of  the  Ashes  of  Plants. 
523 
appear  best  in  the  present  place  to  employ  the  data  which  apply 
to  the  actual  specimens  upon  which  the  examination  has  been 
made.  Mr.  Warnes  considers  that  an  acre  of  good  average  loam 
will  produce  from  40  to  45cwt.  of  flax  straw,  neither  very  fine  nor 
coarse,  with  from  20  to  28  bushels  of  linseed,  and  about  9 cwt. 
of  bolls,  or  the  woody  envelope  of  the  seed.  To  those  who  may 
think  this  quantity  of  seed  too  high,  it  may  be  answered  that 
Mr.  Warnes  does  not  consider  it  necessary  to  sacrifice  the  seed 
to  the  fibre,  and  that  he  finds  it  perfectly  practicable  to  obtain  a 
fair  return  of  seed  at  the  same  time  that  he  secures  a fibre  of 
good  quality. 
That  the  produce  in  seed  of  Mr.  Warnes’  crop  is  such  as  above 
stated,  was  made  evident  to  one  of  us  by  an  experiment  on  the 
small  scale  performed  at  Trimingham  on  the  crop  of  1847. 
Some  average  bundles  of  fine  flax,  from  which  the  seed  had  not 
yet  been  removed,  were  placed  upon  a cloth  on  the  barn-floor, 
the  seed  being  then  beaten  out  in  the  usual  way. 
The  quantity  operated  upon  weighed  altogether  95  lbs.,  and 
was  found  to  yield — 
lbs. 
Flax  Stalks 61 
Seed 204 
“ Bolls”  (seed-vessels)  and  Leaves  . . . . 1 :ji 
The  seed  was  here,  therefore,  one-tliird  of  the  weight  of  the 
stalks.  Supposing  the  seed  to  weigh  56  lbs.  to  the  bushel, 
which  good  seed  will  do  (and  which  is  a convenient  datum,  as 
being  just  J cwt.),  and  further  supposing  that  the  produce  of 
stalks,  when  divested  of  the  seed,  is  taken  at  2 tons,  the  quantity 
of  seed  would  be  something  above  26  bushels  to  the  acre.  In 
the  calculations  that  follow,  the  produce  in  seed  has,  for  the 
sake  of  avoiding  dispute,  been  estimated  only  at  20  bushels  to  the 
acre,  or  one-fourth  of  the  weight  of  the  stalks. 
The  experiment  just  described  fixes  the  quantity  of  hushs,  or 
bolls,  at  about  8t  cwt.  per  acre.  From  other  and  practical 
results  Mr.  Warnes  considers  it  to  average  9 cwt.  per  acre,  a 
number  which  may  therefore  be  taken  as  correct. 
Assuming  then  that  an  acre  of  good  land  in  flax  will  produce 
2 tons  of  Flax  Straw, 
20  bushels  of  Seed  (weighing,  at  56  lbs.  per  bushel,  10  cwt.), 
9 cwt.  of  bolls  or  husks, 
and  leaving  out  of  the  calculation  the  leaves,  the  greater  part  of 
which  fall  off  and  are  left  on  the  land,  we  may  by  an  easv  calcula- 
tion arrive  at  the  immediate  exhaustion  of  mineral  matters  which 
is  produced  by  the  growth  of  this  crop.  By  immediate  exhaus- 
tion we  refer  to  that  amount  of  mineral  matter  which  must  be 
furnished  by  the  soil  and  manure  to  enable  the  crop  to  come  to 
