2o4 



being about sufficieutly rotted. Either of these tests will come near the mark; 

 but it requires practice, and long practice too, to attain to perfection in this, the 

 most difBcult point of flax management. 



When the rotting is completed I run the water off the dam, except about 

 twelve inches, as scum collects on the surface, and it is useful to give the flax a 

 shght wash, one dip is enough, by the men who go into the dam to hand it out. 

 Forking will not do. It is left for an hour or so on the brink of the dam to drain 

 the water oS, and then taken to the field to be spread. 



Spreading. — In spreading it is necessary to shake the handful well so as to 

 leave some of it in clots, or the bleaching will be irregular. Thin spreading is 

 decidedly the best for this country, as it saves the expense of turning on the grass. 

 If my judgment has been correct as to taking the flax out of the water at the 

 right time, (for with all my experience I make mistakes sometimes,) two or three 

 days will suffice to bleach and dry it. If it has a good shower of rain while on 

 the grass, so much the better, but that should not be waited foi-, as the night 

 dews, in warm weather, are a good substitute, and too much, exposure to the sun 

 is injurious to the flax, reducing both weight and quality. 



After being suflnciently bleached, or grassed, as it is called, which may be 

 tested by the straw breaking short and tender from top to root, and separating 

 easily fi'om the fibre, the flax is lifted and stacked up. 



Breaking and Scutching are the next processes; but as those are not ordi- 

 narily within the compass of a farmer's means or opportunity, I do not deem it 

 necessary here to describe them at length; indeed without drawings of the 

 machinery any description would be useless. There are a number of patented 

 inventions for breaking and scutching flax, both here and in Ireland, but with 

 some improvements of my own, I have adhered to the old fashioned principle of 

 both, in use in the latter country. The whole of the machinery is simple, cheap 

 and effective. The breaking rollers I use were made by Mr. Isaac Corbin, of 

 Genesee — the scutching mill was constructed by Mr. M'Farlan, of South Genesee, 

 from plans and drawings by my fi'iend Horatio Hariison, Esq., of Spring Lake, 

 Mukwonago. I use horse power. Water is perhaps steadier, but not always to 

 be had, and steam is dangerous with such a combustible article as flax. 



I beg now to make a few observations as to the adaptation of our soil and 

 climate for the growth of flax, in reply to your next query. 



While on a tour through the United States, in the year 1847, I became con- 

 vinced that this Western countiy was eminently capable of raising good flax on 

 an extensive scale, and acting on this conviction I returned from Europe in the 

 spring of 1848, for the express purpose of establishing a business in flax. I 

 arrived rather late to have much choice in the selection of land, but I got twenty 

 acres put in as an experiment. The result of some of the samples enrouraged 



