Judith Gap journal. [volume] (Judith Gap, Mont.) 1908-19??, 1910-07-22
RAISING FLAX
IN MONTANA
CONTINUED from First Page

and the decay of the organic and veg
etable matter may be fastened. This
may he accomplished by the use of
the common disc harrow, followed by
a draw harrow. The disc will pack
down the soil, and the harrow will
smooth the surface and make dust
mulch.
Flax is usually placed in the roll
with drill. The drill should lie run
crosswise to the burrows. The depth
to which the seed is placed will vary
with the type of soil. but the seed
should not be placed deeper than one
inch, nor less than one half inch. For
long time it was supposed that In
order to procure the best results the
flax seed must be imported from
foreign countries, it is true that if the
flax is to be grown for the fiber, the
foreign seed seems to give better re-
suits. However, for seed production.
flax that has been grown in the i'm
mediate, vicinity seems to give large
yields. There Is one objection,
though, to securing the seed in the
home locality, and thst is that it is
Oftentimes very difficult to secure
seed that has not been infested with
the flax blight.
This lisa bacterial disease that lives
over winter upon the seed or upon the
stubble, or in the soil, and it causes
great deal of ditlicultp. if the flax
seed is diseased it may be greatly
benefited by applying the formaline
treatment, that is, use one pint of for
maline to forty gallons Of water, and
this amount of solution is sufficient
to treat about forty bushels of flax
seed. The method Of treatment is the
same as that followed for the treat
ment Of smut in oats. The fact that
the bacterial wilt lives over winter
in the soil or upon the stubble should
indicate that flax should not be
grown for more than two years in
succession upon the same pieces of
land.
There is another objection to the
continuous growing Of flax, and that
is that the plant seems to be very
hard upon the soil. 1t is not true
that flax removes any larger amount
OF plant food from the land than any
of the other crops, but, as mentioned
before, the flax must have large
amounts Of Immediately available
plant food i'll order that a crop may
be had. Ii flax is grown for three or
four years in succession the avail
able plant food is exhausted, and the
subsequent crops will Of course suffer.
The purpose for which the plant is
to be grown will control the amount
of seed used per acre. If u fiber crop
is to be secured larger amount of
seed used per acre. Ii Il fiber crop is
to be secured u larger amount of seed
is used than if the crop is grown for
seed production. For grain growing
the different experiment stations
recommend about two or three pecks
per acre: for fiber they recommend
from five to six pecks per acre. When
the drill is used the rows are placed
from four to six inches apart. Flax
seeded in this way has better chance
to mature the seed than when seeded
in the broadcast method. The seed
should be placed at an even depth,
and in a compact seed bed. If the
seed is sOwn broadcast more seed is
necessary than if the drill was used.
Flax does not require much care
after the crop has been planted, al
though some farmers seem to think
that narrowing soon after the plants
come through the surface will des-
troy 4 large number Of weeds, and
will retain considerable moisture in
the ground.
The method Of harvesting flax, too,
will depend upon the purpose for
which the crop has been grown. fla
fiber crop is to be secured it is advis-
able to pull the plants by hand. In
this way the fiber is not broken, and
the plants are allowed to come in
contact with no moist soil and 50 are
allowed to absOrbe no moisture from
the land. When flax is grown en-
clusively for seed as il is in this state
it may be cut with Il self binder. 1t
is harvested in about the same way
rs the cereals. When cut with the
binder however, the farmer seldom
uses Irvine, but the bundles are drop
ped in loose form, and either placed
in small piles in the fields or hauled
to one central locality and placed in
Il stack. The time of harvesting will
be when the plants have taken on a
brOwnish tinge, or when the seeds
are just passing out of the hard
dough stage. Flax is threshed with
the common threshing machine, and
the Yields vary from ten to twenty