AND USE IN UNITED STATES. 6$ 



injury, to the grower ; but a few words 

 more are necessary in defining what is 

 raw flax. A curious distinction was in- 

 vented in 1870, between the " scutched " 

 flax, from which the woody fibre has been 

 revoved by hand or machine, and the 

 " hackled" flax, which has undergone a 

 further process of combing to remove the 

 chaff and tow. For some unexplained 

 reason, the duty on "hackled" flax is 

 double that on the " scutched " product. 

 It can hardly be because one is regarded 

 as a manufactured product ; as both have 

 been subjected to mechanical operations, 

 differing only in degree. 



It is not easy to frame a definition of 

 ' 'raw material" to cover all cases; but it 

 may be roughly defined as material that 

 requires some further mechanical process 

 to fit it for use by the consumer, it being 

 of no use to the consumer in its existing 

 condition. Under this definition, flax is 

 still raw material until it is manufactured 

 into thread, or yarn at least. This defini- 

 tion applies equally well to cotton and 



