F. has been cultivated from time immemorial, as a winter crop, in India, but only for its seed, and not at all for its fiber, This remarkable circumstance is supposed by Dr. Hoyle to be owing to the existence of the cotton plant in that country, the fiber of which more readily offers itself to view on the bursting of the pod. But Dr. Hoyle also states his opinion, that the climate of the greater part of India is unsuitable for the pro duction of the fiber of F.; and the variety cultivated in India is only about a foot or 18 in. in height, much branched, and yielding a very worthless fiber, whilst it is loaded with capsules, and the seeds yield a larger proportion of oil, than those of F. grown in Europe. It is sometimes sown as an edging around fields.
Much depends on the' thickness of sowing. F. must be sown think to yield a fine fiber; but when intended to produce a fiber for coarser purposes, the plants ought to have more room. For the finest fiber, also, they must be pulled before the sned is ripe; but a coarser Slier and a crop of linseed are often much to be preferred by the farmer. The crop is always pulled up by the rocits, The diminished cultivation of F. in Britain, after agriculture began to improve, is to be ascribed in part to the prevalence of the opinion that it is a very exhausting crop for the land. This has been said to be particularly the case when the seed is ripened. But
the introduction of new manures has rendered this objection less important than it for merly was; and it has been found that the refuse of F. itself is not a bad manure, and that the water in which it has been steeped is it good liquid manure. The water of flax-steeping pits or ponds is often strong enough to kill the fish of rivers into which it is allowed Co flow.
The capsules (bolls) of F. are torn off, after it is pulled, by a sort of combing called rippling (see FLAX-DRESSING). Great care • is requisite to dry them, and to keep them perfectly dry. For the subsequent processes, see LINSEED.
Besides the F., several other species arc occasionally cultivated for their fiber. but are comparatively of very little value.
The linaeece am, in general, plants of eleghnt appearance and with flusters of much beauty; some of them have flowers larger than common F., and sonic are not 'infre quent ornaments of our green-houses. Radiola, millegrona, all-seed, is one of the smallest of British pharmrog,amous plants.