FLAX. 133 



rotted too little, a great addition of labour is requisite 

 in fitting it for use. That which is coarse will not quick- 

 en that which is fine ; these should, therefore, be kept 

 separate while rotting. The short and the long should 

 also be sorted, as it is inconvenient to have them mixed 

 in dressing. The process of rotting should be finished 

 during the month of October if possible. 



It has been proposed to pull flax when dry, — free it 

 from seed,— steam or boil it in water or white lye about 

 twelve hours, — then spread and dry it, — break, &:c. 

 There is no difficulty, it is said, in pulling your flax one 

 day and having a part of it spun into thread the next 

 day." 



To Fave the seed ; as soon as the flax is dry enough 

 to be put under cover, it should be rippled. A comb, 

 resembling the head of a rake, but with teeth longer 

 and nearer together, made of hickory or oak, is fastened 

 upon a block, and the flax, taken in parcels no larger 

 than the hands can firmly grasp, is drawn through, and 

 the bolls ripped oft'; attention can be paid to sorting at 

 the same time. The bolls are to be riddled and win- 

 nowed immediately; spread then on a clean floor, or on 

 sheets, in the sun, and when sufficiently dry, and begin- 

 ing to open, threshed. By this method the foul seed* 

 are completely separated : A great improvement. 



The farmer, perhaps, would do well to make more 

 of a business of raising flax, when he becomes engaged 

 in it, b}'^ raising enough in one season to Inst two or three 

 3^ear3, By cultivating it in the most complete manner is 

 the only way to make the business profitable. 



It is the opinion of Mr. Pomeroy of Massachusetts, that 

 four hundred pounds of good fiax, and eight or ten bush- 

 els of seed, may fairly be assumed as a medium crop on 

 favourable soils, where the culture becomes such an ob- 

 ject as to make other farming operations subservient to 

 it, and due attention is paid to change of seed. [See his 

 E'isays on Flax Husbandry^ Mass. Agr. Repos. 



The expense of dew and water-rotting, and of break- 

 ing by hand, is saved in some paris of our country, by 

 the operation of machinery, recently invented for the 

 purpose ; machinery, by which more is gained in quan- 

 ti y, (0 the dressed flax, than sufficient to pay the ex- 

 pense of the operation. 



