HARVESTING OR PULLING FLAX. 23 



should be carefully pulled. I observed on the continent 

 (during my visit, for many years) that they practised this 

 operation as I have seen it done in Ulster. Women and 

 children perform the work by creeping foot by foot on all 

 fours with their clothes made rather tight, and coarse bandages 

 on their knees, as walking over the young plants with shoes 

 filled with nails (as the workpeople have them in general) 

 would so injure some of the plants as to prevent them getting 

 up again, the weeding should all be clone one way by the 

 workpeople facing the wind, so that any plants laid down by 

 the operation, the wind might restore them to an upright 

 position. This is the old and best method of doing the work. 



HARVESTING OR PULLING THE CROP. 



As this operation generally takes place before the time of 

 grain cutting, if the Flax be got in early in April, the crop 

 should be visited daily the last fortnight in July, as by that 

 time it will be ready for pulling, and as the time for pulling is 

 a matter or point that requires a person of some practical 

 knowledge to determine, a little instruction on this important 

 part is very requisite. The best time for pulling is when the 

 straw or stalk, for about two-thirds of its height from the soil, 

 becomes yellow, and the seed capsules are beginning to change 

 from a green colour to a light brown : if it gets beyond this, 

 the seed, aided by the influence of the sun in ripening weather, 

 will draw up the coil from the stem, and consequently the 

 Flax fibre will become brittle and dry, and the spinning 

 qualities will be much deteriorated. In pulling, the operatives 

 should take hold of the Flax underneath the seed bolls or 

 capsules two-thirds down, but if there should be any short 

 stalks, they should be left behind, pulled last and kept separate ; 

 but if the ground has been properly tilled and prepared, well 

 drained and without ridges, laid down flat and evenly, and 



