Show raising of flax now encouraged unprofitable returns from wheat had mude made some change desirable prepared by the tb united states department 0 of f agriculture an a mra means as of introducing further diversification in tile the crop system of 02 I 1 the spring wheat belt of the northern great plains area the growing of flax was encouraged by federal and state SiOn agencies cles during the past two years with pe he result that there was an appreciable preci able increase in acreage over the ten year average the unprofitable returns from wheat growing had bad made some such diversification desirable the prevalence of flax wilt and other diseases and tile the lack of new wilt mit free land bad caused flax growing to decrease says the united states department of agriculture so that tile the average production was not more than WO bushels or scarcely more than ban one third of our domestic needs flax therefore seemed a desirable crop to recommend area arba increased As aa a result of tills this federal and state encouragement the seed flax aren area in 1928 was increased to acres and the estimated production to bushels the average acre yield of 8 bushels with a good price throughout the year made the crop fairly profitable to growers these agencies did not attempt to increase the acreage in 1924 but only to stabilize the gains made in 1028 1923 preliminary estimates tor for 1024 1924 indicate however that about acres were sown own or an increase of approximately 6 3 0 p per er cent over 1028 1023 M much itch of this increase in the post past two years year has been on old land instead of newly broken sod this has been made possible by a better knowledge of the wilt and tile the production of wilt resist ant varieties especially north dakota resistant no developed by the north dakota station it was estimated that about 20 per cent of tile the north dakota crop was grown on sod and 74 per cent on older land A method of growing flax and wheat its as a mixed crop developed by farmers in southeastern minnesota has been fully investigated by the department and the state stations and found to be desirable and profitable under some conditions satisfactory results with this mixed crop were obtained in rather extensive experiments conducted in 1023 by the minnesota std ta tion and by the department in cooperation with the north dakota station the mixture of the two crops holds weeds weeda in check prevents heat canker of the flax seedlings makes the flax crop easier to bundle with the grain binder and at tile the same saine time increases the lie diversified cropping |