
Wheat, 
Flax laid down in 
Clover and Grass, 
Oats, 
which i3 objectionable, unless additional manure is given to 
keep up the condition of the land ; too frequently the manure 
is curtailed instead of being increased, flax only producing 
money, Avhich is not usually spent on the land. 
The system that will maintain the land in a fertile condition 
is to adhere to what is commonly called the four-course rotation, 
in which flax would be included ; but instead of putting all the 
land in wheat that had been in green crop the preceding year, it 
