8 FLAX. 



s. a. 

 158 spinners 12 months, or 52 weeks, at 



3s. 4id. per week 1369 G 8 



18 weavers 12 months, at 24 per annum 432 

 40 needle-women 52 weeks, at 4s. each. 



per week 416 



216 persons employed. Amount of wages 2217 6 8 

 Cost of flax.. 75 



Total expenses ....2292 6 8 



Value of 1.050 dozen handkerchiefs at 



2 105. per dozen 2625 



332 13 4 



DELIVERING- THE SCUTCHED FLAX, AND THE SUBSEQUENT 

 PEOCESSES. 



There are various forms in which the article thus im- 

 perfectly prepared is delivered to the parties who continue 

 its manufacture. They agree in one point, namely, in 

 keeping the fibre in tightly-bound handfuls, each- of a 

 fixed and definite weight, twisted in a certain convenient 

 square form, according to the custom of the locality, and 

 in uniting those handfuls into bales containing a stipu- 

 lated number, and, therefore, weighing a stipulated 

 amount. In the Pas de Calais, scutched flax is always 

 delivered in the shape of two Jcilo handfuls (about five 

 pounds and a half, united), clapped together ; and the 

 purchaser may obtain these by the half-score, score, hun- 

 dred, or thousand ; a smaller quantity even than the first 

 mentioned is easily obtainable, which, is very convenient 

 for poor people who buy flax to spin at home. In 

 June, 1854, two kilos were worth from fifty to fifty- 

 five sous. 



One mode of making up a bale of flax, is to begin by- 

 taking two handfuls of fibre, ready twisted into shape, 

 and clapping them together, head and tail in an opposite 

 direction, and going on in the same way, placing the 



