Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1909-12-22
..B| OF |. EXPERIMENTING
With RESISTANT FLAX:
SOME FARMERS HAVE WONDER
ID
FULL SUCCESS WITH THE 30
=, r. a%
~. NEW GRAIN. x:
A. c. Anxious to Cooperate With the
Farmers in Making Further Exper.
iments With Flax.

Professor H. L. Bolley has been in
cooperative experiment work with
fifty farmers located in different parts
of the state, for the purpose Of as
pertaining whether the resistant flax
which has been developed by the de-
partment of botany will maintain its
resistance when sowed upon six soil
in various parts of the state. The
cooperative experiments have now
closed for the second year. Farmers
received respectively, Z, IA, Fl or %
Tbs. CT seed Thus no one Of them re-
ceived greater amount than one
half a bushel 1t Is interesting to
note that some of these farmers have
made reports showing wonderful pro-
gress in increasing this flax, even
though they have grown it upon very
flax-sick land. It is to be noted that
fiax-sick land is not only full of dis
ease but is often thoroughly weed
ridden because of the constant lax
crops which have brought about the
introduction of the flax diseases and
the consequently poor stands of flax
has allowed such land to become
thoroughly filled with weed seeds.
The resistant flax has thus not only
had to cope with heavy growths of
weeds, but had to resist the parasites
whIch cause the various types of wilt
sicknesses. While the soil in each
case is said to he thoroughly tfax-sick
the farmers have now many bushels
of the resistant seed. Eight of them
have, more than hundred bushels of
an in hn1f
the banner report so far is that OF
Mr.. Henry Bemis of Finley, who had
II Tbs. of seed furnished him in 1908
which yielded for him Ais bushels
in 1909. e>S,.s.,
Mot ali the Farmers received the
same breed OF fax. There were snet
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
80 bushels. The average yield for
twenty reports which showed yields
per acre Is AL bushels. Out of the
fifty FARMERS only three reported any
signs of wilt during either year. Pra!cs-
tically all of the farmers grew the
seed upon what they knew to he thor
oughly flax-sick Land and dn most cases
along side Of some other type of
fax, usually MINI. rs. The opinion is
unanimous that the philosophy of pro
curing disease resistance fax is all
right
A standard name for the successful
varieties Of this resistance fax will
now he furnished each grower who
has promised to furnish the depart
ment with the names of all parties
to whom sales are made. This will
allow the department to keep record
of the crop for number of years in
the future. These samples are also
kept on constant culture in the path
ological garden at the agriculture col
1ege in competition with new strains.
Professor bolley believes that this is
the most important piece of work the
department 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 fax. He will also be
pleased to hear reports from anyone
who Is interested in. disease resistant
crops, whether reporting favorable or
unfavora,ble results with reference to
tests made.