72 CORDAGE FIBRES 



been removed from the water. Grassing causes the fibre to 

 contract and leave the boon and renders the succeeding 

 mechanical operation much more easily accomplished. In 

 order that the process referred to may be easily and success- 

 fully accomplished, the straw must be perfectly dry and 

 thoroughly retted. It is then quite easy to break up the 

 " boon " by beating the straw upon a flat surface with a mallet 

 or by the use of a primitive wooden press of intersecting 

 bars, called a " break," and then to thoroughly clean the 

 fibre by repeated blows of a wooden scratching blade. This 

 primitive method is still practised in many a cottage home 

 in Ireland, Belgium, Holland, Russia, Germany and Italy, 

 upon flax and hemp straw, but especially in the case of flax, 

 farmers now generally bring their retted and dried straw to 

 a scutch mill where it is cleaned in large quantities by steam 

 or water power. 



Scutch-mill machinery consists first of all of a " breaker " 

 which has a series of pairs of fluted rollers which crush the 

 straw and break up the boon into small pieces, which, if 

 the stems have been sufficiently retted, are easily separated 

 from the fibre by the strokes of a beater. The best breakers 

 have six or seven pairs of comparatively small rollers fluted 

 rather finely to different pitches, so that they may break the 

 boon into as small pieces as possible. The efficiency of the 

 machine is further increased by turning the rollers backwards 

 and forwards alternately by means of cranks, connecting 

 rods, ratchet wheels and detents. The crank producing the 

 forward motion has the longer stroke, so that the straw passes 

 through the machine. 



The broken-up woody matter is then knocked out of the 

 fibre, as it is held in handfuls in a notch in an upright plank 

 or stock, by revolving beaters or " handles " of wood or light 

 iron which strike it repeatedly. 



Decortication should be practised upon the stems of the 

 ramie plant just after they have been cut down and while 



