CULTIVATION OF PLANTS. 



which it was pulled, the quality and temperature of the water. 

 The period of steeping to the proper point must, therefore, be 

 carefully watched. In warm weather eight days will some- 

 times suffice; while in other cases ten or twelve are required. 

 It should be frequently examined with great care after the 

 sixth or seventh day. It is safer to steep it too short a period, 

 than ever so little too long. In the first case, merely a little 

 more time is required in the future processes; in the second, 

 the strength and texture of the fibres maybe seriously injured. 



When the flax is found to be sufficiently steeped, it is re- 

 moved from the pool, sheaf by sheaf, and laid in heaps near the 

 watering-place, until the water has drained off. It is then to 

 be carried away to a dry and airy grass-plot. Here the sheaves 

 are opened out, and spread evenly and thinly in rows upon 

 the ground, the spreaders working backwards, and causing the 

 butt ends of one row to touch or overlap the tops of the next, 

 with a view to prevent as much as possible its being torn up 

 and scattered by the winds. In this way the whole plot of 

 ground is covered with a thin coating of flax. In this state it 

 remains for a time, determined by the state of the weather, 

 generally ten or twelve days, sometimes more. 



During the further process of rotting, or dew-rotting as it 

 is termed, the dissolution of the soft part of the stem is still 

 further promoted, and the \vhole becomes hard. When it has 

 lain for a sufficient time, which is known by its being brittle 

 when rubbed, and when it is at the same time sufficiently dry, 

 it is bound up again into sheaves, but larger than those made 

 before the watering process. It is allowed to remain in these 

 sheaves a sufficient time to dry, after which it is carried home. 

 Professor Low thinks the operations of the grower of flax 

 terminates here, and that the remaining parts of preparation 

 are properly the province of the manufacturer. But sometimes 

 the manufacture proceeds on the farm itself to the extent of 

 partially separating the fibrous part. 



The dressing of flax, which is 

 the next process, consists of various 

 operations the most common is 

 breaking the stems by an instru- 

 ment called a break. This machine 

 consists of three triangular planks 

 fixed together at both ends. Two 

 triangular planks are fixed to an- 

 other frame. The two frames are fixed together at one end by 

 a hinge, and work the one into the other as in figure. 



The upper moveable frame being lifted up, handsful of flax 

 held in one hand are placed upon the lower frame, while with 



