10 On Rotting Flax, 



which, (I imagine,) is putting it in water in hot weather, 

 when two or three days will rot it sufficiently for dress- 

 ing, but will not extract the gum. 



A person from Ireland, (who is well acquainted with 

 the process of flax preparation,) informs me, that it was 

 the common practice in Ireland about 20 or 30 years 

 ago, to permit flax to remain in water until sufficiently 

 rotted, but the people in general finding it did not answer 

 their expectation, have since adopted the above method 

 with success. — Linen made of flax prepared as before 

 directed, with one boil, will be about the colour of 

 Russia sheeting, which induces me to believe that all 

 the hemp and flax in Russia is rotted in the same way. 



See an account of the Irish mode of preparing Jiax^ among 

 the selected papers^ at the close of this volume. 



