84 FLAX CULTURE AND PREPARATION 



or alternative plan may be adopted to thoroughly dry the 

 straw. 



A windrow may be built up as follows : Form a gait of 

 any convenient length by first adjusting two rows of beets 

 with their root ends apart and their heads leaning against 

 each other. Three additional rows of beets may be added to 

 each side, making eight rows in all. Further additions may 

 be added to the top and built in such a way as to form a 

 slanting roof so as to facilitate, if necessary, rapid covering 

 in very wet weather and induce the water to freely run off 

 and clear of the lower rows of beets ; as a precautionary 

 measure the windrows may be temporarily thatched with the 

 deseeded flax straw or other available material. 



In the windrows, the beets are not closely packed together 

 as in normal stacking, and the air and wind can freely 

 circulate among them. The straw should, therefore, soon be 

 thoroughly dry and ready for deseeding at once or building 

 into a permanent stack. 



77. Deseeding. The deseeded flax straw may then be 

 made up into round beets of normal size as at C (Fig. 36), 

 retted, dried and scutched at once if desired. The capsules, 

 or seed bolls, must then be freed from short and loose straws, 

 leaves, dirt, and foreign matter. 



If the weather is settled and dry the cleaned capsules may 

 be evenly spread, about 3 in. deep, or in small drills, as illus- 

 trated at Fig. 41, on sheets arranged in any breezy part of the 

 field, or, as an alternative, they may be removed to some 

 central situation prepared with a concrete or other smooth 

 floor surface which is exposed to wind and sun. The bolls 

 should be turned over two or three times each day until 

 thoroughly air dry, when the whole may be collected into 

 loosely woven canvas sacks and stored in an airy loft until 

 required for subsequent crushing, cleaning, and sowing. In 

 showery weather the capsules should be collected into heaps 

 and temporarily covered. Immediately the rain ceases the 

 seed bolls must be spread out again. A few small showers will 



