STEEPING-, BETTING, OB WATERING, 55 



convenient to prepare the flax for market immediately, 

 it is carefully stacked till the following spring, a delay 

 that considerably enhances its value, particularly with 

 respect to colour. On these accounts, the system of 

 steeping flax one year and of grassing it the next, is now 

 extensively adopted in those parts ; a system that will, 

 I think, be found best suited to the general routine of 

 farm-business in this country. 



" I had some flax steeped in water, approved by the 

 Belgians, several miles from my own house, according to 

 the above plan ; and found in this, as in every other de- 

 partment, the superiority of their practice. I shall, 

 therefore, in future, send my best flax to any distance 

 rather than risk its value at home. By the rivers and 

 streams that meander through our own country, many 

 places might be found where competent persons could be 

 located, who, at a reasonable charge, would steep the 

 grower's flax upon the Belgian plan, and thus relieve 

 him from the weight of that all-important operation ; the 

 after-processes of grassing and scutching being such as 

 the unemployed juvenile population could easily perform 

 at home." 



Mr. Hardy, after describing the Courtrai mode of 

 watering flax, which agrees with the above, adds : " After 

 seeing so much of this system of managing flax, of which 

 I have so often heard, I must say that it is the best I 

 ever saw ; but the great drawback to the Irish farmer 

 would be, the length of time he would have to wait for 

 his money. In fact, it cannot be fully carried out, in 

 Ireland, until there be such people as are here, to buy it 

 on foot, and make a regular trade of it.'* 



Messrs. Marshall and Co., of Leeds, state as follows : 

 " The effect of retting in running water is to produce 

 flax of a light yellow colour. This always fetches a 

 higher price in the market ; but the same effect is pro- 

 duced in large ponds or lakes of fresh water. If there 

 are such in your neighbourhood, we should recommend 

 your adopting this mode of retting. The other mode of 

 retting more usually followed is in ditches of stagnant 



