418 FLAX 



the end of the slido. There a workman or boy takes out the clasps, unscrews the 

 nuts fastening thorn, and reverses the position of the straw, so that the portion nob 

 previously subjected to the action of the machine is now presented to it, while (hat 

 already cleaned out is untouched. The machine is double, i.e. has two sides of 

 combs, each capable of containing twelve of the clasps, and each cleaning out one 

 end of the flax-straw. Hence, after the workman or boy has unclasped the half- 

 cleaned straw, turned it upside down, and presented the uncleaned end to the other 

 side of the machine, the same action of combing, already described, clears out that 

 end thoroughly, and by the time the progressive movement of the mechanism brings 

 the slide to the extreme end, the flax fibre appears free from woody refuse, and in a 

 lit state for market. It is then unclasped and made up into bundles. 



There have been a great number of other scutching machines invented, but it is 

 not necessary to particularise them. 



In the operation of scutching, however carefully it may be done by hand or by 

 machine, there occurs more or less waste, i.e. the beating of the flax-straw, in order 

 to separate the marketable fibre from the useless wood, causes a portion of the former 

 to be torn off in short filaments mingled with the wood, and this torn fibre is very 

 much less valuable than the long filaments when finally cleaned out. In general, it 

 will not average more than an eighth or a tenth of the value of the long fibre. It is 

 termed scutching-tow or codtila, and when properly cleaned is dry-spun for yarns em- 

 ployed in making coarse sacking, tarpaulins, &c. Being very much mixed with the 

 woody matter of the flax stems, it is necessary to get rid of the latter before the 

 scutching-tow can be spun into yarn. To accomplish this, shaking by hand is the 

 first process, and subsequently the stuff is put into a wooden machine termed a 'devil,' 

 in which, by a mechanism something resembling the shakers in a threshing machine, 

 the woody particles and dust are got rid of. The tow is sorted into different quali- 

 ties, and, in some cases, it is hackled before being sold. In Franco and Belgium it is 

 chiefly retained at home, spun by hand, and woven into such fabrics as coarse 

 trowsers and shirts, for the labouring classes, aprons, table-covers, &c. What is 

 produced in Kussia, is partly used for similar purposes among the lower classes, but 

 the great mass is exported, Great Britain and Ireland being the chief mart, and 

 Dundee especially. 



The great aim in all the different methods of scutching, has been to obtain the 

 largest possible yield of long fibre from the flax-straw, and to waste as little as pos- 

 sible in scutching-tow. The French and Flemish system of hand-scutching is most 

 successful in this respect, but as the quality of fibre there produced is very much 

 finer, and consequently more valuable than all others, the additional expense of hand- 

 labour is compensated by the larger yield of long fibre ; whereas, in Ireland, the fibre 

 being generally coarser and less valuable, occupying an intermediate place between 

 the Flemish and Eussian, the cheapness of mill-scutching turns the scale, and, except 

 in remote districts, it is now universal. In Egypt, until some fifteen years ago, the 

 method of scutching was of the most primitive form. The fellahs, after steeping 

 their flaxen the Nile, and drying it on the banks, proceeded to clean out the fibre. In- 

 first beating the straw between two flat stones, and then striking it against a wooden 

 post. Mehemet Ali and his successors, however, introduced Irish scutch-mills, driven 

 by steam-power, and since then a marked improvement has taken place in the state 

 in which Egyptian flax has been brought to market. It may be interesting to note 

 here, that in the early period of Egyptian civilisation, the dwellers by the Nile were 

 able to manufacture cambrics of a finer texture than the most finished modern mecha- 

 nism can produce as is evidenced by the cerecloths wrapping the mummies and 

 that from a fibre so coarse in comparison to European flax, that while the latter may 

 bo spun by machinery to 300 or 400 leas, and by hand to 1,200 leas, the former cannot 

 be put higher than 40 to 60 leas, and rarely even to that. 



In the scutching operation, three several matters are obtained from the flax stems. 

 The first is the fibre, which is the primary object, and which is the really valuable 

 portion, that known as 'flax' in commerce. The second is the woody refuse of the 

 stems, hitherto applied to no other use than as fuel, or occasionally in Ireland as a 

 covering for cuttings of potatoes, when planted, to protect them from frost. Mr. Pye, 

 of Ipswich, however, proposes to make it available as an auxiliary food for cat tie. 

 having the authority of Professor Way thai a sample analysed by him yielded 7'02 

 percent, of oil and fatty matter ; 7'93 of albuminous matter (containing 1'25 nitmp-n), 

 and 26*29 of starch, gum, sugar, &c. He (Mr. Pyo) recommended its use for feeding 

 live stock, in conjunction with ground oats or other farinaceous food. Pi- 

 Hodges, nevertheless, in analysing another sample of this ground ligneous matter, 

 gave quite a different result, his estimate of the nutritive constituents being as f.il- 

 lows : nitrogenised flesh-forming matters, 3'23 per cent. ; oil and fatty matters, 2*91 ; 

 gum and soluble matters, 14*66; and ho compared this with the average results of 



