AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
Umprir to tmjrrrk % farmer, i\t planter, mxh tjje (Sart mtx\ 
AGRICULTURE 13 THE MOST HEALTHY . THE MOST USEFUL , AND THE MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF MAN. - Wabhiitetoh. 
PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY ALLEH & CO., 189 WATER ST. 
[NEW SERIES.—NO. 46. 
VOL. XII.—NO. 20.] 
©@T FOR PROSPECTUS, TERMS, fyc., 
SEE LAST FAGE. 
FLAX CULTIVATION IN THE WEST. 
Passing a few days recently in Southern 
Ohio, and a part of Indiana adjoining, we were 
much gratified to see the large fields of flax 
which abounded in that rich agricultural region. 
We saw hundreds of acres devoted to this valu- 
ble object; but sorry to say, for the most part, 
with only half-its legitimate purposes, that of 
its seed, in view by the cultivators. Seed is the 
only object for which the mass of the crop is 
produced. For the want of proper machinery to 
dress it, the lint is thrown away, and rotted in 
the barn-yards. Machines, however, are begin¬ 
ning to work their way into the flax-growing 
country, two or three being already established 
in and about Springfield, in the Mad River val¬ 
ley. When machines of the right kind are 
permanently established, we see no reason why 
flax will not become a continual crop in the 
Western States, north of the Ohio River, as 
hemp is at the south of it. It is an excellent 
crop for a rotation, leaving the ground clean, 
light, and free; in this particular, an excellent 
preparation for wheat, and not considered more 
exhausting than the cereal grains. 
As now cultivated, for seed only, it is sown 
at the rate of one to two bushels to the acre, 
according to the quality of the ground; too 
thin for good lint. It grows high and branch¬ 
ing, and on good land, yields twelve to fourteen 
bushels per acre. The cultivation is simple. 
A single plowing on mellow, free soils, a dress¬ 
ing with the harrow, then sowing, and a brush¬ 
ing in of the seed, is sufficient. When the crop 
is matured, it is mowed, or cradled, if very 
stout. Mowing, however, is the usual way of 
cutting. After drying on the ground, it is care¬ 
fully bound into bundles, and the seed whipped 
out by hand-beaters. 
There are large fields of the White, or Ca¬ 
nary flax in growth. It is somewhat larger 
than the common flax, and thought by its cultiva¬ 
tors to give a greater yield of seed. We saw 
specimens of stalks (or straw) just previous to 
blooming, which were three and a half feet long, 
a fair sample of the whole field. The flax seed 
of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, must be worth 
millions of dollars the current year, as every 
field we saw was of the finest growth, the sea¬ 
son being moist and warm. Oil mills are fre¬ 
quent. The highest price, in cash, is paid to 
the farmers for the seed; the oil finds a ready 
market in the Eastern States, and thousands of 
tons of the cake are transported to this city for 
shipment to England. It sells at the mills where 
NEW-YORK, WEDNESDAY, JULY 26, 1854. 
manufactured, according as they stand contigu¬ 
ous to canal and railway communication, at ten to 
fifteen dollars a ton. The mills have paid for 
seed the past two or three years, $1 25 to $1 50 
per bushel. 
When the sale and preparation of the lint 
shall become an important object in flax culti¬ 
vation, as by the introduction of proper dress¬ 
ing-machines, we trust it soon will be, the crop 
will be much more profitable. The yield of 
seed will be less, as it must be thicker sown to 
give a finer fibre. It may have to be somewhat 
earlier pulled, or cut, and a less proportion of 
the seed may be marketable. The cultivation 
may have to be somewhat nicer. The method 
of harvesting will be more expensive, as the 
crop must be pulled, or cut close to the ground, 
as with hemp; but all these increased labors 
and expenses will be doubly compensated by 
the sale of the lint, which yields some four 
hundred pounds to the acre of well-dressed flax, 
worth six to eight dollars the hundred. In Ire¬ 
land the average is about two tons of straw per 
acre, which yields about five hundred pounds of 
dressed flax. 
It is a matter of surprise that, in a country 
where cotton and hemp have arrived, years ago, 
at an advanced state of improvement in their 
manufacture, flax, an equally valuable article, 
in the extent to which it is used, should be so 
far behind. The flax-cotton, about which so 
much was said a few years since, for linen 
fabrics, proved a failure ; for, by shortening its 
fibre, the desirable characteristics of the linen 
article was lost. That could be spun on cotton 
machinery, or something near like it, but flax 
proper, requires manipulations of its own. 
With a broad growth of the article among our 
farmers, and efficient machines to break and 
dress it into marketable shape, we have little 
doubt that it will afford a profitable staple of 
manufacture, even into many articles where 
hemp is now used. For all the coarse, heavy 
purposes, hemp, as now, must be required, its 
great length of fibre affording a strength that 
flax is unequal to; but if we cannot go into the 
manufacture of fine linens, coarse ones, with 
threads, twines, cords, and various articles, may 
be made in this country, of great consumption 
among our own people and trades, and building- 
up for their fabrication permanent establish¬ 
ments, adds largely to our wealth and re¬ 
sources. 
Cucumber Experiment. —Mr, G. R. De For¬ 
rest, of Somerville, N. J., writes us, giving us 
his experiments with cucumbers. He states 
that he put the hills four feet apart, with ten 
seeds in the hill. AYhere they came up too 
thick, he thinned them out, In part of the hills 
he put some super-phosphate of lime, and in 
part barn-yard manure. He says thos6 treated 
with super-phosphate of lime, stand the dry 
weather and yield better than those having the 
yard manure. 
-e-«-e- 
For tlie American Agriculturist. 
AGRICULTURAL NOTES ON THE MOUNTAINS 
OE NORTH CAROLINA, 
The climate of the mountain region of North 
Carolina appears not to differ very greatly from 
that of Long Island, Southern New-Jersey and 
Pennsylvania. It is perhaps more variable, but 
the extremes both of heat and cold are less than 
are reached in those more northern and less 
elevated regions. The usual crops are the same, 
those of most consequence being corn, rye, 
oats, and grass, and in the eastern parts, buck¬ 
wheat and clover. Fruit is a more precarious 
crop, from a greater liability to severe frosts 
after the swelling of buds in the spring. This 
year the apple-crop has been thus totally des¬ 
troyed, so that in considerable orchards I have 
not seen a single apple. Snow fell several 
inches in depth in April, and was followed by a 
severe freezing night, and even young shoots 
which had begun to grow, forest trees, and 
leaves which had expanded, were withered. 
The summer pasture continues about six 
months. The hills generally afford an excellent 
range, and the mast is usually good, much being 
provided by the Chestnut, as well as the Oak, 
and smaller nutbearing trees. The soil of the 
hills is a rich dark vegetable deposit, and they 
are cultivated upon astonishingly steep slopes. It 
is said to wash and gully very little, being very 
absorptive. The valleys, and gaps across the 
mountain ranges, are very closely settled, and 
all the feasible level ground that I have seen is 
fenced, and either in cultivation or producing 
grass for hay. The agricultural management is 
nearly as bad as possible. Corn, planted with¬ 
out any manure, even by farmers who have 
large stocks of cattle, is cultivated for a long 
series of years on the same ground; the usual 
crop being from twenty to thirty bushels. 
Where it fails very materially, it is thought to 
be a good plan to shift to Rye. Rye is sown in 
July, broadcast, among the groioing corn , and 
covered with a plow and hoes at the “lay by” 
cultivation of the Corn. It is reaped early in 
July the following year with cradles, and the 
crop is from 5 to 15 bushels. The following 
crop of Corn is thought to be much the better 
for the interpolation. Oats, and in the eastern 
parts, Buckwheat, are sowed in fallow land, and 
the crops appear to be excellent, but I can 
learn of never a measurement. Itcrds-grass is 
sown on the valley lands, (rarely on the steep 
slopes of the mountains,) with oats, and the crop 
