STEEPING, BETTING-, Oil WATEEING. 53 



several to this sole use, but all waters are not considered 

 equally good for flax-steeping ; and though stagnant, it is 

 desirable that the entire body should be renewed by a 

 feeble stream entering at one end of the pond and 

 escaping at the other. Quick-running water will not do 

 at all. 



Here again we see the usefulness of the liniers, or flax- 

 men. The villages in which the liniers flourish most, are 

 those where the waters are abundant and suitable. They 

 buy up the flax, wherever grown, and bring it home to 

 subject it to the treatment which it is often impossible 

 for the farmer to apply, unless he goes to the expense of 

 building a costly apparatus of tanks and cisterns. He 

 also removes the nuisance of the steeping. He concen- 

 trates it on one spot (where there is often plenty of run- 

 ning water easily turned on to purify the place from time 

 to time), instead of allowing a number of such nuisances 

 to be dispersed here and there over the face of the coun- 

 try. A village of liniers is to the flax- grower what an 

 abattoir, or large public slaughter-house, is to the butcher- 

 ing trade. It unites, regulates, and eases other spots 

 from being annoyed by a process which, from its very 

 nature, must necessarily be more or less offensive and 

 insalubrious. 



It will thus be seen that several distinct conditions 

 require to be combined, in order to completely adapt any 

 one locality for the successful cultivation and preparation 

 of flax, if it be necessary for the farmer himself to under- 

 take the manipulation of the flax he grows ; and they 

 ought not to be overlooked by those who are laudably 

 desirous of introducing a new and profitable branch of 

 agriculture into their own neighbourhood. Attempts 

 that are made without due consideration of each one of 

 these conditions, will only lead to disappointment. 



It will instruct the reader to learn the conclusion at 

 which Mr. "Warnes arrived, after his various endeavours. 

 There is nothing like experiment, made by oneself or by 

 others, for giving information on any foreign, and little 

 understood, art. 



