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of leaving water furrows, when ploughing, always results in furrow flax being short, 

 different in quality, and later in developing, than the flax on " lands." While 

 this practice of ploughing flax fields by lands obtains, the flax grower would do well 

 to pay 50 cents an acre extra on condition that pullers keep furrow flax and "land" 

 flax in separate lots. This would enab-e the flax man to take the first essential step 

 in grading, which of course must continue throughout later operations in field and 

 mill. 



THRESHING. 



Though harvesting completes the farmer's active participation in flax preparation, 

 it by no means terminates his interest in the working of the flax for fibre. His 

 concern in the operations that follow the delivery of seeded straw at the mill is indi- 

 rectly almost as intimate as is the flax man's in the cultivation of the crop. Success 

 in the mill signifies more opportunities for the farmer. 



Whatever may be the general effect of field-curing on the straw of fibre flax, it is 

 the most effective method of after-ripening the seed so that it can be threshed out 

 and cleaned in the flax mill. The old hand method, by which the thresher passes anc 

 repasses the ends of two sheaves several times between two iron rollers that revolve 

 in close proximity in opposite directions, is still the universal flax-threshing process 

 in Canada. A new invention consisting of several consecutive sets of such rollers, 

 through which the seed end of the straw is carried automatically from the feeder's 

 hands, has recently been patented by an American. 



The difficulty with many types of machinery for flax processes is that they injure 

 the fibre of the straw. The hand thresher encountering sheaves requiring varying 

 degrees of manipulation to accomplish the removal of the bolls from the straw, can tell 

 at a glance when the requisite work is done. Thus the fibre is saved from undue 

 breaking. 



Threshing removes between 30 and 40 per cent by weight of the cured crop. Of 

 the mass of seed bolls, seed, dirt, and waste that falls from the threshing rollers, the 

 percentage of seed is about 40, though this amount varies greatly. 



Modern Canadian flax mills dispense with much handling of the straw after 

 threshing by means of endless sheaf carriers and automatic bundle-tiers, but there is 

 room for some improvement in the methods by which transportation is effected 

 between the storage sheds and the mill itself. The time is at hand in factories 

 when every facility and labour-saving device that can be installed is badly needed. 



RETTING. 



The bundles of threshed flax of inferior length or quality are kept separate from 

 those of higher standards, and follow one of three possible courses. Some are put 

 through a tow brake for the manufacture of green tow, used in upholstering; some 

 are retted in a loose condition like hay, the resultant tow being of a quality suitable 

 for twines; and some are retted in orderly rows, and the resultant fibre extracted in 

 an untangled condition. To determine which method will prove most profitable for 

 a given lot of inferior straw is one of the nice points about flax working. When the 

 labour is skilled it is usually advisable to work into fibre all but the poorest grades 

 of flax straw. In the flax industry efforts at improving the products for sale are 

 well rewarded. 



Though straight dew-retting, the usual Canadian practice, is inferior to water- 

 retting, it is the only method that the majority of moderately skilled operators can 

 employ in ordinary surroundings. The chief objections to dew-retting are the short 

 season between harvest and snowfall, the exacting demands made by unfavourable 

 weather, and the unevenness of the fibre obtained. This last-named feature has the 

 most influence on the returns because usually those operators who follow dew-retting 

 (whether here or abroad) are mainly those who find it difficulty properly to grade 

 their fibre. 



