PROCESS OF GROWING AND PREPARING FLAX. 173 



the barn ; of that portion which shall rot yet in the same fall, the 

 seed is beaten off immediately; but that portion, which is not to 

 be put up to rot before the ensuing spring, is laid away, like grain, 

 and the seed is beaten off in the winter. For beating off the seed 

 the flax is laid upon a smooth barn floor, three to four inches high, 

 in two rows, with the seed ends against each other, but no closer 

 than that the seed ends of both rows merely touch each other. 

 Only the tops, as far as the seed-capsulas or knots go, are beaten 

 with a light unnotched wooden hammer. When there are no more 

 capsulas at the upper side, the rows are turned over, as in thrash- 

 ing grain. After the seed is beaten off, the flax is tied, with straw 

 bands, into bundles of about one foot in diameter, and then taken 

 away to the rotting-place. 



The beaten-off seed, with its chaff, is put upon an airy garret. 

 If, for want of room, it is put into barrels, a stick is stuck into it 

 upright to prevent its becoming compressed, and to farther evapo- 

 ration ; and sometimes it is put from one barrel into another. The 

 next cleaning of the seed is often done there with the fanning mill, 

 in which operation much seed falls into the chaff. As the dry seed 

 capsulas are completely beaten to pieces, fanning upon the barn 

 floor would answer this purpose much better, because the better 

 seed might thereby be separated from the inferior ; but for this the 

 farm buildings in Belgium are not suitable. If the seed is not to 

 be used in the first year, it is left lying with the chaff whereby the 

 germinating power of the inferior grains is said to increase still 

 more. The seed capsulas soaked in hot water are good food for 

 cattle. * 



8. KoTTiNG- IN THE Lys. In Wcst Flanders, first in the vicinity 

 of Courtrai, the people have, more than twenty 3'ears ago, begun 

 to rot their flax in the hjs, on account of the scarcity of water 

 generally prevailing there, for at many places the water is hardly 

 sufficient for washing and for the cattle to drink. When the ex- 

 periments with rotting in the Lys were crowned with eminent suc- 

 cess, flax commenced being brought thither from the most remote 

 localities. The villages and towns on the Lys^ — Wevelghem being 

 the principal one — commenced purchasing flax, yet in the field, in 

 more remote sections, to rot in the Lys ; and after that, they 

 cleaned it and brought it into the market, so that many establish- 

 ments were formed there whose business consisted in the prepara- 

 tion of flax. The drying of the flax as done there, facilitates that 



