( 475 ) 



It is a mistake to draw off the rotting-water from the vats at the 

 top and introduce the fresh water at the bottom. Hereby the heavier 

 washing- water is driven back among tlie flax-stalks and renders a 

 complete extraction impossible, becanse the rising water will always 

 seek those places, where there is the least resistance, i.e. the open- 

 spaces of the sheaves, and will not enter the close places, where 

 it is most wanted. Thus the growth of the pectosebacterium is 

 hindered and that of the lactic-acid ferments promoted. Moreover the 

 aeration, which, when the washing water is completely drained off, 

 takes place of itself, and quite equally and everywhere throughout 

 the flax, would become most irregular and imperfect. 



In the second place, the vat should after the first draining not be 

 filled with fresh water only, but this \\ator should be mixed with 

 a fair quantity of good rotting-water, taken from a pre\ious rotting. 

 By this means the pectose bacteria are at evei-y point introduced into 

 the flax, which of itself harbours only a small number of these 

 microbes, which are not at all generally distributed, neither on the 

 flax nor in the waters. 



Before commanding of good rotting-water it will be necessary 

 once more after 24 hours, so two days after the first fdling, to 

 draw off all the water and replace it by fresh water. The pectose, 

 bacteria have then already so strongly accumulated in tiie flax-stalk, 

 that they can only for a small portion be washed away. 



How easily good rotting-water is to be obtained follows from the 

 description of the current-experiment. 



In the third place the rotting-temperature will have to be exactly 

 regulated. Our laboratory experiments make it evident that the most 

 favorable temperature lies between 28^ and 35° C. After 27^ to 3 

 days the flax may then be removed from the vats in an excellent 

 rotted condition (see note I § 8). Perhaps with a longer rotting- 

 time the temperature might be lowered and reduced to from 25^ to 

 27' C. Practice will have to decide whether this is desirable. 



9. Pure culture of the pectose bacterium. 



The pure culture of G. pectinovorum, which like all other species 

 of Graimlobacter, produces spores, is successfully effected as follows. 



On a culture medium in a glass box, consisting of dilute malt 

 extract of c.a. 27o Balling, with 27^ agar and 27o chalk, some 

 material taken from the rind of a well-rotted flax-stalk, pasteurised 

 at 90' C, is put, in order to obtain colonies of G. pectinouorum 

 in streak-culture. The pasteurisation serves to kill the foreign 



