FLAX. This product has shown some curi ous changes in the areas of production. Flax is raised almost entirely in the United States for its seed, the lint being used only in the coarsest fab rics. The reason for this is, labor in the United States cannot compete with the cheap labor of Europe, where nearly all the manipulatiorrmust be done by hand. When machinery can be brought into competition we can compete. Ma chinery can reduce the fiber for. paper stock, bagging, etc., and hence flax fiber is confined in the United States to such uses. When machinery may be devised for pulling thickly sown flax, and cheaply reducing the fiber for manufacturing into fine linen, we can easily pro duce the world's supply. The table below shows the relative productions of the States principally interested in the production of the seed, for the years 1879 and 1887.: It will be seen that in 1879 the four gtates east of the Mississippi River produced 63 per cent. of the total of the States named, while in the pres ent year the same region grows but little more than 4 per cent. of the whole, the six trans-Mis
sissippi States producing considerably more than nine-tenths of all. Even in this region the in dustry is now beginning to decline, and the causes are the same as have caused its virtual abandon ment farther east. Many returns from Iowa and Wisconsin agree that under existing conditions it is not a profitable crop, being very hard on any but fresh soil, and the seed alone not paying for its growth. The great markets of the United States for flaxseed are Chicago, St. Louis and Milwaukee, the bulk of the seed goes directly or indirectly to these cities. From the returns of the various State Boards of Agriculture are col lected the following as the latest information on the subject of flaxseed. These are probably much under the true status—perhaps to the amount of 10 per cent.— but the approximation is close enough.