EXPERIMENTS WITH FLAX ON BREAKING. 15 
exception of C. I. No. 2, the first four varieties are strains or selec- 
tions of Frontier (C. I. No. 17), which is fifth in order of yield. Da- 
mont (C. I. No. 3), which is third on the list and not significantly 
poorer than the other two, is most uniform, has a more determinate 
blooming period, and has proved superior at stations in hotter or 
more arid sections. Under irrigation its growth habits are prefer- 
able to those of some of the other varieties. Seed of this variety has 
been distributed from several of the experiment stations. 
C. I. No. 8, one of the North Dakota resistant varieties, was seventh 
in order of yield. This variety approaches the true seed-flax type 
more nearly than any of the other resistant strains. It is widely 
distributed in North Dakota and particularly hi Montana, where in 
several of the northeastern counties it is the principal flax variety 
grown. While it is not a significantly poorer yielder than the best 
strain on the basis of statistical comparison, neither is it significantly 
a higher yielding strain than C. I. Nos. 13 or 12, and in each of the 
three years, and in the average of all, it produced about 2 bushels per 
acre less than the three highest yielders. It is a good, uniform variety, 
with considerable careful breeding behind it, and its distribution for 
growing on new land should be encouraged where better varieties 
are not available. Its name, however, has come to be a misnomer, 
for in the last few years, from one cause or another, it has ceased to 
retain the qualities of wilt resistance which it once possessed, and it 
can no longer be recommended as a. resistant flax for those sections 
where flax is seeded on old land and where resistant flax should be 
grown. 
North Dakota Resistant No. 114 (C. I. No. 13) is the only variety 
which can be safely recommended for old land, and one must be sure 
he is obtaining the true variety. It should be remembered that the 
behavior of this flax on new lands and under semiarid conditions is 
no proof of what the variety will do where it is particularly adapted. 
It is the one variety to be recommended at present for the eastern 
Dakotas, Minnesota, and Wisconsin where flax is grown on old land. 
North Dakota Resistant No. 73 (C. I. No. 14) is a better-yielding 
variety than North Dakota Resistant No. 114 (C. I. No. 13), but it is 
less widely distributed and not as wilt resistant as the latter. 
In Table IV data are also presented on the percentage yields of 
oil and also the actual yield of oil in pounds per acre. This shows 
that the productive seed-flax strains also produce higher percentages 
of oil, and hence considerably greater oil yields, than the interme- 
diate and short-fiber strains. 
Table V shows the annual and average agronomic data recorded 
for the fourt/een varieties of flax in the 3-year period from 1914 to 
1916, inclusive. 
