viii CONTENTS 



CHAPTER VI 



PAGE 



SOWING . . ... . . . .42 



43. Period Selected for Sowing 44. Early Sowing 45. Quantity 

 of Seed per Acre 46. Tabulated Sowing Data 47. Hand and 

 Machine Sowing 48. Details of the " Fiddle " 49. Operation of 

 the Mechanism 50. The Work of the Sower 



CHAPTER VII 



WEEDS AND WEEDING . . . . . . 53 



51. Weeds 52. Charlock 53. Redshank 54. Corn Marigold 

 55. Thistles 56. Field Bindweed 57. Flax Dodder 58. Dock 

 59. " Clean " Land 60. Detrimental Effects of Weeds 61. 

 Weeding or Cleaning 62. Weed Prevention 63. Flax Pests and 



CHAPTER VIII 



HARVESTING FLAX . . . . . . , 63 



64. Harvesting Possibilities 65. Flax Culture a National Indus- 

 try Ireland and Belgium 66. Flax Pulling 67. Hand Pulling 

 68. Flax-pulling Machines 69. Machine Types Rotary Drum 

 and Radially Oscillating Combs 70. Puller Belts and " Butting " 

 Mechanism 



CHAPTER IX 



SAVING THE FLAX SEED . . . . . . 77 



71. Fibre and Seed 72. Farming Experiments 73. Theory of 

 Imported Seed 74. Experimental Results 75. Harvesting Prac- 

 tices 76. Final Stacking" Windrows " 77. Deseeding 78. 

 Artificial Heat 



CHAPTER X 



DESEEDING METHODS ...... 86 



79. Elimination of Flax Seed or Bolls 80. The Ripple 81. 

 " Ripple " Machinery 82. " Rippling " Operation 83. Rotary 

 Ripple 84. The Hand " Morston " 85. Conveyer Belts and 

 Oscillating Comb 86. Two or Three Rollers 87. Two single 

 Pairs of Rollers 8. Multiple Pairs of Rollers 89. Greeve's 

 Reels 90. Separation of Flax Seed into Different Weights 



CHAPTER XI 



RETTING . . . .; . . . . . 101 



91. Functions of Retting 92. Experimental Work 93. Labora- 

 tory Investigations 94. Retting Practices 95. Pond Retting 

 96. Idiosyncrasies of Flax Retting 97. Retting in Sluggish 

 Rivers (Lys) 98. Twice Retting 99. Dew Retting. 100. Arti- 

 ficial or Warm Water Retting 101. The Dromara Fibre Cor- 

 poration Tank Retting 102. Legrand's Warm Water Retting 

 103. The Rossi Process of Retting 104. Spreading 105. Gaiting 



