( 463 ) 



difliculty than the cells of the rind, because, in the iniddle-laniellae 

 between the ilax-fibres, besides pectose, also Vupiose is found ^), which 

 is not affected by the rotting (/(/ Fig. 1). 



It is just bv the absence of lignose that the rind is so much more 

 easily affected by the rotting process than the bast-bundles, that the 

 lattei', in a well-conducted rotting keep together and may be obtained 

 after the scutching as a whole. 



Hence, the art of rotting consists in pushing the process on to a 

 determined point and no further. 



It is not easy to indicate where this point is situated, chiefly 

 because the flax-stalks, which at the pulling from the field are united 

 into sheaves for the rotting, ai'e not all equally ripe. As now the 

 unripe stalks are more easily rotted thaji the riper and tougher 

 ones, a very unequal product is obtained by submitting all to a 

 like process. Therefore great pains are taken at the Leie, near 

 Courtray, as much as possible to sort the flax before the rotting, in 

 order to form lots of the same quality. Moreover, they rot the flax 

 there twice, which renders it possible partly to redress the irregularities 

 originated in the first rotting. 



From a theoretical point of view we assume that rotting should 

 proceed just so far ("strong rotting") as is necessary for the easy 

 removing of the wood {xy Fig. 1) from the bast-bundles (/Fig. 1), but 

 not so far ("feeble rotting") as to decompose them into the elementary 

 fibres. Therefor it is necessary that the secondary bark [cs Fig. 1) 

 of the flax-stalks be quite dissolved and that the primary rind 

 {cp Fig. 1) be decomposed into cells'). 



2. Pectose and Pectine. 



Pectose is a lime comj)ound whose composition is not yet clear. 



Non-reckouing its rate of lime, this substance, liiough chemically 



related to, is nol identic A\'ith cellulose. According to Tollens and 



Tromp de Haas •') we tind for it, after rcmo>ing the lime, the 



1) J. Behrens, Natiirliclie Röstmelhoden. Das Wesen des Röstprocesses vom 

 chemisclicn Standpunkte. Gcntralb]. f. Bacteriologie, 2le Abt. Bd. 8, pag. 101,1902. 



-) Wlietlier tins standpoint is riglit in all cases (or rather will prove to be so 

 when the llax indiisli'v will have ceased to be a very primitive agiicnilural industry) 

 is doublfui. As in a ^.ood rotting process the naxlibie itself is not injured, it is 

 an open ((ueslion whether the spinner might not be able to spin threads of greater 

 equality from the wholly isolated fibres, then when they are still united in l)asl- 

 bundles of very unequal properties. 



•^) ünlersuchimgen iiber die Pectinstotfe, IjIebig's x\nnalcn dor (Ihemie. Bd. 286 

 p. 278, f8t».j and Tollens, Ueber die Constitution des Pectins. Ibid. p. 292. 

 As in hydrolysis the pectiiiic substances, besides glucose and gahu^tose, also yield 

 pentose, ToLLEXs gives as probable composition (G'' H'^O'^jii . G' H'^0''. 



