THE FARM.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 689, 25 July 1914, Page 7

THE FARM.

(By H. A. BOLLEY, in "Farm Press," Chicago.")

ESSENTIALS OF FLAX GROWING FOR SEED PRODUCTION. '

The essentials of successfully, growing. flax for seed production may be briefly stated as follows : 1. Proper preparation cf a firm seed bed. '2. Selection of a good strain of variety of seed. 3. Selection of seed oj full strength, free from internal diseases. 4. Grading the seed which has been selected until only approximately perfect seeds remain, blowing or screening out all bits of straw, chad and dust possible. 5. Seed disinfection—treatment of the seed by formaldehyde solution in such manner as to destroy o'l germs of flax diseases that may rest en cr be sticking to the individual seeds. 6. Sowing the seed at essentially the proper date. v 7. Drilling the seed at the proper depth.

8. Pulling or in other manner destroying scattering weeds in the crop, the seeds of which are difficult to remove from flax seed after it 'is threshed, as, for example, mustard, false flax, French weed. 9. Harvesting the crop at the right date so that the seeds shall be mature and plump, but not lost through, shelling or injured by weather. .

10. Cut it with binder wherever possible.. 11. Thresh it at the first opportunity after the boles become dry. 12. Previous to harvesting, select the portion of thl field .which is most evenly ripe, harvest, thresh, and save it for your own seed and for seed for selling to others. 13. Store the seed so. that it shall remain dry and cool. 14. Conduct a decent, long series rotation' on your farm. Do not think of sowing flax more . often, than once in five years on the same land.

15. At least one well cultivated crop, one crop of Lay, and pasture should intervene between flax crops.

16. Jn using barnyard manures never use any decomposed manure! which has been . made out of flax straw or by animals which have, bet? fed flax screenings.

PREPARATION OF THE SHIED BED

The science of flax growing rests in the fact that the flax crop loves a firm, solid ground. After deep ploughing, make it Arm and solid in any matter that you can arrive at that condition, just so you do not puddle the land while it is wet. Never work it with any tool which will firm it down so that it is so firm that the discs bf the drill will not cut deeper than half or threequarters of. an inch below the surface, even though the weight of the whole drill were on the discs. - •' NEW ...LANDS.

New sod lands give best " results when the breaking and firming, discing, harrowing and drilling of tha seed and smoothing, ars all done at one and the same operation or in immediate, succession, because the land does not have time to dry out and the flax" gets a fins start in the moist land just turned up and worked. The surface working should be sufficient to leave the cracks between the furrows all filled in with new dirt. A heavy stone float, boat or roller should follow the" drill for levelling and firming the soil upon the seed. If the breaking wa9 done the year previous, the land should bo harrowed or cultivated and should be kept stirred until time to sow the flax to prevent weed growths and 'oss of moisture.

ON OLD LANDS. Good crops of fiaz can -be> raised on old cultivated lands, but morfe care must be. taken to firm down the soilPreferably, it should be sown upon newly broken pastura or bay l&nds, but it will do well after maize, cr if the lands are free from weeds it will give a splendid crop when surface worked and packed down again, and the seed drilled on this' firm grov.nd. In case the lands are foul with weeds, the ploughing should not be done until the \time to serd the fiar,' and tha wdrk, as, in case of new land, should be done as- a continuous process. First, plough followed by heavy packer,, followed by peg tooth harrows and further packing if necessary ; then, by the drill followed by stone f. oat or by further packing with •oiler if necessary. -- SOILS VARY- ** Every man will need to conside. his own type of soil and use the kind of cultivation or packing which will leave the ground least liable to blow, but accomplish a thoroughly even, very hard, firm seed bed, with just enough dirt to nicely cover the seed. DATE OF SEEDING. Seeding time in most districts should usually be the "autumn, but a good deal will depend upon the season —whether the rains are early or late. RATE OF Sow not to exceed fourteen quarts of good flax seed per acre on any soil. If all the seeds grow, twenty to twenty-five pounds of seed will give plenty of plants. They will be sturdier and ' give better seed production. It is not advisable to plant light-weight, shrivelled seed, sowing more seed to make up. That is the first principle of ,flax crop destruction. The weak seeds are the sick ones and carry death to their neighbours.