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in converting raw produce into finished fabrics ; for few materials have- 

 presented so many difficulties, or required such a variety of mechanical 

 contrivances, to bring them into a useful state, as the one on which we 

 are now about to treat. To trace these processes and point out the me- 

 chanical means by which these difficulties have been overcome, shall 

 now be our endeavor. 



In a treatise of this kind, it would be out of place to enter very mi- 

 nutely into the agricultural operations required in the cultivation of flax ; 

 though it may be satisfactory to some of our readers to have a general 

 sketch descriptive of such as are now employed. 



The flax plant, (Linum Usitatissimum,) consists of a woody heart or 

 boon, and the harl or flax fibre covered outwardly with a fine cuticle 

 which encloses the former like a tube ; it is cultivated for two purposes ; 

 first, for its fibrous material, properly called flax; and second for its 

 seed, which is much used for feeding cattle, as well as for making that 

 drying oil extensively used in a variety of arts, known in commerce 

 under the name of linseed oil. The stem of the plant is round and hol- 

 low, and grows to the height of about two to three feet, and then divides 

 into several branches, which terminate in blue flowers, consisting of five 

 petals, and succeeded by capsules divided into ten cells, in each of which 

 is enclosed a bright, slippery elongated seed. The leaves are long, nar- 

 row, sharp-pointed, and placed alternately along the stem and branches 

 of the plant. As the roots penetrate downwards about half the length 

 of the stem, the soils best adapted for its cultivation are those of a deep 

 free loam, such as are not liable to become too much charged with mois- 

 ture, or too dry, but capable of being rendered fine by tilth, such as 

 those situated in a valley bordering upon a river. If there be water at 

 a small depth below the surface of the ground, it is thought by some 

 still better, as is the case in Zealand, which is remarkable for the fine- 

 ness of its flax, and where the soil is deep and rather stiff",, and with 

 water almost everywhere at one and a half feet or two feet below the 

 surface. But if well manured and tilled, and if the seasons are not too 

 dry, fine flax can also be produced on high land ; it should not, however, 

 be in too great a state of fertility, nor be too much exhausted ; as, in the 

 former cace, the flax is liable to be too luxuriant and coarse, and in the 

 other, the produce would be very small. Light, sandy or gravelly soils 

 seldom answer well. 



With regard to the choice of seed, it should be of a bright, brownish 



