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That the primitive practice of harvesting fibre flax by hand still obtains in Can- 

 ada, and nearly everywhere else, is due at least partly, to the fact that in Russia, 

 where the most fibre flax is grown, and hence where the prices are controlled, hand 

 labour for all sorts of farm operations is still the usage. Were fibre flax extensively 

 grown in Canada, it is quite probable that it would soon come to be harvested by 

 machinery, either pulled or cut. Indeed, the lack of a pulling machine may be said 

 to have greatly retarded the industry in this country. Therein is represented a large 

 part of the difference in labour cost between this and European countries. 



The arguments favouring pulling as against cutting, apply with still greater 

 point when the flax is short in the stand. The two or three inches of straw lost by 

 cutting does not, it is true, represent a proportionate amount of value fibres. The 

 fibre nearest the root is coarser and less plentiful than that higher up the stem. 

 Indeed, when a flax spinner wants some choice fibre he cuts off both ends of a hand- 





A good sample of Canadian fibre flax. 



