4 On Flax-steeping, and its Effects' 



too limited : but I saw as much as to satisfy myself that the 

 secret with regard to the bleaching, lay entirely in pulling the 

 flax before it was too »ipe; and I also found that this great ad- 

 vantage might again be lost by improper watering. 



I saAV the flax in all its stages, from the pulling to the drying 

 after watering; and upon inquiry I uniformly found the greenest 

 pulled was intended for the finest purposes, and that the whitest 

 flax, after drying, had been watered in the lurji. They were 

 very particular in watering, and did not allow it to remain so 

 long in the water as I had been led to believe necessary, from the 

 practice here; nor did they spread it on the grass after watering, 

 as is the mode in this quarter, but dried it all from the water, by 

 what is termed hutting. 



As bleaching alone was my object, my inquiries respecting the 

 different shades of colour after watering were very particular ; 

 and I uniformly found that the white flax had been watered in the 

 burn, and the dark-coloured in ponds dug where water could be 

 most conveniently obtained. When I mention a burn, it must 

 be understood to be a stream so small as to require a dam being 

 necessary to receive the water into a Temporary pond to cover 

 the flax.' 



The succession of clean water, I conceive, prevents the deposi- 

 tion of colouring principles, to be hereafter mentioned, by wash- 

 ing or carrying them away, after being extracted from the flax, 

 which I had afterwards an opportunity of proving, in a pond so 

 constructed, which produced remarkably white flax, while the 

 same flax, from several stagnant ponds dug in the same ground, 

 filled with water from the same spring,was very dark in the colour. 



In following up these observations, my situation in life did not 

 then admit of experiments to the extent the importance of the 

 subject would have required. I shall, however-, narrate these, so 

 far as they extended. The result satisfied me, that the watering 

 of flax must vary with local circumstances, and every where de- 

 pend on the means afforded by springs, streams,moss, or marsh, 

 that may be in the neighbourhood of the flax-field, so long as 

 the present mode of culture is followed ; and the colour of the 

 flax after watering very much depend on the following causes: 



The ripeness of the flax before pulling. 



The state of putridity of the stagnant water. 



The minerals the water may contain. 



Whether it is steeped in a pond dug, or one formed by damming 

 a small stream or rill. Or, if a succession of parcels of flax 

 (which is sometimes the case) be watered in the same pond, 

 where every succeeding parcel must partake of the contaminating 

 dye produced by t'le fermentation of the former. 



In the course of my observationsj I found the quantity and 



solubility 



