SPECIAL CROPS. 287 



covered and the teams kept off, it will have grown very evenly 

 and will ripen very evenly, wliicli is a great advantage. It wili 

 be ready to harvest, when the stems turn yellow, and the balls 

 brown, and the lower leaves are dead. If raised for the 

 fibre, begin at once ; but if the seed is the only purpose, let ii 

 stand until dead ripe. In harvesting, when the best fibre is 

 desired, pulling is resorted to. "Each laborer takes a strip 

 about four feet wide, and either spreads it in a swath behind 

 him or throws it down in gavels. The flax is grasped just 

 below the ball with both hands, and pulled with a quick jerk." 

 Cradling and mowing are often resorted to, and if the ground is 

 so level that the mower can cut it evenly one inch from the 

 ground, nearly the Vv^hole of the fibre will be secured. 



Mowing is better than cradling. One great point is to keep 

 the butts even. 



"Eippling" is the process of separating the seed from the 

 flax. It is done by means of a rippling comb, as shown in the 

 cut fig. 66, consisting of twelve rods of round iron, set in a 

 block. Two ripplers, each with a boy to hand them the flax, 

 can hatchel out seed very fast by this contrivance, which we 

 consider much better than any kind of threshing. As the pre- 

 paration of the ground is the most important item in the 

 cultivation of flax, " Retting," or as it is sometimes called, rot- 

 ting, is the most important in its jjrejoaration. It consists in keep 

 inof it under water until fermentation softens the fibre. For this 



CD 



purpose a pool is formed, either by a dam, or by digging a pit 

 and turning the water of a stream into it. In either case it 

 should be but little deeper than the length of the flax, shoald 

 be as tight as possible, to prevent leakage, and should '»e so 

 arranged that all leakage can be replaced. Bain water is the 

 best for the purpose. River water, that has been warmed in 

 the sun, next ; and cold spring water, the least desirable ; the 



