FLAX 415 



inches thick. The lower row of teeth consists of four, while the upper is three, fitting 

 into the interstices. The Lost wood for the machine is that of the apple-tree. 



Next comos the scutching proper, still following the Belgian, French, and Dutch 

 method of hand-work. After the flax has been bruised by the mail, and crushed by 

 the braquc, it is ready for the scutching process. In Belgium and Franco the method 

 pursued is by the employment of a wooden stand (fig. 924). A broad plank of 

 pine or beech, about 4 feet high, and rather more than a foot broad, about % inch 

 thick, is fixed in a wooden sole B. 3 feet from this sole is a cut in the wood of the 

 upright plank, about H to 2 inches wide. This cut serves for the introduction of a 

 h indful of the flax-straw, bruised as before described, and the workman, holding it 

 three-fourths exposed through the slit, beats it with a tool called the scutch-blade, 

 fig. 925. It is made of walnut wood, and is very tough and flexible. In Ireland the 

 system of scutching by hand is very rude, and prevails chiefly in the western counties. 

 A brake similar to that of Belgium is employed ; but instead of the Belgian scutch 

 tool, a rude instrument is employed, generally of ash-wood, in the form of a sword- 

 blade. 



It must be stated that the system of hand-scutching is only to be recommended 

 where the quality of the flax fibre is so superior as to render economy in waste of 

 primary importance, or else where the wages of labour are so low as to render the 

 power of machinery of little consequence as regards economy. But, where wages are 

 high, and flax of medium or low quality, there is no question that machine-scutching 

 is the most advisable, and the most economical. This has been especially recognised 

 in Ireland, where in 1870 there were 1540 scutch -mills in operation, when the growers 

 sent their crops to be prepared for market, at a reasonable rate, much less than hand- 

 scutching would have cost. Scutch-mills have been introduced with advantage into 

 Russia, Prussia, Austria, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, France, Italy, and Egypt. 

 In Ireland, although in several districts flax is scutched by hand, machine or mill 

 scutching lias been for more than half a century in operation. As in the hand- 

 scutching, the operation consists of two processes : first, the bruising of the stems ; 

 and secondly, the beating away of the woody parts from the fibre. The original 

 system of bruising is still very general. It consists of a set of three smooth wooden 

 rollers, one underneath and the two others above it, parallel to each other, and one of 

 them horizontal to the lower roller. The labourer sits opposite the lower roller, and 

 inserts a handful of flax-straw between the latter and the upper one, which is hori- 

 zontal to it. The flax being drawn in and bruised between these, passes up between 

 the two upper rollers, and reappears at the outside. It is again put through, once or 

 twice, according to its thickness, or to its being more or less steeped, and the fibre, 

 consequently, more or less easily freed from the ligneous part. The scutching ap- 

 paratus consists of a wooden shaft, to which are attached, at intervals, like radii of a 

 circle, short arms, to which are nailed the stocks, which are parallelogram-shaped 

 blades of hard wood, with the edges partially sharpened. The labourer stands beside 

 an upright wooden plank, very similar to that figured in the description of the Belgian 

 hand-scutching apparatus (fig. 924), and through just such a slit exposes one half of the 

 handful of bruised flax-straw to the action of the stocks, which revolve with rapidity 

 along with the shaft, and strike the flax-straw, beating off the ligneous matter, and 

 leaving the fibre clear. When the end exposed to the stocks is cleaned, the workman 

 turns the handful, and exposes the other end. It is usual to have a set of either two 

 or three men, at as many different stands, and instead of each thoroughly clearing out 

 the handful of flax, he only partially does so ; the second then takes it up and finishes 

 it ; or, if there be three in the set, he does not quite clean it, but hands it over to the 

 third to do so. In the latter case, the first workman is called the buffer, the second 

 the middler, and the third the finisher. The motive-power in these scutch-mills is 

 generally water ; in some cases they are wind-mills, and in a few instances they are 

 driven by horses. Latterly, the use of steam-engines has considerably increased, as 

 being more to be depended upon than water, which frequently fails in a dry season. 

 It has been found that the woody waste produced in the scutching is quite sufficient 

 fuel for the boiler, without its being necessary to purchase coal or peat, and this waste 

 had hitherto been applied to no useful purpose, being with the greatest difficulty 

 decomposable for manure. 



The first improvement on this old scutch-mill apparatus was the introduction, by 

 Messrs. MacAdam Brothers, of Belfast, of a machine for bruising the flax-straw, 

 prior to steeping, and it has since been extensively employed, with very satisfactory 

 results. It consists of a series of fluted rollers, running vertically on each other, the 

 fiutings varying in width, the widest set being the first through which the flax-straw 

 passes, and the others diminishing in width, until the finest is the last. While acting 

 strongly on the ligneous matter, at the same time bruising and crimping it, and re- 

 ducing it almost to powder, it docs not injure or disarrange the fibres. One breaking 



