FLAX STUDIES: IV. THE PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF FLAXSEED AT PROGRESSIVE STAGES OF MATURITY

Abstract

Flaxseed from plots seeded at Ottawa and Saskatoon over a period of several weeks and harvested at maturity showed no difference in oil content with dates of seeding, but the iodine values tended to increase with late seeding. Experiments conducted with Bison and Redwing grown in 1936 at Brandon, Saskatoon Edmonton, and Fallis, and with Redwing in 1937 at Brandon, Edmonton, and Fallis, in which the seed was harvested at successive stages of maturity, showed that moisture decreased and dry kernel weight and oil content increased with progressive maturity up to approximately thirty days after flowering. Rate of oil deposition was in some cases extremely rapid, from 80% to 90% of the maximum oil found being deposited by the fifteenth to eighteenth day. Oil content and dry kernel weight reach a maximum several days before visual maturity. Unsaturation proceeds somewhat more slowly and reaches a higher value under climatic conditions favouring slow maturity.