26 HINTS ON RAISING FARM CROPS 
cash crop, or a crop that will supply the farm¬ 
er with ready cash. Many different kinds of 
cloth are made from the flax fiber, and flax 
seed is used for a variety of purposes. The 
seed is too high priced to be used as feed for 
the farm animals, as the seed can be pressed, 
or heated, and a valuable oil is extracted, which 
is used as an ingredient of paints, varnishes, 
etc. This is called linseed oil, a product fa¬ 
miliar to the average housewife. But we still 
have a further use for this seed even after 
the oil has been extracted. The remainder 
is very rich in protein, and is prized very 
highly by feeders of live stock. It is marketed 
as linseed oil meal, and cattle and other an¬ 
imals relish it in this form. 
Flax is a common crop in newly-settled dis¬ 
tricts, as, for instance, on some of the land 
west of the Mississippi. It is especially val¬ 
uable as a first crop on land that has never 
been cropped before, as it has been found ex¬ 
cellent in preparing the tough sod for agri¬ 
cultural purposes. Many settlers have been 
known to put their entire farm into flax the 
first year, and pretty near pay for their land 
if they had a good flax year. The crop will 
not stand constant seeding, however, on the 
same land, as the ground soon becomes “flax 
sick” if put into flax continually. 
On old land, just as much pains should be 
taken in the preparation of the seed bed as 
for any other grain crop, but on new, or virgin 
soil, the new sod is often just turned over flat 
in the fall or early spring, running the disc 
sharply in the spring over the fall-plowed soil. 
