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Abstract
Excerpts: The American colonists brought with them the art of raising flax and of preparing and spinning it by hand, and even fifty years ago the custom prevailed among farmers of growing flax and having it retted, scutched, hackled, and spun by members of their household. The statistical records show that sixty-odd years ago almost three-quarters of a million pounds of flax fiber were produced in the United States, and flax was sent to market from Connecticut sixty years ago that was strong, clean, and as good as any raised in the United States at the present time. The figures for flax fiber in the year 1869 show a product of over 13,000 tons; but this does not mean fine linen, but the coarser fiber, or tow, used in the manufacture of bagging. This period marks the highest point reached in fiber product before the collapse of the industry a year or two later, owing to the free introduction of jute for cotton-bagging manufacture. At the present time flax is largely grown in the United States for seed, the straw, of inferior quality, when used at all, going to the tow mills or the paper mills, and being worth from $1 to $8 a ton, the average in different sections being not more than $2.50 to $4. In the older States the area under present cultivation is very small and steadily decreasing; in the newer States, or States where agriculture is being pushed steadily westward from year to year, the area under cultivation about holds its own one season with another. Cultivation for fiber is beginning to attract attention, however, and it is the purpose of this paper to show what the Department of Agriculture is doing to reestablish this important industry, with statements regarding its present status.