FLAX. 



WEEDING AND STICKING. 



The perfection of flax-growing would be to prepare the 

 earth so that no weeding should be necessary ; and extra 

 care is bestowed by all good farmers in thoroughly clean- 

 ing the previous crop, whatever their course of husbandry 

 may be. But with every precaution weeds will spring 

 up ; and the least part of the mischief they do is to rob 

 the crop of the manure that has been bestowed upon it. 

 If the weeds were suffered to grow up with the flax, some 

 of them would choke it, whilst others would be inter- 

 mixed with it at the time of plucking, in so intimate a 

 way as to be separated with great difficulty, and not 

 without considerable injury to the fibre. 



The best time for weeding flax is when it has attained 

 the height of about a couple of inches. It is then more 

 pliable, as .well as elastic, than either at an earlier or a 

 later period. As the simplest way of giving the reader 

 a clear idea on this point, we refer him to our woodcut of 

 a group of flax plants, of the natural size, exactly at the 

 time when they are fit for weeding (see Jig. B. pi. I.). A 

 fine day should be chosen for the purpose, when the young 

 plants are neither brittle with moisture nor sodden with 

 rain. It is best to employ a large number of weeders at 

 once, in order to get the job over as soon as possible ; 

 and the task ought to be intrusted to women and boys of 

 light weight, instead of to heavy and clumsy men, to 

 avoid unnecessarily crushing the crop, as they advance 

 slowly forward on their hands and knees, carefully pulling 

 up every weed as they proceed. If they can be got to 

 work without their shoes on, so much the better ; the 

 surface of the field will be less broken by their transit 

 over it. They ought always, also, to face the wind, in 

 order that after the work is done, the breeze may lift the 

 plants up again. The farmer will do well to pay a little 

 personal attention to this point, which is not a trifling 

 one ; because the workpeople, if they are not looked 

 after, will be apt to do exactly the contrary, especially 



