122 AUSTRALIAN AGRICULTURE. 



the plants, after being pulled, are dried in the sun, being 

 set up on the root-end in two thin rows, the top interlacing 

 in the form of the letter /\ inverted. Then sun and air 

 soon thoroughly dry the stems, and they are bulked and 

 made into sheaves, and the seed afterwards threshed oft'. 

 The stems are steeped subsequently. Another mode in 

 general use in Ireland and in part of Flanders, is to steep 

 the green stems immediately after they are pulled. In 

 Flanders the seed is invariably separated from the stems 

 before the latter are immersed in water. In Ireland, 

 although this has been practised to some extent, yet the 

 great bulk of the flax-crop is put in the water at once, 

 with the seed capsules attached. In Belgium and 

 Germany, dew-retting is practised. That is, in place of 

 immersing the stems in water, they are spread thinly 

 on short grass, and the action of the dews and rains 

 in time effect what immersion in a running stream or 

 pool accomplishes in a much shorter time, namely, the 

 decomposition of the gum which binds the fibres to the 

 stem and to each other. But fibre obtained by this 

 method is considered of inferior quality and color. If the 

 fibre of flax be separated from the stem without the 

 decomposition of this matter, it is found to be loaded 

 with impurities, which are got rid of afterwards in the 

 wet-spinning, the boiling of the yarn, the subjection of the 

 woven fragment to the action of alkaline lye and the 

 action of the atmosphere, of rains, and of alternate 

 dippings in water, treated with sulphuric acid and a 

 solution of chloride of lime, to perfect the bleaching. The 

 great object is to obtain the fibre as nearly free from 

 foreign substances as possible. At various periods 

 attempts have been made to prepare flax fibre without 

 steeping or retting. Weak acids, solutions of caustic 

 potash, and soda, soap, lye, and lime, have all been tried, 

 but have all been found objectionable. 



COTTON. What a rotation cotton would make with 

 grain or root crops, were it a paying crop ! Three sorts 

 are grown in Queensland : woolly seed, Egyptian, and 

 sea island. All belong to the natural order Malvacae, and 

 are heavy oil as well as fibre-yielders ; there is a large 



