88 



pull when the blossoms begin to turn and fall oft', al- 

 ter the Irish method, and rot it in the water after the man- 

 ner prescribed for rotting hemp ; (see hemp process.) If 

 you let it stand for seed, observe when the stalk begins 

 to .turn, and the under leaves fall off, then pull your flax, 

 and in both methods bind up as you pull, in small bun- 

 dles, and set up your bundles in small bunches, to 

 dry ; or spread it upon the ground for several days, if 

 the weather is good, and then bind, and stack against 

 the rains, in long stacks, with the buts, or roots out, 

 and cover your stacks carefully with loose flax, that 

 will shed off the rains, or your flax will be injured : 

 the better way is to house your flax as soon 

 as dried, as carefully as you have done your har- 

 vest. You may rot it in the water, or dew rot it, 

 by spreading it upon your grass grounds, in Sep- 

 tember, after the seed is carefully beat off by the 

 flail, in the usual way of threshing, or beat off by 

 hand, by whipping each sheaf across a barrel, or 

 some other permanent body, such as a flax, or hemp 

 brake, &c. The seed when cleaned is valuable, 

 either for the home, or foreign market, and commands 

 a fair price and good pay. No time can be fixed for 

 rotting your flax, either in the water, or on the grass, 

 both depend upon the warmth of the weather, and the 

 latter upon the moisture of the season*. The success 

 of your crop depends very much upon a suitable rot; 

 to obtain this, you must frequently dry a handful, and 

 try it in your brake, and when the rot is perfect, lose 

 no time in turning again your flax to dry and take up ; 

 and when dried, lose no time in housing it ; the least 

 delay may expose it to a rain at this season of the 

 year ; this, if the weather is warm, or if cold and long, 

 win iujuic-, if uvt i-xii n yonr crop ; the same is equally 

 true with your hemp. 



Next to your flax, your hemp claims your at- 

 tention 5 this requires a process somewhat dif- 



* When you rot flax in the water, a pond or pit answers best ; this 

 eoufined water renders the flux soft, but will not answer for hemp, 



