IN the United States, to properly establish the flax industry there must be co-operation. It can hardly be said that the United States is a flax producing country, notwithstanding the cultivation of two million acres of flax for seed, which is sold to the oil mills. The growth of flax for seed, and its cultivation for fiber, are distinct propositions requiring totally different treatment as regards soil and culture, and, as far as fiber growth is concerned, producing widely different results. In the

culture for seed the ground is carelessly prepared, new land, turned from the sod often being used; the seed is sown thinly, at the rate of two or three pecks. of seed to the acre, and the crop practically takes care of itself until time to harvest the well-ripened seed, the "straw," which is little more than small branching bushes, being short, coarse and woody, and deficient in proper spinning fiber.

When cultivated as a textile crop, from one and one-half to three bushels of seed per acre are sown upon land brought into the finest tilth, and a high state of fertility. The young plants are kept free from weeds, and the seed having been sown thickly, the stalks grow slender

while the flax is usually harvested before the seed is fully ripened, it is always saved, and is worth quite as much per bushel as that from flax grown for seed

who will take the crop when grown, and make of it a stable stable product. This means small central factories established in flax growing localities, where

tracts to grow certain quantities of the straw, all subsequent operations to be performed under one direction, at the central mill. By such a system the farmers will be relieved of that part of the work requiring not only skill and technical knowledge, but more or less special capital. Twenty farmers in a community might produce twenty different grades of prepared fiber-if many did not make failures-while under the co-operative, or factory system, definite and uniform grades would result, and at the same time the farmers would be relieved from the necessity of finding a market. Canada finds flax culture profitable, and even in Mexico there is a small industry, the flax being grown for the home spinning mills. Good flax fiber can be produced in many portions of the United States and it has been shown that the better farm practice of this country, with the employment of high-grade labor-saving machinery and implements, and the tendency of the Yankee farmer to "get there" by short cuts, would equalize to a large degree the difference in farm wages between this country and Europe.

Some commercial flax is produced at the present time in the United States as small quantities are grown in the Northern Lake regions, and in Oregon, but the manufacturers rely almost wholly upon the regular and assured supply which comes from other countries. Yale, Michigan, is the center of a very respectable flax fiber industry that has been established many years, a very good quality of flax being produced. But the fact remains that until our farmers are able to guarantee something more than a small, intermittent, and doubtful supply, flax buyers will continue to purchase from European growers, with whom they will be able to place contracts a year ahead if desired. But there are other considerations to be

taken into the account. Unlike many cultural industries, the commercial growth of flax requires more than a mere planting and harvesting of the crop by individual farmers. After the crop has been grown other operations, requiring knowledge and skill to prepare the product and make it a marketable commodity, are necessary, and the farmers, working alone, are helpless to place the industry upon its feet. One of the obstacles to the cultivation of flax in this country is the lack of a machine for pulling the flax. In all flax-growing countries, where good practice prevails, the straw is pulled up by the roots in order to secure. all the fiber that is in the stem, as well as to avoid a square end at the butt, which results when the straw is harvested with the sickle or reaper. A "streak" of prepared flax should taper at both ends. Neither our native farmers, nor foreign farmers who come to this country, will bend their backs to pull flax

over again that, with such a co-operative system as I have outlined, this country can produce fine flax,-but the cold fact remains that the industry is yet a thing of the future.

The United States imported in one year nearly ten thousand tons of unmanufactured flax worth two and a half million dollars. The great bulk of these imports came from three countries, namely: Russia, Belgium and the United Kingdom. About one-third of the imported flax came from Great Britain; almost thirty per cent came from Belgium, though in later years a great deal of Flemish or Courtrai flax is sent to Ireland to be dressed, when, oddly enough, it becomes "Irish flax." Belgian flax is the softest, finest, and lightest flax, as to color, grown in the world. Russia supplies this country with the cheaper grades of line, the Russian imports amounting to about twenty-five per cent of the whole. France, Italy and the Netherlands contribute a little, Germany

less than 500 tons, while from Canada. was imported about 670 tons, for which our neighbor received $145,000, in round numbers. The superiority of much of the Flemish flax is due to its being retted in the running water of the famous River Lys; and it is interesting to note that the center of the French flax industry is in the North, contiguous to Belgian territory, where the flax straw may be readily transported by rail to the River Lys, to be immersed in the turbid waters of that wonderful stream. Irish flax is darker than the Flemish, much of it being retted in pools or bog holes. Canada flax is also dark, and the same may be said of much of the Russian, though it comes in many shades, dependent upon the district where produced and the method of retting employed. Dutch flax is usually high grade

dressed line usually being harsh and dry, the fiber brittle and lacking in what the old Scotch flax men call "life."

Up to this point we have been considering chiefly the culture of flax and the steeping or retting of the straw. The next process is to pass the straw through a breaker which crushes and breaks down the woody portions so that when shaken much of the waste matter will fall away. To produce the "dressed line" all of the waste, or "chive" must be beaten out, leaving the fiber straight and clean, and this operation is known as scutching. In olden times this was done by hand, the flax being held over the edge of a board and beaten, with a sharp down stroke by means of a thin edged wooden paddle. The same operation is accomplished by machinery, though in the modern scutching mahas been su

fiber. The prevailing custom in the United States has been to ret by spreading the straw over a meadow, this method being known as dew-retting. This system is the least satisfactory, as it gives a dark, gray flax, usually of low grade, and uneven and harsh in quality.

The process of retting requires from six to ten days, or longer, dependent upon the softness of the water, temperature and other conditions. A well-prepared "nature" retted flax is soft to the touch, has an oily feeling when handled, and an odor that is unmistakable to any flax expert. A prime reason why "quick retting" processes, so-called, such as chemical treatment, steam or hot water maceration, have never been fully successful, is that the qualities which give

chines the wooden paddle perseded by other devices. After scutching the flax becomes a commercial prod