432 Abstract Report of Ayricultiiral Discussions. 



Mr. Beale Browne explained tliat the ground slioiild be ploughed 

 previous to the skimming. 



Professor Wilson : With regard to the action of the soil upon the 

 fibre of the plant, he believed that the fibre depended more upon 

 the technical treatment which it received, than upon the soil in which 

 it was grown ; and this view was confii-med by what Mr. Maguire had 

 stated as the result of liis observation in Ii-eland. Climate had, of 

 course, a certain effect upon flax. Still, here again, he thought the 

 technical treatment had much more to do with the fibre than the 

 mere difference in the quality of the plants. Mr. Brown had told 

 them that flax was a thirsty plant, and would therefore necessarily 

 grow better in a moist than a diy climate. That he (Professor Wilson) 

 could not admit. On the contrary, he should say that of all oui* culti- 

 vated plants flax was the least thirsty. If the flax-plant were examined, 

 it Avould be seen to exhibit, when well developed, a large amount of 

 fibrous roots, which penetrated the soil in all directions, and sucked 

 in as much moisture as was required. But it was the smallest-leafed 

 plant that we cultivated ; and if it absorbed moistui'C, it must also get 

 rid of the moistiire somehow, and it could only do that by means 

 of its leaves. 



Professor Coleman : And by its stems. 



Professor Wilson : Perhaps ; though the functions of the bark are 

 very different from those of the leaves. Still it had as small an 

 evaporating surface as any plant that we grow on our farms. In Bel- 

 gium, where the best descri2)tions of flax were grown, the climate was 

 even drier than in oui- own eastern coimties. It was a dry climate, 

 and flax was a plant that was indigenous to dry soils, not to soils charged 

 with moistui'C. Again, he might observe that flax gi-ew better upon 

 the east than on the west coast of Ireland, that is to say, in the drier 

 parts than in the very moist parts. 



Passing on to the subject of the preparations for gathering in 

 the crops, he thought a great improvement might be made in the 

 mode of harvesting. Old Eomau writers, of 2000 years ago, de- 

 scribed the processes for cidtivating, harvesting, and preparing 

 flax as almost substantially the same as those now practised in 

 Ireland ; there had not been any practical improvement during the 

 last 2000 years. Upon looking at a flax-plant, it would be seen 

 that the fibre, which was the thing sought after, reached from the 

 crown of the root to the extreme point of the plant itself: and the 

 whole of that fibre, in its extreme length, and in as unbroken a state 

 as possible, was what they wanted to obtain. The present process of 

 hand-pulling was a very tedious, difiicult operation, especially in dis- 

 tricts where the cultivation of flax had been newly introduced. People 

 were sent into the fields to pull it up in handfuls, and lay it down to 

 dry. • Why should the flax-crop be pulled up by the roots when no 

 other crop was so treated ? It was then taken in that state, and 

 steeped for a certain period ; next it underwent the process of scutching, 

 the object of which was to separate it into two pai'ts — the fibre of the 

 plant and the woody centre, or " boon." In knocking off' the roots 

 the fibre itseK v\'as always more or less injured ; then it required more 



