Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1909-10-29
FARMERS SHOULD GROW FLAX
Proposition of Pullman Grain Men
to Contract Product of 10000
Acres

they will furnish seed to all who will
contract to plant it and sell them the
flax at market price next season. This
brings this industry prominently be-
fore the people. 1t will be remem-
bered by the pioneers that at one
time fax was one of the leading
crops in the country about Pullman,
and it yielded from 20 to 30 bushels
per acre. But, during the times of
the panic the prices dropped to 60
cents per bushel and farmers ceased
to raise it. Now that the price Is
$1.30 per bushel efforts are being
made to revive the industry in the Pa
the Pacific Rural Press E. j. Wick
son has the following article on FLAX
as a Change-Crop With Cereals
There is a wide demand for crop
which can be used in California as
an escape from continuous growth of
cereals. 1t is not possible to follow
the long rotations which are favored
in older countries of larger rainfall,
where diversified farming, including
the keeping of much live stock, Is
planned to make profitable use of
clovers and root crops, nor are our
grain lands generally suited to such
products until they are subdivided
into small tracts to be farmed with
an ample supply of home or low
priced labor and supplied with irriga-
ton. We are making good progress
in subdivision and more intensive
farming, but it may be half a CEN
fury before gain in population and
development will call for all of the
vast area which is now available for
field crops and which has been made
productive by dry farming processes
since the Americans came to Cali
fornia.
A handy change-crop for occa-
sional Introduction on such lands
which are suitable for cereals must
be one which can be put in with
about the same labor supply, teams,
and implements which are now used
for wheat, barley or oats, and can
also be taken off in the sack with
the same cutting, threshing and
cleaning machinery. Such a crop
must be adapted to a wide range of
soils; it must make a winter growth
as grains do, and it must, If posi-
bic, be a little more profitable than
grains, to give the farmer an appe-
t1te for it. All these requirements
are met by seed-crop of flax. and as
there is now a local demand because
the linseed oil makers are ready to
contract for the crop and thus have
the advantage of a local supply of
raw material for their manufacture.
Questions naturally arise as to the
character of the flax seed crop upon
the land and its indirect effects upon
the cereal crops which follow it.
First. 1t has been clearly shown
/ by ample accurate experiments that
lax is not more exhaustive to the
land than wheat, although a wide
impression exists that it is. Summing
up the mass of evidence on this suh-
Ject, Professor ]. II. SHEPPARD. of
the North Dakota Experiment Sta
ton, reaches this conclusion: An
average crop of flax is no more ex-
haustiye of soil fertility than one
OF wheat. Chemists have analyzed the
two crops as taken from the fields.
also the soil before and after pro-
dusing them. and similar results are
attained as to their drain upon the
soil.
Second. In rotations decided upon
after long experience in European
countries. fax has a place after ce-
reals. showing that fax both follows
and precedes cereals with good re-
suits to both crops. For example.
IN rotations favorably reported from
Belgium, very old flax-growing
country, fax is put down as a good
crop to follow oats. wheat, barley,
aud rye. and in other rotations IL Is
found preceding wheat. barley. rye.
and oats. This shows conclusiyely
that all these crops are good to go
ahead of or TO follow fax, according
10 the convenience or chance for
profit 10 the grower or the suitable
ity Of the soil.
Third. Not only are these change
crops OF fax favored. with whatever
cereal crop is grown to advantage
In the district. but there is also clear
testimony that the cereal which fol-
lows fax isapt TO be improved. be-
cause Of the different root growth
Of fax or to some other effect its
culture may have upon the soil The