The Wilmingtonian, And Delaware Advertiser

The Practical Farmer.

FLAX.

To raise flax, it is necessary that you sow good seed; and if you mean to make it profitable, have your land well prepared. A loamy soil is the best, but clay will do very well, provided the land is rich, or has been well manured the year preceding, as it will not do so well to put on manure the same spring that you sow the flax, for the weeds in this case are apt to be troublesome. Flax may be weeded when young, but I had rather have no weeds, if possible. If you had potatoes on the land the year preceding, and did not let the weeds go to seed, it will do well; or if the land is ploughed early, and let the weeds start up, and then plough them in, it will be found very useful. I do not like to sow flax as early as we do barley, summer wheat, rye or oats, because weeds will grow much faster than flax in cold weather, so that the flax would be checked in its growth. About the middle of April, is the proper time to sow, provided the land is pulverized fine, and is dry enough; if not, you may wait even till the first of May; but if sown much after this time, it will not have so good a coat. Dry sandy land is not so good, but the flax may be helped by putting gypsum or plaster of Paris on it when young, as it helps to keep it moist, and makes it grow taller, and produce more seed and better flax. Do not regard the moon, for its being new or old, makes no more difference, than a white faced ox would, standing on a mountain in view. Neither regard the wind unless it be to sow it in a still time because you can sow it more even. Some flax was sown on my farm when the wind was southerly; one of my hired men said that it would be good for nothing; but it yielded 3 pounds to a rod, and the crop including the seed, was worth more than fifty dollars per acre, which was far better than to raise one hundred pounds of poor, short flax, that will require nearly as much expense. My flax was sown on land that had corn on the year before, but the stocks were pulled up and put in the hog's pen, and the land well pulverized. The quantity of seed per acre depends much on the richness of the soil-you may sow from one to two bushels. for it is better to have but one seed to a hill, if the land is rich enough to have it sown thick. If you sow poor land thick the flax will not be worth pulling.