PROCESS OP GROWIXG AND PREPARINa FLAX. yj'J 



3. When rainy weather continues several days, especially 

 towards the end of the bleaching time. 



4. When a very hot day is followed by a heavy dew. 



5. When the earth evaporates strongly, especially when the 

 air is yet unusually warm and sultry during the fog. 



6. After a warm rain. 



As soon as night-rust is discovered, the flax must be taken up 

 and put into chapels ; if it were left lying longer, it would be very 

 detrimental, since the night-rust gives the flax a grayish-blue color, 

 and greatly diminishes its strength. If, after bleaching is finished, 

 the flax cannot be brought into the barn, on account of rain, it is 

 advisable to put it up in chapels. Bleaching is considered finished 

 when there are no more reddish-yellow halms, when the stalks are 

 bent, and when the fibre or bast gets loose for about four to six 

 inches in the middle of the stalk, and generally is easily separated 

 from the ■\«ood. When this period has arrived, the flax is, in 

 favorable weather, put up into chapels yet for several days ; but, 

 if rain is imminent, it is hauled home without delay. 



Bleaching requires twenty to thirty days ; seldom is it well fin- 

 ished between ten and twenty days. The weather and the nature 

 of the flax determine this. In favorable weather, — namely, when 

 sunshine and a little rain follow alternately — the flax is turned 

 twice and shaken up twice every five to seven days ; stands after 

 that in chapels for two to three days, and then bleaching is done. 

 In less favorable weather, the bleaching time lasts longer, and 

 labor is multiplied. In binding up, after bleaching, ,the flax is 

 assorted again ; that portion which has not the desirable color, but 

 is either blackish-gray or reddish, is bound up by itself alone. 

 The bundles are made to the size of one foot in diameter. 



Here it is deemed a matter of importance that flax, grown and 

 dried in one year, should rot the next spring, the next spring after 

 that be bleached, and be further prepared in the ensuing winter. 

 In this way the flax is brought into the market no sooner than the 

 third year ; but it is asserted generally that letting the flax lie so 

 much longer improves it to such a degree as to amply cover the 

 amount of interest. 



10. Breaking and Swingling. After the flax has been properly 

 bleached, it is cleaned according to time and circumstances, which 

 is done by breaking and swingling. For this work wet weather 



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