The Princeton union., 1906-05-03

!: FlAxsEED As A ROTATION CROP.
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, BY Chas. H. Thornton, Publisher
; Duluth Commercial Record.
)uluth Commercial Record.

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The growing of flaxseed as a reg
ular rotation crop has not, as yet, OBJ
tanned a very firm footing in the North
west, although support is gradually
coming to the belief that it should
have place in every rotation of crops.
1t is undoubtedly fact that the
great majority of Northwestern farm
ers have considered faxseed as pio-
neer crop and after one or two crops
have dropped it. In many cases these
crops were grown successfully on the
Eame land, year after year, and from
this occurred the failures of 1900 and
1901.
To some extent the dismal failure of
The 1900 crop, and large part of the
1901 area, was not entirely a misfor-
tune, as it turned the attention Of
scientists to discovering the cause OF
and remedy for the failures.
has been learned about the ills to
which the faxseed plant is liable and
methods for avoiding them than dur
ing the entire previous history Of the
plant and at the present time our
knowledge is very complete.
To the experiment stations of the
Ao,r;cu1%uro1 ool1oooe Of MipncopO1iS
and Fargo we are indebted for the
greater part of this knowledge, and
especially to the Fargo school, where
Professor Henry L. Bolley has been
untiring In his efforts to improve the
yield and quality OF faxseed. The re-
suits of his study are summarized in
the following recommendations:
use only plump, bright eelored fax
fer seed. Treat all seed fax every
year; the treatment was found by
many farmers to be great success In
1902. Before treating clean all seed
thoroughly in a tanning mill until all
bits of straw and chah as well as light
weight seeds have been removed or
blown cut. The treatment recon-
mended will not kill the fungus which
Is always to be found inside diseased
straw and chatf because it cannot
penetrate to it. In diseased crop
most of the light weight, dark colored
and scaly seeds bear the fungus on the
inside of the seed coats. Such seeds
must be removed, for the treatment
cannot prevent these from injecting
the SOIL
"use formaldehyde at the rate of
one pound of the standard strength to
forty gallons of water. Spread the
seed upon tight floor, or upon can
vas, and sprinkle or spray on a small
amount of the liquid Ga fine spray
thrown by small force pump is best)
Shovel, hoe or rake the grain over rap
Idly. Repeat the spraying, shoveling,
hoeing or raking until the surfaces of
all the seeds are evenly moist, not
wet enough to mat or gum, but thor.
oughly damp. This can be accom-.
plished without mating, if we'll hoed
or shoveled over. Leave the grain
piled for several hours. The dry grains
will absorb the excess of moisture
without injury or mating and the
spores of the disease will be killed by
the fumes. 1t takes about one-half
gallon of water solution to properly
wet one bushel of faxseed.
after this care has been taken with
the seed recommend these further
precautions:
Sow all flax on compact, even seed
bed, as shallow as possible and yet
have it we'll covered. Sow smaller
areas to flax and never follow fax by
dax until number of years have in
tervened. l recommend the following
series of crops until we have learned
reasons for better one:
FLAX.
wheat, oats or barley. -
"Corn, or other cultivated crop. or
eallow.
Wheat.
"Grass.
pasture one or more years. then
Hax if desired"
About rotation Professor Bolley
says:
1T will be great source of wealth
70 Northwestern farmers if, unlike all
others heretofore, they can so nearly
eradicate the diseases of flax from
their seed fax and from the soil that
they may continue to produce good
crops of fax. Think what a boon to
this region it would be if the farmers
may continue to produce as heavy
crops of fax on their lands in the fu.
ture as they do now upon new land.
This is new doctrine, but | do not
hesitate to say that such can-be the
case and even much better crops than
are now grown. Remember that it