The Telephone. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE POVERTY BAY STANDARD. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, MONDAY, AUGUST 25.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 218, 25 August 1884, Page 2

The Telephone. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE POVERTY BAY STANDARD. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, MONDAY, AUGUST 25.

Among the multitude of crops which the district of Poverty Bay will produce there is one which, as far as we are aware, has not yet been tried, viz. the cultivation of linseed. Large crops of this useful plant are now produced in the South Island and its cultivation is coming into great favor for many reasons. We observe that a Mr. Dow has for the past twelve months been contributing a series of articles to the Leader, and in the last one points to the value of linseed as a rotating crop with wheat. Mr. Dow took a trip through New Zealand about three years ago, and amongst other things pointed out the benefit of cultivating this crop. It was at his suggestion it was tried in Otago, and the success of the trial was complete in every way. We have at our office a sample of colonial linseed which is at the disposal of any settler who likes to make an experiment. It should be sown at the rate of two bushels to the acre, on well tilled ground, free from weeds, at the same time as

oats. It must be kept free from weeds in its early growth, and can be sown with patent drill or broad cast. An ordinary threshing machine prepares the seed for market. A low lying moist soil is the best, but European flax will grow anywhere in New Zealand. Crops have been grown in Otago 1,500 feet above the sea level. Linseed is invaluable as a small farmer’s crop, as all the work of cultivation after the seed is in the ground until it is ready for the thresher can be performed by young children. Any settler who feels disposed to take the matter in hand we shall be happy to afford much fuller information. Mr. Dow says : —The growing of flax in America is carried on more extensively as a seed crop than for fibre, the reason being that only special districts are suited to the production of the flax, while any of the wheat growing States are found tc be' well apapted to the production of linseed. In addition to an export trade from America, which amounted for the year 1882 to 3,415,624 bushels of linseed and 1,573,842 gallons of oil, there is an annually increasing demand for the linseed in New York, Chicago, Kansas city and other pedigree stock raising centres for cattle food ; and as a result the chief wheat growing States are all found to combine with that cereal a considerable production of linseed. Grown for the fibre, flax is a crop that requires unceasing care and attention, together with an amount of hand labor that renders its production very expensive in any country where wages are high. Linseed, on the other hand, is as easily grown as any of the cereal crops, and it has been found by the American wheat growers to have an astonishing effect in cleaning and re-fer-tilising wheat lands that have become grain sick and foul with weeds. Kansas, the central State of the Union, whose climate in a general way much resembles that of the northern districts of New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria, where their wheat is grown, may be taken as a representative example of how linseed growing accompanies wheat culture throughout America. Kansas, in size, is similar to Victoria, having an area of 81,000 square miles, with a population of 950,000. For the year 1882 there were about 1,165,000 acres under wheat and about 315,000 acres under flax, nearly all for linseed. The market price at Chicago and Kansas city during the year varied from 1 dollar to i| dollars (6s. to Bs.) per bushel. Mr. Wm. Grice, whose farm of 360 acres near the township of Larned, in Kansas, is chiefly devoted to wheat raising, informed me that he has never less than from 50 to 70 acres under linseed every year, from which he obtains as high as 25 bushels per acre, and never less than 15 bushels. The year following the linseed, also he states, can always be depended upon for a heavy crop of wheat, if the season is at all favorable with respect to rainfall. Mr. Grice is so thoroughly convinced of the value of the linseed crop as a rotation with wheat that he considers it better than a bare fallow for the land as a cleaner and re-fertiliser, even apart from its own profits; and this, he also affirms, is the opinion of all his neighboring farmers in Kansas who have adoped the linseed rotation. Why the growing of linseed has this effect he expressed his inability to say. Some of his neighbors suggested that it might be in the opening up the subsoil received from the deeply penetrating flax roots, while others thought that there must be some peculiarly fertilising influence about the oiliness of the crop, which had the effect of so highly benefiting the succeeding crops of wheat. Whatever the reason might be, however, Mr. Grice is decided as to the good effects. About 1878, wheat growing in that State had, he said, reached an average of about its tenth consecutive season without change. The land as a consequence had receded from a former average of 18 bushels per acre, to about 9I bushels, besides having become foul with wild oats and other weeds. For the year 1882 the average yield of wheat throughout the State had reached 22 bushels per acre, and this result was generally admitted to have arisen from the increasing proportion of wheat land that during recent years bad been devoted to the growing of linseed as a rotation. Another special advantage connected with the linseed crop, as pointed out by Mr. Grice, is the fact of its not being required to be sown before spring. In this way the wheat stubbles are enabled to be utilised for stock by the harrowing in of some quickly growing green crop, early in the autumn, which at the same time helped to promote the growth of weeds, with a view to their being afterwards ploughed down and destroyed. After being thus grazed upon, the plough was put into the land towards the close of winter, and by means of

sufficient harrowing made very fine for the reception of the seed. In land inclined to break into clods, the alternate use of the roller and harrow was required to reduce the surface to the necessary fineness. With respect to obtaining seed, Mr. Grice stated that one of the most fruitful causes of failure amongst the growers in their earlier linseed growing attempts consisted in being supplied by the dealers with bad seed. His practice was to obtain the plumpest and brightest seed to be found. Then run it through the fanning mill twice, and blow out all the light seed by a heavy blast. Then, at harvest time, he selected those stooks of flax that grew on the best ground and that ripened first, and kept them

separate from the rest. By continuing this practice for a few years, both the quality and quantity of the seed was greatly improved, and the Kansas farmers had been quick to perceive the importance of growing their own seed when it could be done with so little trouble and expense. As to quantity for sowing, Mr. Grice found that it might be sowed very thin—say from half a bushel to one bushel per acre, when the object was to grow linseed alone and not flax. His practice was to sow about one and a half bushels of seed per acre, and he found that this amount gave a better yield of seed than any other quantity per acre. When seed had to be purchased Mr. Grice recommended testing it. Many dealears in flax seed, he said, contended that, as the seeds contained so much oil, it would not lose its vitality for many years. His experience, however, justified him in stating that it sometimes lost its vitality very soon. Several years

ago he procured a two-bushel sack of Russian flax seed, at a large price, and not a single seed germinated, although the soil was well prepared before it was sowed, and the seed put in when the surface was fresh and mellow, while the seed possessed all the external appearances of the best. It was of a lively brownish color, very plump and heavy, but its vitality was gone. To test seed, Mr. Grice’s plan is to select a few grains and sprinkle them between two thin pieces of sod laid earth sides together, and put them on a shelf in the kitchen, where they are kept’warm and not allowed to dry. In a few days every seed that has not lost its vitality will germinate. Then by counting them he readily ascertains about what proportion of them is good. With respect to the process of sowing, Mr. Grice remarked that everybody knew flax seed was a very slippery grain to sow by hand. Consequently, unless great care was taken, the seed would be sown very unevenly. As it was so slippery it was not practicable to sow it with a grain drill, nor with any kind of broad-cast seed sower. The details of his practice were, after the soil had been harrowed fine, he marked out the ground to ways, in lands about 18 feet wide. This breadth was wide enough to sow at one round or two casts. The seed he soaked in warm water, about two or three hours, and then rolled in powdered gypsum. The object of rolling the seed in gypsum was to render it less slippery, and he could always scatter the seed more evenly by sowing a few rods wide all one way. This he did by going around a land about five or six rods in width, as in ploughing.