PROJECTED REVIVAL OF THE FLAX INDUSTRY 617 



ment. The one advantage seems to be that the seed is threshed 

 out and the capsules separated by the same operation. 



In localities where flax straw is retted while in the green 

 state, as soon as it is pulled, a practice which obtains in the 

 neighbourhood of Lokern and St. Nicholas in Belgium, the seed 

 capsules are " rippled " off and then spread out on canvas in the 

 sun to dry. 



The Russian methods of separating the seed from the straw 

 also vary. In the Baltic provinces and the Government of 

 PskofT a modified form of "ripple" is employed, in which the teeth 

 are sharp knife blades which cut off seed-pods and the small 

 branches to which they are attached, leaving only the straight 

 stems. Different methods of removing the seed are practised in 

 other parts of Russia ; for example, the artificially dried flax 

 straw is taken by the root end in handfuls at a time and just the 

 top ends are passed between the butt ends of the revolving 

 wooden rollers fixed at such a distance apart that the straw is 

 practically untouched and yet close enough together to crush 

 the seed capsules and to free the seed without damaging it. 



It has been mentioned already that the general practice in 

 Western Russia is to cut off the top branches and the seed 

 capsules from the flax straw ; these are collected together and 

 closely packed on a vertical drying frame erected in the field, 

 where they remain until the seeds within the capsules have 

 become of a uniform brown colour. After drying on these 

 frames out of doors, the seed is removed to a specially con- 

 structed drying shed, where it is heated to a fairly high tempera- 

 ture until quite dry : an operation which sometimes lasts during 

 two or three days if the out-of-doors conditions were not favour- 

 able to drying. 



The seed is then spread rather thickly over a stone floor and 

 threshed, either with a flail, by simple machinery constructed of 

 wood ; or a horse is made to drag a grooved wooden roller about 

 the floor. Finally the seed is shifted and screened and then sold 

 to the local buyers, who pass it on with their other purchases 

 to people who properly clean and " grade it for export," what- 

 ever that may mean exactly. 



In Holland it is customary to separate the seed from the 

 straw by hand labour during the winter months by rippling and 

 sometimes this is done by means of a machine known as a 

 "flax-brake." The seed is very carefully threshed out and 



