The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1909-12-20
RESISTANT FLAX
PROVED SUCCESS
Prof. 5oIlsy Believes That the Dis
ooVery of Cure for Flax Sick
Land Is Greatest Work.

Prof, H. l.. Bolley has been in CO.
operative experiment work with fifty
! farmers located in different parts of the
state, for the purpose of ascertaing
whether the resistant fax which has
been developed by the department of
| botany will maintain it's resistance
wnen sowed upon sick ground in yarf-
Gus parts of the state. The .co-op-
erative experiments have now closed
| for the second year, al
Farmers received respectively lbs.
| IA, 81 or rs lbs. of seed. Thus no
one OF them received a greater amount
than one ..alf bushel. It is Interest
ing to note that some of these farmers
nave made reports showing wonderful
progress in increasing this flax, even
though they have grown 1t upon very
fiax-stck ground 1t is to be noted
that fiax-sick land is not only full Of
disease but is often thoroughly weed
ridden because of the constant flax
crops which nave brought about the
Introduction of the flax diseases and
consequently poor stands OF fax has
allowed such land to become thorough
ly filled with weed seeds.
The resistant fax has not only had
TO cope with neavy growths of weeds.
but had to resist the parasites which
cause the various type of wilt sick
nesses. While the soil in each case
many farmers have now over seventy
nve bushels OF the resistant seed.
Eight OF them have more than humid
red bushels OF seed. Not all the
reports are in but the banner report
so far is that of Mr.. Henry Bemis. of
Finley, who had fourteen pounds of
seed furnished him in 1908 which
yielded for him AS bushels in 1903.
Not all the farmers received the
same breed of fax. There were sent
out six different types in all. Two of
these have apparently produced much
better results than the others, The
highest yield per acre reported is 30
bushels. The average yield for twenty
reports, which showed yields per acre.
is 14.1 bushels. Out of the fifty farm
ers only three reported any signs of
wilt during either year. Practically
all OF the farmers grew the seed upon
what they knew to be thoroughly flax
sick land, and in most cases along
side of some other type of flax usu-
ally Minnesota rs. The opinion is
that the philosophy of pro-
curing disease resistant flax is right.
A standard name for the successful
varieties of this resistant fax will now
be furnished each grower who has
promised to furnish the department
with the names of all parties to whom
sales are made. This will allow the
department to keep a record of the
crop for number of years in the flu
ture. These samples are also kept on
constant culture in the pathological
garden at the agricultural college in
competition with new strains Profess
sor Bolley believes that this Is the
most important piece Of work the de-
partment of botany has been able to
accomplish for the farmers of the
state, and proposes to continue the
work with a view to Improvement
along all lines of disease resistance
with wheat and flax. He will always
be pleased to near reports from any
one who is interested in disease re-
sistant crops. whether reporting favor
able or unfavorable results with ref
erence to tests made.