Among the grain crops in the United States, seed flax is exceeded in value by corn, wheat, oats and barley. It has approximately the same value as rye, rice and sorghums.

As a crop for new land, the flax seed acreage reached a peak (3,700,000 acres) in 1902, but gradually declined to little more than a million acres by 1922. As a crop for old land, taking its place in rotations, flax acreage reached a second peak equal to the first in 1930. Consumption of flax in the United States surpassed production in 1909 and for the past two and a half decades it has been necessary to buy a quantity from other countries about equal to that produced here.

In Iowa the maximum acreage, somewhat over 322,000, was reported for 1885. As the new land disappeared the Iowa flax acreage gradually dwindled to less than 6,000 acres in 1922.