. Cyclopedia of farm crops. Farm produce; Agriculture. FLAX FLAX 295 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 goil.— 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 g
. Cyclopedia of farm crops. Farm produce; Agriculture. FLAX FLAX 295 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 goil.— 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 as 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 into form 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- t
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