THE OIL CONTENT OF FLAXSEED 
9 
According to Rabak (7) geographical conditions influence the oil 
content of flaxseed. To obtain further knowledge on this point, the 
flaxseed-producing area was divided latitudinally and from a knowl- 
edge of the shipping point of the car lots of seed and the oil content 
of the samples the figures in Table 5 were obtained. 
Table 5. — Geographical distribution versus oil content of flaxseed 
Crop year 
1921 
Number of samples 
Average percentage of oil 
1922 
Number of samples ... 
Average percentage of oil 
1923 
Number of samples 
Average percentage of oil 
YEARLY AVERAGE 
Number of samples 
General average percentage of oil 
Degrees of latitude 
49 
131 
40.76 
133 
40.97 
108 
41.65 
372 
41.13 
48 
164 
40.55 
142 
41.56 
399 
40.92 
39.81 
118 
40.40 
175 
41.13 
382 
40.44 
4fi 
39.76 
54 
40.13 
58 
40.51 
171 
40.13 
45 
27 
39.14 
12 
40.76 
23 
40.06 
62 
39.99 
15 
40.28 
11 
39.74 
10 
41.10 
40.37 
The data in Table 5 bring out the fact that on the average there is 
a gradual increase in the percentage of oil in flaxseed as the point 
of production changes progressively from south to north. But the 
data emphasize the fact that a practice of buying on geographical 
information is not reliable. Even though, on the average, the oil 
content of samples of flaxseed grown in the most northern areas is 
greater than that in samples grown in the most southerly areas, 
groups of samples grown in any area may have as great an oil con- 
tent as is to be found in any of the 'areas more favorable to flaxseed 
production. 
OIL CONTENT OF FLAXSEED OF DIFFERENT VARIETIES 
Variety of seed influences the oil content of flaxseed. Table 6 
gives the oil content of flaxseed of seven varieties supplied by the 
Office of Cereal Crops and Diseases, Bureau of Plant Industry, and 
by the North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station. On the 
average there was an extreme range of 5.2 per cent in the oil content 
of flaxseed of the different varieties grown at any one station for 
any given year. 
28987°— 27 2 
