69 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST,, 
CULTIVATION OF FLAX.' 
TVe had the pleasure of listening to a highly 
interesting lecture on the cultivation of flax, 
from Prof. Joiin Wilson, the Commissioner from 
England to the World’s Pair of New-York, which 
was delivered during the late Annual Show of 
the New-York State Agricultural Society, at Sar¬ 
atoga. The history, character, cultivation, man¬ 
ufacture and statistics of this useful plant, have 
been a favorite subject of investigation with 
Prof. W., and we presume he was very distinctly 
charged, by the British Government, with the 
duty of pressing its more general cultivation 
and preparation for market upon American 
farmers. We accept the information so kindly 
conveyed, with many thanks to the intelligent 
gentleman from whom it is received, and hope 
our farmers will not fail to avail themselves of 
it. Recent improvements in the preparation of 
the raw material have greatly increased its 
value, and will soon, we think, largely augment 
the product. But there is one suggestion we 
take the liberty of making to our American pub 
lie, which Prof. W. omitted to mention. It is, 
that when our farmers have raised and prepared 
the flax, our manufacturers had best manufac¬ 
ture it for home consumption, instead of send¬ 
ing it abroad for this purpose. 
We had made some notes of the address, but 
we find Mr. C. M. Saxton, of this city, has 
promptly published it entire, in pamphlet form. 
We make from this the following extracts, and 
recommend our readers who wish the entire 
address to procure it from Mr. Saxton. Price 
25 cents: 
DESCRIPTION OF FLAX. 
The members of this order, generally, are 
remarkable for the tenacity of their fibres, the 
elegance of their shapes, the beauty of their 
flowers, which are blue, red, or white',* and the 
em'dlient and demulcent properties of their 
seeds._ All are harmless, some possessing slight 
medicinal action; in others, even this is absent 
Of these we may cite the Linum catharticum 
a very common weed, whose leaves contain 
properties of a purgative character, and the L 
selaginoides, which is accounted in South Amer¬ 
ica of great use, both as a mild aperient, and as 
a tonic. Probably these properties pervade the 
whole order, but have not been remarked in the 
cultivated flax. Several of its members are 
plentifully met with in this country as weeds: 
the Linum catharticum is very common on poor 
lands in Europe, though I believe it is not found 
on the American continent; the L. perenne, (or 
Siberian flax,) usually on formations containin')- 
chalk or lime; the L. usitatissimum on cuitn 
vated soils; and more rarely the L. angustifoli- 
um, which is met with on sandy and barren 
pastures, principally near the sea ; while the 
Kadiola ts well known to all botanists as being 
met with in moist and boggy places. 
Although there are many kinds of flax known 
to botanists as possessing libres suitable for tex¬ 
tile purposes, the L. usitatissimum appears to be 
the only one which has been employed in culti¬ 
vation. Of this, Dr. Lindley tells us there are 
two very different forms, namely:—1. The L 
humile or crepitans, (the Springlein or Klano-- 
lein ot tne Germans,) a plant somewhat shorter 
and more inclined to branch than the other, and 
possessing larger capsules, twice as long as the 
calyx, which burst with considerable elasticity 
when ripe; its seeds, too, are both larger and 
of a paler color. 2. The L. usitatissimum, or 
ti ue winter flax, (Winterlein of the Germans,) 
which has smaller capsules, scarcely longer than 
the calyx, not bursting with elasticity, but firm- 
„ * considers that white varieties often exhihit 
the , c0 l 01 'i n e of the leaves, and suggests 
that a modification may also exist in the tissues of the stems 
M.L.V, L Mo Rra is at present experimenting uponthe culMvai 
2°JfT h i te varieties of flax. So far, he considers the fibre 
•«<M f I 1 KB r aHallty --Annates cU VAor-iauUure, Fran- 
ly retaining their seeds, which are of a dark 
brown color. These distinctions do not seem to 
be very well understood by the growers of flax, 
though they certainly are of some practical im¬ 
portance. In Austria and Northern Europe, 
where the winters are severe, and the snow lies 
too long on the ground to admit of early tillage 
in the spring, the Winterlein is extensively used 
and sown in the autumn; the summer season 
being too short and too hot to admit of the suc¬ 
cessful cultivation of the Springlein. The gen¬ 
eral custom in Europe, as in this country, is to 
sow in the spring, though no doubt, in some of 
the northern districts, where the ground cannot 
be got ready sufficiently early in the spring, flax 
could be advantageously cultivated, if sown in 
the previous autumn. 
Pliny says, “ What greater miracle than that 
there should be a plant which makes Egypt ap¬ 
proach nearer to Italy; that there should grow 
from so small a seed, and upon so slender and 
short a stalk, that which, as it were, carries the 
globe itself to and fro!” 
Flax not an Exhausting Crop. 
Some experiments were made a short time 
since, by Dr. Hodges, for the purpose of ascer¬ 
taining the relative proportions of the produce 
of flax, and also the distribution of the inor¬ 
ganic matter in them. The flax employed had 
been steeped in the ordinary way, and was 
found to contain 1.73 of ash. Of this air-dried 
straw 4000 lbs. weight were taken, which pro¬ 
duced— 
Of dressed fiber - - 500 lbs. 
fine tow - - - 132 
coarse tow - - - 192 
Of fiber in all - 824 lbs. 
These products contained— 
In the dressed flax - 4-48 lbs. of ash. 
fine tow - - 2 08 ” 
coarse tow - - 2'56 
Or in the whole of the fiber 9 - 12 lbs. of inor¬ 
ganic matter; 
so that 59 08 lbs., which the crop had withdrawn 
from the soil, remained in the useless portions, 
while only 9 12 lbs. were carried off in the 
dressed fiber. If we compare these results 
with those obtained from the analysis of an acre 
of wheat, for instance, we shall see that while 
the flax fibre takes away with it 9T2 lbs. of in¬ 
organic matter, the wheat crop, grain and straw 
together, abstract about 365 lbs. from the soil. 
Treatment. 
After being properly got in, the only care it 
requires is w-eding. It is important that this he 
done in a careful and effective manner , as the 
value of the crop depends materially upon its 
cleanness. The harvest operations differ slightly 
from the usual crops; the proper time is deter¬ 
mined by the color of the straw and of the seed. 
The straw should have assumed a yellow color 
immediately under the branches; and the seed 
should, on cutting open the capsule, be of a pale 
brown color. 
Improved Method of Preparing for Market. 
No sooner, however, had the spinners given 
their testimony in favor of Watts’ fibre, than 
another process was patented by Buchanan, 
also of Glasgow, which appears to be an im¬ 
proved application of the same principle as 
Watts’, for the solvent power is clearly not due 
to the steam as made use of by him, but to the 
hot. w.q.ter occasioned by its condensation. In 
this the steeping is effected by repealed imme-r- 
sions in a tank of heated water, arrangements 
being made by which the temperature is never 
allowed to exceed a certain degree—a point of 
great importance, both as regards the abstrac¬ 
tion of the azotized extractive matter, and also 
the quality of fibre produced. It is well known 
that albuminous solutions, containing even a 
very small proportion of albumen, (1 in 1000,) 
coagulate at a temperature of 180 , and then 
become insoluble; and it is always considered 
that fibre is more or less injured if exposed be¬ 
yond a certain high temperature. These two 
important points have been taken advantage of 
in Buchanan's process; the temperature of the 
steep-liquor is kept within a certain range of 
temperature, and the operation, both as regards 
time and produce, more satisfactorily performed. 
The process is quite automatic , thus saving 
labor and the risks consequent upon careless¬ 
ness ; and the mechanical arrangements by 
which it is effected are very simple and inex¬ 
pensive. The flax straw is placed in an open 
vessel termed the steeping vat, having a false 
bottom; a boiler generates the steam required; 
and between these two is placed a suitable ves¬ 
sel, the condenser, of about the same capacity 
as the open vessel, and communicating with that 
by a hot-water pipe, arid with the boiler by a 
steam pipe. This centre vessel or condensing 
chamber is filled with water from the cistern, 
and steam is then blown in from the boiler. 
When the latent heat of the steam is absorbed, 
and condensation no longer takes place, the hot 
water is driven over into the steeping vat, and 
completely immerses its contents. The overflow 
pipe then conveys a portion into a bucket, which, 
overpowering the balance weights, descends, 
drawing a chain, which, being attached to the 
pullies fixed on to the cocks of the steam pipe and 
of the condensing pipe, reverses their action by 
cutting off the steam and turning on a charge 
of cold water into the condenser. The steam 
is then rapidly condensed, and the liquor drawn 
back from the steep vat into which it had pre¬ 
viously been forced. This completes the opua- 
tion of immersion, which recommences imme¬ 
diately : for as soon as the overflow bucket has 
reached a certain point in its descent, it strikes 
against a pin, having a screw adjustment, which 
causes the valve at the bottom to open and dis¬ 
charge its contents into the discharge pipe. The 
bucket, then relieved of its load, resumes its 
original position, the balance weights act on the 
pullies, which again reverse the cocks, cutting 
off the cold water sparge, and turning on the 
steam. This is repeated as often as may be re¬ 
quired. 
So far as the experiments have gone, it has 
been found that by ten such immersions the 
whole of the coloring matter of the flax has 
been removed. These in practice would not oc¬ 
cupy more than three or four hours. This, 
however, is subject to the test of the operaiions 
on a commercial scale which are now in progress 
in Scotland for carrying out the patent.* 
By this process we have these advantages: 
economy of products, increased economy oft<me, 
only four hours being required instead of twelve , 
and, in addition, great economy of labor. An¬ 
other great improvement is laimed by Bucha¬ 
nan—his method of drying the steeped straw 
preparatory to scutching. 
Buchanan's method is entirely different. lie 
proposes to effect the desiccation in the same vat 
in which the flax was steeped, by means of dry 
warm air, which is driven through it in unlim¬ 
ited quantities, at a very little expense. The 
air is readily obtained in the desired state by 
causing it to pass through porous earthenware 
pipes set across the lower part of the chimney, 
which, while heating the air, deprive it of its 
moisture. These communicate on the one side 
with a blower driven by the engine, and on the 
other side with a pipe which conveys the heated 
air to the lower part of the vat containing the 
flax to be dried. This is all the arrangement 
needed. The blower drives the air through the 
earthenware pipes; its temperature is there 
raised, and moisture abstracted; and entering 
the bottom of the steeping vat, it comes in con¬ 
tact with the flax and passes through it, absorb¬ 
ing and carrying off the moisture, and leaving 
the flax in a perfectly dry state. It is men ready 
to be rolled and scutched. The patentee’s ex¬ 
periments induce him to believe that by this 
process the entire operation of converting the 
straw into dressed fiber may be effected in the 
working-day, or twelve hours; and, from the 
simple nature of the mechanical arrangements 
and of the materials required, a very moderate 
outlay would suffice for the formation of an 
* The patent for the United States will ho carried out by 
the American Flax Company, of which Mr. Thomas Kim- 
ber, Jr., of Philadelphia, is the Managing Director, to whom 
all applications In reference to it should be mads 
