Flax Culture. 433 



space, and was more expensive to manipulate : the steeping process 

 was longer and less certain than if the roots liad been removed by- 

 mowing. He saw no reason, tben, wby flax sbould not be mown. 

 If tbe ground were well tilled, as it might bo, kept well weeded, 

 and a roller passed over it after the seed was in, tbcy would get 

 a perfectly smooth surface, and at the right time for gathering 

 he would mow it ; he would even put on a mowing-machine, and 

 cut it as close to the ground as he could. By doing this the roots 

 would be left in the soil. Thus, too, by a better agency than that of 

 the scutching-machine, the fibre would be separated from the useless 

 Y/oody part of the root, and when the plant was put into the steep 

 it would have an oi^ening aLi*eady cut, by means of which moisture 

 could be absorbed, and the juices washed out more thoroughly than 

 by the process now resorted to. The effect would be to accelerate 

 the whole process, and save something like 15s. or 20s. an acre. 



A further advantage would be that the plant would steep much 

 more equably ; for what was now wanted was power to regulate the 

 steeps better. With regard to steeping itself, he quite agreed with 

 Sir Edward Kerrison, that a regular temperature which was under 

 control was desirable, and he was of opinion that the hot-water system 

 of steeping was infinitely preferable to the cold-water system. In 

 Ireland it was impossible to grow flax profitably or well under the 

 system there adopted, because the steeping could never be equable. It 

 was well known, and Professor Voelcker would confirm him in this, 

 that in the process of fermentation, large masses could be controlled 

 much more easily than small. A large steep like the river Lys 

 was much more equable in its tempei-ature than the little pits which 

 were dug all around the country in different parts of Ireland in all 

 descriptions of soils, and into which water from the bottom, the sides, 

 and the top, found its way, so that it was really impossible to steep 

 the flax in those districts in a proper manner : for one part was not 

 retted, but rotted, and absolutely destroyed, whilst another part would 

 not be retted at all. He believed the operation v/ould never be scien- 

 tifically and properly conducted until the steeps were regulated just as 

 the fermenting-tuns were in breweries and distilleries. Flax, as they 

 were aware, was a bundle of minute fibres bound together by an 

 albuminous mucilaginous substance — that is to say, a vegetable 

 substance containing nitrogenised matter; and all they had to do, if 

 they wanted to get a fine sample of flax, was to destroy this, or 

 wash it out. He held that washing or dissolving it was better than 

 destroying it, because they could control the former operation, and 

 not the latter. If they did this they would have as fine samples in 

 England as there were in Belgium. 



The river Lys was a large body of water that was almost equable 

 in its temperature, and very soft in quality. There the greatest atten- 

 tion was paid to the business of flax-dressing, and was amply repaid 

 by the superior article they tm-ned out, and the credit it had acquired 

 in the markets of the world. The people were well instructed, and 

 knew perfectly what they were about, whilst our poor fellows were 

 lacking in these advantages. 



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