318 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. XXVII. 



and fit for sowing, " it should be smooth, sh'ppery, bright, plump, and so 

 heavy as to sink in water; it should taste sweet, and, being broken, it 

 should appear of a light yellowish-green colour, and oily ; the weight about 

 21 lbs. per peck, Linlithgow measure*." 



The treatment of the crop is, in the first instance, confined to careful 

 hand-weeding, which is generally performed at an early stage of its growth 

 by women, who frequently pick out the weeds upon their knees, to avoid 

 pulling up or injuring the young plants of flax; and afterwards it depends 

 upon whether the plant is to be pulled merely for its fibres, or allowed to 

 stand for the production of both flax and seed. The plant blossoms in 

 the course of July, and is then pulled, when the object is merely the flax ; 

 but when kept also for seed, it should be allowed to stand until perfectly 

 ripe, or some time in the latter part of August. 



When pulled, caie should be taken to sort it separately — the long and 

 coarse plants by themselves, — so as to keep every kind and quality distinct, 

 as they require different modes of dressing, according to the uses to which 

 they are to be applied ; and inattention to this point will lower the value of 

 the crop. It is then bound in sheaves about the thickness of a man's 

 thigh, and is either "dew-retted," or " dyked," or else "water-retted," ope- 

 rations on which the price of the flax more depends than any other which 

 the grower has to perform ; the object being to loosen the rind and sepa- 

 rate it from the stalk. 



The process of water-retting is, in the first case, generally preferred. The 

 sheaves are in that case immediately immersed during several days in standing 

 water, which is done by placing the flax sheaf upon sheaf, direct and across, 

 treading it at the same time into the pit; and after it has been heaped to 

 within about six inches of the surface, it is strewed with rushes, straw, or 

 any coarse herbage, and loaded with blocks of wood or stone, to keep them 

 down. The depth and choice of the water, and time of steeping, are 

 however matters of more importance than are generally imagined ; for if 

 too deep its action upon the surface and at the bottom will not be equal ; 

 if hard, or taken from a running stream, it is found to injure the quality of 

 the flax ; and the time of drawing it from the water depends both upon 

 those circumstances and upon the state of the weather. 



The watering of flax being a partial rotting through fermentation, the 

 depth of the dyke should never exceed six feet ; and from three to four 

 feet, it is by some persons supposed, would be still better, as the power 

 of the atmosphere must for that purpose be necessary. The water 

 should be clean, but stagnant, and free from any mixture with 

 mineral matter f; neither should it be shaded by trees, as the sun and 

 air should freely act upon it ; nor should there be fish in it, or they 

 will be poisoned. No exact time can be fixed for the flax remain- 

 ing in the water ; for it has in some cases been found sufficiently 

 steeped in five days, and in others it has remained ten days and even longer 

 without injury. In this latter process great skill and attention are neces- 

 sary ; for if it be left in the water too long, the threads become soft, weak, 

 and comparatively useless to the manufacturer ; wherefore it is generally 

 thought more advisable to take it out too soon, than to leave it too long 



* Directions of the Board of Trustees of the Fisheries and Manufactures of Scot- 

 land, p. 8. 



t A circumstance is stated in the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture of two persons 

 having divided a large field of flax between them, the crop of which they steeped in 

 different qualities of water: one being soft and free of minerals, and the other of an 

 opposite quality. The consequence of which was that the lint of the former sold for 

 30 per cent, more than that of the latter. — N. S. vol. iv. p. 175, 



