58 CORDAGE FIBRES 



those wholly deprived of their gum and thus of all strength. 

 They are produced at the end of the usual retting process, when 

 that portion of the gummy matter which should remain in the 

 fibres is reduced to a mucilaginous state and is removed by too 

 strong a flow of water or by the friction of the workman's 

 hands. Under the Legrand process the straw receives no 

 bruise, friction, or impact of strong water-current. Through 

 each little channel formed by the spaces between the stalks, 

 there is no motion beyond the very feeble and slow circulation 

 of the water. 



The small but constant run-off of water from the retting 

 tanks, which contains a large percentage of phosphoric acid 

 and potash and is a valuable manure, may be absorbed by 

 the land, and is thoroughly filtered before reaching a river. 

 Undoubtedly this system of retting is rational and gives the 

 fibre its full value, and is therefore worth applying to all flax and 

 hemp straw except where the increased value of the fibre does 

 not repay the expense involved. At first sight this would seem 

 to be the case for all low-class flax and hemp, since, for these, 

 retting establishments in practice do not exist or consist 

 merely of a hole or pond with a few boards and stones, while 

 the labour is that of agricultural hands at small wages or of 

 the farmer and his family, in which case the expense is not 

 taken into account. But note, as against this, that the degree 

 of inferiority of the work increases out of proportion to the 

 lowering of the cost ; that is to say, that the loss sustained 

 through this bad workmanship, both in yield and quality, is 

 nearly always greater than the saving effected in cost. No one 

 need wonder at this when it is borne in mind that the large 

 proportion of stalks are too much or too little retted in the straw 

 handled by farmers, and, of course, the over-retted stalks wil 

 go to tow in scutching, and the insufficiently retted ones will 

 give a dirty fibre of very low value. 



If tanks were universally used, things would be different. 

 Everywhere large farmers could easily construct a small in- 



