Propagation and cultivation The propagation of flax is entirely by the seed, which is planted in the spring (the middle of May to the middle of June in Minnesota) of the same sea son that the crop is harvested. It requires eighty five to one hundred days in which to mature the crop. At present, flax in the United States and Canada is grown almost exclusively for seed. The demand for linseed oil has been an important factor in stimulating the seed-producing feature. The fiber has been neglected in this country until the last few years. Several companies are now at work on machinery and other equipment necessary to the making of cordage and coarse-woven materials.
These figures represent the cost when flax is grown on stubble land. When it is grown on new breaking, the cost is slightly higher.
Choice of The flax, having a delicate and relatively small root system, and growing to ma turity in so short a time, demands a soil that is rich in soluble organic matter and in moisture.
The character of the soil does not seem to be of so much importance. Good crops have been produced on very sandy soil, but the straw in such cases is very short. On the other hand, the larger crops are grown on the heavier clay soils, but in this case at the expense of the quality of the fiber.
Experiments have been conducted in various states on, many types of soil, and the consensus of opinion seems to be that the heavier lands give better results, but that more seems to depend on the preparation before seeding than on the type of soils. In short, experience teaches that flax may be grown on a variety of soils, but for the best results a moist, deep, friable loam or clay loam is prefer able. In the great flax-growing areas of the Northwest, the virgin upland prairie homestead farms are plowed and seeded to flax without regard to the soil. In the older sections, flax is used at a reclamation crop to reduce the low land to arable fields. These low-lying pieces (prairie sloughs) vary in size from one to several acres, and originally were too wet for cropping, but as the country be came older, the water gradually disappeared so as to render them useful for pasture and finally dry enough to plow. The farmers, eager for more acres on which to grow grain, have reclaimed the border of these sloughs from year to year, and are thus maintaining the an nual flax area and getting their farms intoform and condition for systematic crop rota tion. Thus, flax has been valuable in subduing
the virgin sod. On the older and heavier lands it has a tendency to improve the physical condi tion of the soil.
Preparing the feature in the flax industry receives too little attention. A com mon practice in the western states is to break the sod in July or August and "back-set" later in the fall, but more often the back-setting is not done. The following spring the soil is harrowed (or disked if the farmer possesses a disk) and seeded. It is worthy of note in this connection that on the new prairie upland sod thus treated, the yield, often as high as thirty bushels per acre, is sufficient to pay the price of the land. It is gener ally conceded, however, that flax needs a better prepared soil, and, as the country grows older, the preparation of the seed-bed receives more and more attention. No definite rules can be laid down that would be suitable for all types of soil, and in all climates, but a few general principles must always be observed : (1) The land should be plowed deep in the fall previous to the spring in which the seed is to be sown. If the land is sod, five inches will be suffi cient, but if it is old land, it should be stirred six to eight inches deep.
(2) Heavy clay soils should be worked deeper than the lighter loam or sandy soils.
(3) Generally it is not advisable to har row in the fall.
(4) In the spring, the heaviest of soils should be plowed again, then disked and harrowed un til smooth and firm. The lighter soil should be disked as early as it is sufficiently dry to permit of working, then harrowed and pul verized fine.
(5) Flax should not be seeded on land that is wet, lumpy or . weedy.
is a waste of time to sow flax on impoverished land. The returns will not repay the cost of production and the seed, to say nothing of the rental value of the land. Flax is com monly regarded as an exhausting crop, but it is relatively no more exhausting of soil fertility than other grain crops. The root systems of flax plants are not large when compared with other grains, as wheat and oats. Flax may be considered, therefore, as a deli cate feeder. This means that soil on which flax is to be grown must be rich in soluble organic matter, or be supplied with the necessary ele ments of plant-growth.