308 Agricultural Gazette of N.S.W. [April 2, 1^0^. 



Breaking and Scutching. 



After it is ret ted, tlic straw should be bright, thoroughly dry, and have 

 a rather sweet odour. At Courtrai, B(>lgium, the straw, after being retted, 

 is dried and stacked, and icinnins in the stacd^s until the close of the I'etting 

 season, when the breaking and scut(diiiig operati'iiis conunence. As the 

 wood, skin, oi' hark parts are harsh and brittle and the llbre elastic and 

 touirh, the straw is broken or crushed in suoJi a manner as to cause ihe wood 

 to drop away from the iibre masses. This jjr.ieess is called l)reakiiig The 

 straw may either be crushed by pounding with mallets or ciimped in some 

 i5ort of breaking machine. 



Although the biH^aking and scutching may be well done by iiKudiinery, yet, 

 at best, niueh hand labour is neederl in order to keep the fibre properly 

 bunched, graded, and free from snaids. 'Jdiat which becomes much snarled 

 must be disposed of as tow. The usual machine-bi-eak in Europe consists of 



Typical flax-fibre breaking machine. 

 From Jliilletiii No. 274, I'. 8. Depurtiiu'iit of Ayriciiltufe. 



pairs of horizontally-|)laeed ihited or corrugated rollei's, through w lii( h the 

 retted straw is passed endwise. Thei-e are usually from si.v to tw(dve jyairs 

 of such rollei's, so adjusted that each pair cidrnps somewdiat more closely and 

 fits more tightly than the pi-eceding pair. Flax-breaking machines used in 

 America usually consist of five corrugated rollers, arranged so as to give an 

 interrupted or i-eti'ogiade movement. 



The scutching is done by means of flattened paddles. if done by hand, a 

 bunch of bioken fibi-e is held tightly in one hand, while a glancing stroke is 

 made with a thin, smooth paddle, the process being continued until all of the 

 •coarse bits of broken wood are removed. In the regular scutching mills the 

 work is done by a set of revolving paddles, while the fibre is held in the 

 hand of the operator in su(di a manner that the ]),iddles strike it a glancing 

 blow as it rests ovei- a rounded, sni(>i)tli-ed<'eil hoard with slanted sid(!S or 



