620 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



only requires from eight to ten days for the straw to be suffi- 

 ciently decomposed. Experience tells when it should be 

 removed and then the people employed get into the pit and 

 carefully remove the bundles from the mud and water. Needless 

 to say the work is exceedingly unpleasant, more especially 

 because of the powerful stench which arises when the bundles 

 of straw are disturbed. After rinsing in cleaner water, the straw 

 is spread over a stubble field and there it remains for a month 

 or six weeks before it is dried and taken to the barn. The 

 small farmer carries out all these processes himself and although 

 his methods of cleaning the fibre are quite primitive the product 

 he obtains has a good name for softness and pliability. It is 

 dark in colour, inclining to blue — giving the name Blue Flax — but 

 it bleaches easily and is sought after for certain purposes. 



Of the retting processes which are still carried out by the 

 farmer, " pond-retting" is the best. This is practised in Ireland, 

 France, Friesland and Russia with considerable success. It 

 involves placing the tied-up bundles of straw in water and 

 allowingthem to remain there until properly retted. There aretwo 

 distinct methods of water-retting — the straw being either floated 

 or submerged : of these the former is the older and at the 

 present day is carried on only in Friesland. The bundles of 

 rippled and dried straw are floated on the surface of a fairly 

 large stretch of still water and every day they are turned over so 

 that the side which was uppermost and out of the water is placed 

 beneath the water next day. This turning is performed by men on 

 the bank, who use a small prong fixed to the end of a light pole. 



By far the better method of pond-retting is to submerge the 

 straw completely. Probably there is no place where this is 

 carried out better than in some parts of Ireland and no place 

 where more good flax is sacrificed to this method than in Russia. 



For the most part the retting ponds are simple excavations 

 in the ground with a clay bottom, although some few are 

 roughly paved or have boarded sides. It is almost universally 

 agreed that the best method of filling the retting ponds is to 

 arrange the bundles vertically or nearly so, one row deep, 

 with the root ends downwards. When the pond is completely 

 filled, a light covering of straw, tree foliage or other suitable 

 material is generally put over the flax and on the top of that 

 sufficient stones are arranged to submerge the entire mass 

 uniformly. The progress of retting is carefully watched 



