130 
Some Minor Farm Crops . 
secured. Considerable importance became attached to this 
practice ; indeed, farmers began to grow flax as a seed crop in 
this country. 
The term flax being used to denote the crop grown primarily 
for seed — i.e. linseed — as well as the crop grown primarily for 
fibre, it became customary to speak of the latter as a line crop. 
Certainly this term line is still used in Somerset and in York- 
shire, where flax growing on a considerable scale has not long 
ceased, and it seems desirable to retain the term to indicate the 
fla x.-fibre crop as distinct from the fia n-linseed crop. 
It is interesting to note that in 1870 the area devoted to 
flax growing in Great Britain was no less than 23,957 acres — 
the greatest area devoted to the crop in any year on record. 
About the year 1875 a succession of seasons adverse to 
flax was experienced, and this, together with the keen 
competition of foreign flax and other fibres on the English 
markets, and the high price of wheat at the time, caused 
many farmers to cease growing flax. In consequence, many 
of the flax factories at which the retting operations had 
been conducted were compelled to close down through 
want of support. Other factories, operating alone in a large 
district where there was little or no competition, failed to 
inspire the farmers with confidence that they were receiving 
fair treatment at the hands of the factory management. The 
flax mills which were established in 1876 at Long Melford 
continued in operation for some twenty years, and took large 
quantities of flax straw from the farmers of that part of 
Suffolk. The most prosperous factories, however, seem to have 
been situated in Yorkshire, at Selby and Staddlethorpe — these 
two together dealing annually with the crop from some three 
thousand acres. 
Nevertheless, in company with the other few remaining 
retteries and mills, the quantity of flax dealt with each year 
decreased steadily and eventually about 1896 they too ceased 
operations. From time to time small attempts have been made 
to resuscitate the industry in this country, but owing to want 
of capital, or to lack of proper co-operation between grower 
and factory, or to other mismanagement, no success has attended 
these endeavours. 
Although, as the following table shows, there has never 
been less than some 200 acres devoted to flax in this country, 
only quite a small part of this refers to the line crop. This is 
due to the fact that some farmers are now growing linseed for 
consumption on their own farms and the acreage is returned as 
being under flax. In Somerset and in Yorkshire, however, 
small quantities of flax are still grown as a line crop, the straw 
being dew-retted and disposed of locally. 
