Ch. XXVII.] ON FLAX. 319 



in the pits *. Care is however so necessary on this important point, 

 that a day or even a few hours too much or too little may occasion injury ; 

 but it is said, on the authority of a Dutch boor, " that when the bubbles of 

 air disappear from the surface of the water, and the flax seems to have settled 

 to the bottom, it may then be concluded that the operation is nearly 

 finished:" or, to avoid mistakes, " some of the stalks may be broken at 

 about four inches distance, and if the heart of the stem can be easily drawn 

 out of the bark, or lint, then it is time to remove the flax from the pond ; but, 

 if it still adheres to llie boon, or pith, it must be continued in the steep until 

 they are found to part freely f." 



AVhen removed from the dyke, the sheaves are either unbound, and 

 spread upon close-fed grass-land to dry — the manner of placing them being 

 to put them so closely together as to cover the sward entirely, but thinly ; 

 or they are laid on the margin of the pond for a few hours to let the water 

 drain off; afterwards each sheaf is drawn up towards the top, and they are 

 then set up on end, or " goited," in the immediate neighbourhood, to admit 

 the air. The former is the preferable practice ; for a shower or two of rain 

 will cleanse the flax, while the action of the sun serves to bleach it, and it 

 should, therefore, be always adopted where there is abundance of grass- 

 land for the purpose. It may indeed be remarked, that the drainage of 

 the flax is beneficial to the grass ; and the water remaining in the dyke — 

 which is rendered insufferably putrid by the fermentation of the vege- 

 table matter wliich it imbibes — has been found to possess very fertilizing 

 qualities J. AVhichever plan may be adopted, the flax should be first 

 thoroughly dried, after which it is either put into the barn or stacked ; 

 and, if it should be in the least damp, it ought to be dried upon kilns 

 gently heated §. 



An improved mode of watering has been invented by a member of 

 the Agricultural Society of Ghent, which diifers from the common usage 

 in four points : — 



1st. In placing the bundles in the steep vertically, instead of hori- 

 zontally. 



2dly. In immersing the flax by means of transverse sticks, with 

 that degree of weight annexed which shall not push it to the bottom, 

 but leave it the power to descend spontaneously towards the conclu- 

 sion of the steepage. 



Sdly. By leaving at first a space of at least half a foot between 

 the bottom and the roots of the flax. 



4thly. By renewing the water at stated intervals. 

 Comparative experiments having been made between this and the former 

 method of steeping, a very decided advantage was shown to result from 

 the latter. The process, and the observations upon it, would occupy 

 more space than we can afford ; but a very minute detail may be found in 

 the Appendix to Radcliff's Account of the Agriculture of East and West 

 Flanders. 



* Billingsley's Surv. of Somersetsh. 3rd edit. p. 214. 



t Aitou, on the Cultivation of Flax in Holland and Scotland. — Quart, Journ. of Agr, 

 N.S. vol. iv.p. 177.; 



J Mr. Billinj2;sley says, in his Survey of Somersetshire, that he has found the effects 

 of water in which flax had been steeped, when applied to pasture lands by watering- 

 carts, to advance the land in value ten shillings per acre. He indeed considers it supe- 

 rior to animal urine. — 3rd edit. p. 215. In Yorkshire also similar effects have been 

 observed. — See Middletou's Ann. vol. xiv. 



§ " In Holland and Flanders this practice is generally adopted in drying-houses built 

 of brick and about 15 feet long, having a place for fuel about 2^ feet underground, so 

 contrived as to send a gentle heat through the kiln, and yet to keep the fire from 

 reaching the flax."' — Alton on the Cult, of Flax in Holland. Quar. Jour, of Agr. p. 178. 



