72 FLAX. 



amongst the poor. A blind man in a scutchery, with a 

 very little help from his neighbours, might earn enough 

 to maintain himself, and the labour would be no greater 

 hardship to him than to others. During these hours of 

 industrious obscurity, the imps of darkness are kept at 

 bay by patriotic, amatory, and comic songs. The holes 

 in the opposite walls are made for the purpose of admit- 

 ting a current of air to carry off the dust the great 

 nuisance of this part of the business. It is not possible 

 to avoid the dust by working in the open air, even under 

 the shade of a tree. The flax would get either too damp 

 or too dry, and would not work so well. The woody 

 part of the stem, which is knocked out in the act of 

 scutching, is largely employed for fuel, to light ovens, 

 &c., and is sold by the liniers to the workmen and others. 

 That and the tow are flighty materials, carried about by 

 the slighest breeze. As in sandy places, the sand gets 

 everywhere in windy weather, even amongst the food and 

 into the bed-rooms, so no French flaxman or scutcher is 

 surprised to find chips and tow in his soup and his bread. 

 It is impossible to keep them quite free from the in- 

 trusion, so long as he exercises his calling at home. 

 There is nothing, however, at all injurious to the health 

 in the admixture. The real evil is the dust in scutching, 

 which sometimes seriously irritates the lungs. 



The present point of our treatise appears the proper 

 one to say a few words on the social bearing of the 

 subject. 



"Opinions," says Yon Thaer, "are greatly divided 

 respecting the inconveniences which would arise, both 

 for the great agriculturist and for the small farmer, by 

 considerably extending the growth of flax. It is impos- 

 sible to deny that flax absorbs all the goodness which 

 may be remaining in the land; that it requires a long 

 and careful culture at the time of year when the farmer 

 is already overburthened with occupations, and that it 

 might thereby cause operations to be neglected which 

 are more essential to the economy of the entire farm. 

 In districts, therefore, where, in following the established 



