188 FLAX 



air and dew. It is then said to be dew-retted. This takes 

 longer but produces good results. 



Breaking. After the flax has been dried it is passed between 

 rollers so that the woody part may be thoroughly broken. 



Scutching. It is next beaten or scutched. This is either 

 done by hand or machinery. In both cases the method is 

 the same. The flax is hung up and beaten from top to bottom 

 by the blade of a knife, so as to beat out the woody core. 



Heckling. Finally the fibres have to be combed out and 

 the long perfect ones separated from the short broken ones. 

 This is done either by hand or machinery. A hand-heckle is 

 simply a piece of wood covered with steel teeth. The small 

 broken pieces of flax which are combed out are called tow. 



At last, after all these processes, the flax is ready to be 

 spun and woven into linen. 



One of the advantages which flax possesses over other 

 plants is that its fibres are very long, and fine, and supple, so 

 that linen, besides being one of our most beautiful fabrics, is 

 also exceedingly durable. 



There are many different kinds of linen. For instance, 

 there are the coarse heavy materials, such as ticks, and 

 huckabacks, and crash, and fine ones such as cambric and 

 damask. Beautiful lace, too, such as Valenciennes lace, is 

 made from fine linen yarn. 



Linseed. Not only the fibre but also the seeds of the 

 flax plant are very valuable. These seeds when crushed yield 

 linseed oil, which is used chiefly in paints and varnishes. 

 After the oil has been extracted, there remains a crushed 

 mass of seed which is called oil-cake ; it is used for feeding 

 cattle. Ground up, this oil-cake is called linseed meal ; we 

 use it for making poultices, &c. Carroll oil is a mixture of 

 equal parts of linseed oil and lime water ; it is used for burns. 



LINOLEUM (from linum, flax ; and oleum, oil) is made in 

 the following way : boiled linseed oil is poured on to a layer of 

 cotton material and allowed to dry. This operation is repeated, 

 until the mass of dried oil is about half an inch thick ; it is 



