USE OF LIKSEED. 95 



that she has as many skeins as she wants, she makes pre- 

 parations to set about the hoiling. 



The boiling is done to cleanse the thread from various 

 impurities which remain still attached to the fibre after 

 the steeping and the scutching. At the bottom of a large 

 boiler, a bed of ashes is laid, then a stratum of thread in 

 skeins, loosely arranged, above that another bed of ashes, 

 and so on till the cauldron is full. Cold water is 

 poured in, till all is well covered ; and then either fire is 

 put under the boiler, or the boiler is put over the fire ; 

 one or the other, it matters not which. The quantity to 

 be boiled generally regulates that point. When it really 

 boils, it is kept in that state two or three hours ; at the 

 end of which time the flax is fished out of the scalding 

 mess with a stick, and is immediately carried off in a tub 

 to be thoroughly rinsed in running water, if possible. 

 After the rinsing, it is hung out to dry upon sticks ; and 

 as it dries, it is well rubbed with the hands to prevent the 

 threads from sticking together, and is patiently shaken 

 to get rid of any wooden particles that may remain. 

 Once dry, it is properly tied and bunched, and then 

 handed over to the weaver. The weaver soons returns 

 as cloth what he received in the shape of thread ; but 

 still it is only a rough unfinished affair, somewhat stiff, 

 and of a not particularly pleasing light-brown hue. It must 

 therefore pay a visit to the bleacher ; not, however,~to the 

 town bleacher at the blancherie, whose gases and washes, 

 as he himself confesses, would make it as white as snow 

 and as rotten as tinder. It must be spread in the meadows 

 by the side of a clear stream, where the dews from heaven 

 and the daily sprinklings from the brook will gradually 

 pale its dingy aspect into a purer and a lighter tint. At 

 last its complexion has attained a satisfactory degree of 

 fairness, when it is tightly rolled up and delivered to its 

 owner. 



USES TO WHICH LINSEED MAY BE APPLIED. 



As the French farmers mostly sell their standing 

 crops of flax to the linier, who carries the whole away as 



