70 



FLAX CULTURE AND PREPARATION 



harvesting operation and of reducing the relative cost that 

 flax pulling machines have been invented. 



It is neither possible nor advisable in this treatise to attempt 

 to describe all the details of the different flax-pulling machines 

 that have been invented and introduced to the public. 



The fundamental principles of some of the flax-pulling 

 machines have, however, now been established. The details 

 of mechanism are the chief factors which await solution. 

 Gradually these 

 minor difficulties are 

 being eliminated. 



The following ex- 

 amples have been 

 selected primarily 

 to illustrate two 

 essentially and 

 f undame n t al 1 y 

 different principles 

 and types of ma- 

 chines designed to 

 pull flax from the soil 

 in which it grows. 



69. Machine Types 



v^ FIG. 32 



Rotary Drum and 



Radially Oscillating Combs. Messrs. Jas. G. Crawford, Belfast, 

 and Robt. M. Bennett, Carryduff, Co. Down, Ireland, have 

 designed and used a flax-pulling machine of this type to replace 

 hand labour. Briefly it consists of a large drum or cylinder, 

 4-6 ft. in diameter, mounted and free to rotate in suitable 

 bearings placed in front of a motor-propelled vehicle. A 

 number of combs, each the full width of the cylinder, project 

 at equal intervals and at suitable angles from the periphery 

 of the cylinder. The combs are actuated by negative or 

 positive cams or other eccentric mechanism, so as to engage 

 the " beets " of the flax immediately below the bolls and lift 

 the flax plants out of the ground. 



