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The World's Commercial Products 



Photo by Charles Abe'niacar 



CARRYING HEMP 



central Russia, Belgium, Holland, France, Italy, Ireland, United States, and Canada, and,, 

 next to cotton, flax is, commercially speaking, the most important fibre plant of. the world. 

 In some countries, such as India, Central Russia, Argentina, and the United States, large 

 areas are also under flax, but the plant is here almost exclusively cultivated as the source of 

 linseed oil. 



Probably the best flax on the market is that grown in Belgium, and great care is taken 

 in the cultivation of the crop! The principal flax-growing district is around Courtrai, where 

 conditions are exceptionally favourable for the plant and for the preparation of the fibre. 

 As in Ireland, flax is grown in rotation with other crops, few farmers caring to sow flax at more 

 frequent intervals than once in every eight years, and the greatest success is obtained when 

 the intervals are. even longer. In Ireland the plant is " pulled " or gathered when the lower 

 leaves are beginning to fall, but in Belgium it is allowed to attain greater maturity. The 

 greatest cafe is exercised in pulling the plant, the process being carried out by hand ; the 

 stems are arranged so that the roots are all at the same level, and then the handfuls of the 

 "straw," as.it is called, are piled in stooks to cure or dry. After this it is placed in ricks of 

 bundles which are so packed together as to allow of perfect ventilation, and finally, after the 

 seed has been removed by threshing, the straw is stacked previous to the retting process which 

 allows of the easy separation of the bast fibre from the remaining vegetable tissue. 



Preparation. The retting or steeping, which depends ultimately upon the action of bacteria, 

 is carried out in three different ways in various parts of the world. The simplest method, known 

 as dew-retting, is that adopted in North America and Russia, where the bundles are simply 

 spread evenly over the surface 'of 'a damp meadow, and the natural moisture of the soil, dew, and 

 rain allowed to separate the bast from the woody tissue. In Ireland the flax is retted in pools of 

 soft water, the pools being either natural or artificial. The sheaves are packed loosely under 

 water so that, if possible, they do not come in contact with the bottom of the pond, and after 



