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MORE ABOUT FLAX CULTURE.
Methods in Use in Scotland.
A well-known Scottish authority
writes as follows concerning the meth
ods of flax culture in that country, to
F. G. Parker, of Walla Walla. For
further particulars, see articles by Dr.
J. G. Van Marter and Mr. Parker in
Thk Ranch of last week:
In days gone by every farmer in
Scotland grew a little flax. When
wheat rose to 70s a qitarter and our
farmers stopped growing flax, most of
it was imported from Russia. The
very great prosperity of the jute trade
here also led the flax spinners to de
velop that industry. But now when,
owing to the very low price of siver, a
rupee is purchased for Is 5d instead of
2s or 2s Id, India gives us wheat at
rates which have forced down the
price to 28 to 30s a quarter for wheat.
It may be interesting to your farmers
to show exactly how this operates.
Now if 17 pence gold coin can buy a
rupee, while before it took 24s to buy
as much silver, and if this silver ru
pee still buj's as much wheat as ever
in India, it follows that from this
one cause there is a vast fall in the
price of wheat in L,ondon. Add to this
the fact that the transport has been
made very easy, and that day by day
India is opening up, it follows that the
American farmer has now to compete
with the Indian grower. The British
consumer gains, for he can now buy
twice as much wheat for the same
money as he gave before. Nor is it
the quantity that comes from India
which is so important. It is the fact
that it is offered which compels the
American producer to lower his price.
He has now, therefore, to sell his pro
duce at the price at which the Indian
grower will sell, and to buy all he
needs in the dearest market in the
world. Where all clothing, tools and
furnishings are absurdly raised in
price for the enrichment of small
classes, and this at the expense of the
farmers, who are shut out from buying
in the cheap markets, in which, how
ever, they are compelled to sell their
wheat.
For these and other reasons it would
seem of the utmost importance to the
Scotch farmer, as well as to the Amer
ican, that new trades should be encour
aged against which India cannot so
readily compete. Flax is precisely
suited to your country. It gTOWB it
now, but the most valuable part of the
crop is wasted. I will, as shortly as I
can, show the whole process, and it is
so simple that, like sunshine, it is
really difficult to describe.
In Scotland, then, we choose clean
land in good heart. Peas, oats, then
Hax does best. We keep the land as
free from weeds as possible, as the
THE RANCH
weeding of flax is costly. Land in
river bottoms, land moist and dampish,
land which grows long grass, m best
for flax. The land should be a fine
mould, and after being plowed and
harrowed should be rolled flat to oblit
erate all trace of the drills. The flax
should be sown in April, just a little
after oats. The seeds should be care
fully tested; 100 should be counted,
sown upon a wet rag, and if 75 per
cent germinate, two and one-half
bushels will be required for an acre; if
85 per cent, then two bushels or a little
more is sufficient. The flax should be
sown broadcast on the rolled field,
then lightly harrowed.
It will show thick on the ground,
and in Scotland we weed it. But good
farmers are able to have their land in
such condition that they do not require
to spend much on weeding. When the
flax is ripe it will show yellow half
way up the stock. It should not be al
lowed to become dead ripe. Note well
that the flax should not be in drills,
but should stand close together,
so that the steins may be tall like a
rod, with the flowers in a cluster on
the top. The flax should not branch
out like a tree in a park, but rather
like tall trees in a forest, free from
branches till the top is reached. The
flax may be either pulled or cut. If
cut it will be diflcult to handle, as the
bolls interlace, and then a good many
valuable inches are lost. The flax
should be pulled and tied up in small
sheaves with its own strand, and set
up in stocks. Then it must be rippled.
Let the farmer get an iron comb pre
cisely like a hair comb, only of iron
wire, the prongs 14 inches long and Y%
of an inch apart; fit this in a frame on
a log; let two men sit astride, face to
face as on horseback, the comb sitting
between them. The flax is now lifted
in handfuls and drawn through the
comb. The bolls will start off and
should be allowed to roll off on a big
sheet or on the barn floor.
The bolls are valuable. Note well,
the husk or pod is of as much value as
the seeds for feeding, and the seeds
should not be fed without the husk.
The husk has many valuable proper
ties. It insures the complete diges
tion of the oily seeds; it compels cat
tle to chew the cud, and it gives a
tonic, bitter, astringent quality to the
food. The bolls must not, therefore,
be thrown away as chaff. The be.-t
method of preparation is to dry them
with care and use them in cooked food
with a little salt, say 7 pounds of bar
ley to 1 pound of bolls. They go
spledidly crushed with Indian corn in
the same proportion. The farmer will
find that poultry,milk cows, horses and
cattle, all grow glossy and beautiful
when fed with a mixture of say 1
pound of bolls to 5 to 7 pounds of corn.
Or the bolls can be crushed or ground
and then heated and pressed in bales.
The oil sprinkled on dry hay is a real
boon to cattle where there are no tur
nips. Always have salt, however, and
plenty of pure water for cattle.
The remains of the crushed seed are
oil cake, which today sells at as much
per pound as wheat, so highly do Scot
tish farmers value it. In a country
where cattle are raised flax should be
grown on every farm, at least a few
acres.
So much for the bolls. Then as to
the straw. The moment the bolls are
off, the straw should again be tied up
in small bundles, square and neat at
the root end. If possible, the farmer
should now have a pond or ditch full
of water which is soft and which has
had the rays of the sun pouring- into it
for several weeks. Into this water
pack the flax, end downward, like her
rings in a box. Cover with old planks
and stones. Let it lie ten days. Take
a few of the stalks, and if it is ready
the heart will break over as if rotten,
and the fiber will slide easily off the
stalk. Now spread the flax all out on
a stubble field. There let it get very
dry, and then tie in big bundles.
Here the farmer's care should end.
In my opinion, a small company should
be formed to take the straw at a price
per ton from the farmer the moment it
is rippled, and save him the labor of
steeping the flax. When the flax is
dry it is taken to the scutching- mill.
This is a simple affair, and can for
$500 or $550 be bought com
plete. It consists of fluted rollers.
The flax is passed through these, and
so the woody stem is broken into little
lengths and the case split to let them
dry out. To a quickly revolving
shaft are fixed wooden swords; these
strike the flax rapidly; the operator
holds the strike of flax firmly over a
rest, and the swords begin at the point
and by quick stroks beat out the wood,
and a glossy, beautifnl bunch, called a
strike of flax, remains. This flax is
in great demand in America and in
Europe.
The flax that you can grow is fit
for the finest linen, sewing twines and
the like. I value a good crop as better
than wheat at present prices, and very
useful indeed to the fanners. An acre
should give you quite two tons of
straw and 15 cwt. of bolls. The straw
I value at ,£4 a ton and the bolls at
,£lO a ton. Two tons of straw at £4,
jC$; 15 cwt. of bolls at ,£lO, /7.10; to
tal, ,£15.10. I would expect you to
have from the two tons of straw 5 cwt.
of flax at 40s or ,£10; cost, £8; for la
bor of steepig, £2. The flax might
be worth £60, but even at ,£4O it
would pay you. I assume the crop to
be like the flax I saw from Oregon, as
Russian flax is not worth as much. I
