BULLETIN 883, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
From 1850 to 1860 half the flaxseed crop of the country was 
produced in Ohio and Kentucky. By 1902 North Dakota led all 
other States in the production of flaxseed. In the intervening years 
flax had followed the tide of development westward, State by State. 
Its reputation as the favorite sod crop of this area was firmly estab- 
lished. In 1918 fully 80 per cent of the crop was produced on break- 
ing in the four principal flax-producing States. While conditions 
have changed and are changing annually in such a way as to em- 
phasize the importance of flax culture under new and different 
methods of production, it is still as a sod crop that flax claims its 
right to a place in the agriculture of the North-Central States. This 
condition will persist probably for some years to come. 
Although flax is grown principally on 'new land and is one of the 
most important crops in recently settled districts, no report of ex- 
periments conducted on breaking to determine the best adapted 
varieties or the cultural methods giving the most profitable return 
has yet been published in the United States. 
Experiments with flax were started at the Northern Great Plains 
Field Station/ Mandan, N. Dak., in 1914, when land was first being 
broken for crops. This gave the opportunity to obtain three years' 
consecutive results with flax on breaking under almost uniform soil 
conditions. An experiment station could not have been selected 
more nearly in the geographical center of present seed-flax produc- 
tion. 
This bulletin presents a discussion of varietal experiments in plats 
and nursery rows, covering both the present commercial varieties 
and various new introductions from other flax-producing countries. 
Agronomic and chemical data showing the differences in these vari- 
eties and strains are presented, together with the results of experi- 
ments in dates and rates of seeding hi these three years. 
THE PRESENT FLAX AREA, 
EXTENT. 
Flax is grown principally in the four States of North Dakota, 
Montana, Minnesota, and South Dakota, named in the order of their 
importance. Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, and Wyoming, 
with limited acreage, come next in relative importance in flax pro- 
duction, and Colorado, Idaho, and Oregon produce some flax, though 
statistics on their production usually are lacking. 
i The Northern Great Plains Field Station, Mandan, N. Dak., where the investigations herein reported 
were made, is a field station of the Bureau of Plant Industry, under the immediate supervision of the 
Office of Dry-Land Agriculture. The writer wishes gratefully to acknowledge the cooperation in these 
studies on the part of that office and particularly the help rendered from time to time by different members 
of the station staff. To Mr. J. T. Sarvis, assistant in dry-land agriculture, in charge of the agronomic work 
at the station, Mr. W. A. Peterson, former superintendent, and Mr. Arthur Shultz, former assistant in 
dry-land agriculture, the writer is particularly indebted. The assistance of Mr. John C Brinsmadc, jr., 
who had charge of the field experiments with flax at Mandan since May, 1916, is also gladly acknowledged. 
