56 CORDAGE FIBRES 



Another method of retting is practised in some parts of 

 Russia, France, and Belgium. It is termed dew-retting, and 

 consists in spreading the freshly pulled straw lightly over a 

 field and allowing it to remain there until the action of the sun, 

 rain, and dew has accomplished the partial dissolution of the 

 gummy matter which binds the fibre to the wood. 



Of the various systems of retting, that effected in a slow 

 current of running water undoubtedly gives the best results as 

 regards colour and quality of the fibre produced. There are 

 very few rivers like the Lys, with a slow enough current, while 

 the poisonous effect of the flax water on the fish in the river 

 causes flax steeping to be prohibited in a number of other 

 rivers. Of recent years, however, Continental experts have 

 studied the question of producing the same effects by other 

 means, and a rettery is now working near Bruges which is 

 producing even better flax, both as regards colour and quality, 

 than that produced on the Lys, over which steep it has the 

 further advantage that it can be carried on all the year round, 

 whereas the factors on the Lys have to discontinue operations 

 during the winter months. 



The new retting system referred to is known as the Legrand 

 system, and is one which might be advantageously adopted 

 in all flax and hemp-growing countries, and carried on by 

 a company or by a co-operative society of farmers. Briefly 

 described, the process is as follows : 



The sheaves of flax or hemp straw are placed upright in 

 openwork crates, similar to those used on the Lys. These 

 crates are loaded upon small trucks and wheeled under an 

 overhead travelling crane, which raises them and lowers them 

 into the first of a series of three tanks. The crate remains 

 there for about twenty-four hours and is then raised and sub- 

 merged in the second, or retting tank proper. While in this 

 tank it is raised and lowered repeatedly, to which operation a 

 large part of the success of the process may be attributed, for 

 air and oxygen are thereby introduced into the water and fer- 



