Mollie's Stark's Uncle John has just come to Pleasant Valley. He is her father's brother and has been in the linen business in Ireland. He told the Girls' League the other evening about flax and about how it is made into cloth. This is the story he told. It has also been printed in the "Pleasant Valley News." Have you read it? =Where does flax grow?= Ireland is a cool country, and flax is a plant which grows well in cool places. Cotton, we have learned, is grown in warm countries. Do you know that Russia produces about half of the world's supply of flax? Find your map of Europe, and see if you can locate all these countries. The Russian flax is rather inferior in quality. Ireland and Belgium produce the best quality of fiber. Flax is also grown in Holland and France, and in Egypt and Italy. The United States grows some flax; but it is a rather coarse fiber used for crash and for bagging. The United States grows very little flax and only for the coarser purposes. This is for the reason that labor is very expensive; and flax, like silk, needs much care if weeded and grown for fiber. The care of the worms makes silk expensive. Flax grown for seed or coarse purposes does not require so much care. [Illustration: FIG 103.--The flax plant grows 20 to 40 inches in height.] =What is the flax plant?= Perhaps your teacher will buy some flax seed which you can plant in the school garden. The Pleasant Valley girls did, and it grew quite tall. Then you can really see how the growing plant looks. Your teacher will have some dry flax to show you. Do you know how a waving field of wheat or oats looks? Flax is planted thickly when it is grown for its fiber. It comes up straight like the wheat and does not branch. When it is planted for its seed, it is not planted so thickly because it must have more room to branch and bear seed. Flaxseed is used for many purposes. Flaxseed, or linseed, oil is used for paints and varnishes, and even for food, in some countries. Like cotton seed, the dry cake, or meal, left is a valuable food for cattle. Has mother ever used the oil or the meal for anything at home? The flax plant as it grows is from 20 to 40 inches in height. It has lovely little blue flowers on the stems which branch at the top. Uncle John knew a little girl at Pleasant Valley who thought the flax came from the little brown seed pods on top, just as the cotton comes from the seed pod, or boll. It does not; for the flax fiber is the part of the long stem which grows just inside of the outside woody portion. So, you see flax fibers can be from 20 to 40 inches long, according to the height of the plant. The wonderful part of the story is how the fibers are removed from the long stems.