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O71 Rotting Flax, By Joseph Cooper of Neiv Jersey, 



Read November 12th, 1805. 



About 18 years past I purchased a German servant 

 man, and soon afterward set him and others to spread 

 my flax ; the lot not containing the whole, he requested 

 me to let him rot the remainder in his own way ; this he 

 did, and the flax so rotted, proved the best, softest and 

 whitest, I had ever seen, and the method pleased me so 

 well, that I have practised it ever since, with some alte- 

 rations as to time. — The process I find to answer best, 

 is, after the seed is beaten olf, to bind it in bundles about 

 the size of common rye sheaves, and about the last of 

 September or first of October, to immerse them in water, 

 (stagnant water is preferable to running,) about two 

 weeks, but the time should be regulated by the weather, 

 as to heat or cold ; it is then taken out and spread thin 

 and even, and turned as often as occasion may require : 

 after being spread, ever}' rain, fog, dew, or frost, assists 

 in separating the harl, whitening and softening the flax 

 and extracting the gum, the detention of w^hich is the 

 only cause of flax being coarse and harsh. It is an esta- 

 blished fact with those who have tried both ways, that 

 either thread or cloth made from flax prepared in the 

 above manner, is softer, and will whiten in one third of 

 the time that is requisite for either article, made from flax 

 rotted in the common manner. 



I believe the principal reason why water rotting flax 

 is so little practised in North America is, that those who 

 have tried it, find the flax harsh and brittle, the cause of 



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