46 FLAX. 



PULLING 



When the leaves turn yellow, and the last blossoms 

 have disappeared, the time of harvesting is come. Flax is 

 torn up by the roots, not mown with a scythe. In France, 

 this work is mostly performed by women. It is first 

 spread thinly and regularly on the ground, and then tied 

 in small bunches set on end leaning against each other, to 

 dry in the open field. In a week or more, if the weather 

 be fine, it is fit to be taken to the barn to be divested of 

 its seed. Flax is not finally stored for the winter with 

 the grain unthrashed, like wheat, and other kinds of 

 corn ; because having hitherto remained on dry land, it 

 has now to pass a certain period under water ; and the 

 seed would take no good by participating in this aquatic 

 retirement from the world. Without the steeping, or 

 rouissage, as the French call it, the flax would be as 

 useless as so much reed. 



The signs of fche fitness of the flax for pulling are best* 

 learned by actual inspection and practice. Mr. Hender- 

 son states : " I have found the test recommended by 

 Mr. Boss (a Dutchman), to ascertain the degree of ripe- 

 ness that gives the best produce, with the finest fibre, 

 perfect. It is this : try the flax every day, when ap- 

 proaching ripeness, by cutting the ripest capsule, on an 

 average stock, across (horizontally), and when the seeds 

 have changed from the white milky substance, which they 

 first show, to a greenish colour, pretty firm, then is the 

 time to pull. The old prejudice, in favour of much ripen- 

 ing, is most injurious, even as regards quantity ; and the 

 usual test of the stalk stripping at the root and turning 

 yellow, should not be depended on. Where there is one 

 man that pulls too green, five hundred over-ripen. 



" I use the Dutch method of pulling, say, catching the 

 flax close to the bolls ; this allows the shortest of the flax 

 to escape. With the next handful, the puller draws the 

 short flax, and so keeps the long and the short each by 

 itself, to be steeped in separate ponds. It is most essen- 

 tial to keep the flax even at the root end, and this cannot 



