SCUTCIIIM. Cl 



it is ready for scutching, an important operation, which, 

 lias for its object the separation of the fibre of the bark 

 from the woody portions of the stalk or straw. If you 

 were to take a stem of reed in your hand, and crush it 

 regularly from one end to the other, you would have 

 nothing* left you but a handful of fragments ; but if you 

 serve a stem of flax in the same way, after the brittle 

 part is broken and fallen to the ground, a little bundle 

 of strong fine threads will be left. This, of course, is the 

 only portion of the flax which is of any use for clothing 

 purposes ; and consequently the scutchers get rid of the 

 rest as completely as they can, by thumping and crunch- 

 ing, and beating the poor plant in various ways, till you 

 fancy it must be reduced to a mere mass of shreds and 

 chaff. But it is a tougher article than you would think, 

 to look at it. 



After, the scutching, which is bad enough, it has to 

 undergo the combing, which is worse. It is drawn and 

 torn through horrid things with brass and iron teeth 

 in thrice triple row, till it is wasted to nearly half its 

 former weight, and is little more than a tress of delicate 

 threads, formed somehow by the wondrous mechanism of 

 nature, as materials wherewith to exercise the industry 

 and ingenuity of man. Max that has undergone all 

 these various torments, or combed flax, is at last in a 

 state to spin. Our duty, however, is not to hurry over 

 all these processes in a single paragraph, but to describe 

 them clearly step by step. 



However dry flax may be at the time when it is stored, 

 after lying stacked for several months, or packed in a 

 barn, it is apt to contract a sufficient degree of damp to 

 diminish its brittleness, and to make it difficult to sepa- 

 rate the woody part from the fibre, which is now the 

 principal object. To restore it to the degree of dryness 

 necessary for the subsequent manipulations, it must be 

 iceathered, that is, exposed to warmth sufficient to carry 

 off the moisture which has been imbibed. Scutching, iu 

 the comprehensive sense understood by the French word 

 teillacje, actually comprises three different operations, 



