PEDIGREED FIBER ELAX. 5 
separate. Mr. Cranclall continued the selections in this way in 1911 
and 1912, the field work being carried on at Croswell, Mich., and 
Crookston, Minn. 
In 1913 Mr. Frank C. Miles took up the work and continued it 
until the spring of 1917. As a basic stock for selection, strains which 
had been developed by Mr. Crandall were used, and material was 
added from imported seed as well as from the commercial fiber- 
flax fields of Michigan and Oregon. Selection plats were grown 
by Mr. Miles on the Potomac Flats rear Washington, D. C, at 
Yale, Mich., on the grounds of the Northwestern School of Agri- 
culture, Crookston, Minn., and at the Oregon Agricultural College, 
Fig. 3. — Planting the first plat of fiber-flax selections. Holes are made just 3 inches apart 
and 1 inch deep. One seed is planted in each hole. The stakes mark the number of the 
parent plant. Croswell, Mich., May 10, 1910. 
Corvallis, Oreg. The most important work was carried on at Yale. 
Improved strains decidedly superior to commercial strains were de- 
veloped and attempts made to increase the seed, but in three seasons 
this work was interfered with by disastrous storms at Yale and at 
Crookston, which practically destroyed the increase plats. 
The flax planted on the Potomac Flats at the Arlington Experi- 
mental Farm, Va., in 1913 and 1914 made a satisfactory growth and 
flowered, but it produced very few seeds. Work at this point was 
therefore discontinued. 
A number of tall plants were grown in the greenhouses at Wash- 
ington, D. C, during the winter of 1913, and crosses were made be- 
tween the more promising ones. These crosses were grown to the 
