AND RURAL ECONOMIST. Ill 



allow double the room to boil in that is required for steeping. 

 A steam pipe, instead of the tube, and having the top of the 

 box well secured, would permit the process of steaming to 

 go on. It is probable that by either method, spreading on 

 the grass will be necessary to obtain soft flax. The yarns 

 of which the sail cloth is made at Paterson are all steamed. 

 The navy board expressly forbid their being boiled in alka- 

 line lye, as is usual in most manufactures of linen. It is 

 from this precaution that their canvas has the pliable, oily 

 feeHng, which so much recommends it. It should not be 

 lost sight of, that by boiling or steaming, much time and ex- 

 pense will be saved in bleaching. 



' In dressing,' says Mr. Pomeroy, ' our climate ^ives a de- 

 cided advantage over Ireland, Flanders, or the north of Eu- 

 rope, where flax is dried on hurdles, over a peat fire, in ovens, 

 or kilns, requiring great care in regulating the heat, to pre- 

 vent injury. All this trouble and hazard is obviated by our 

 dry atmosphere and keen north-west winds. Dr. Deane 

 estimated the expense of dressing flax by hand at one-third 

 of the product. 1 believe the present price does not vary 

 much from his estimate. A respectable gentleman from 

 Duchess county. New York, informed me that mills or ma- 

 chi les, impelled by water, have been erected there, that break 

 and completely dress the flax for a toll of one-tenth ! It is 

 said one or more of them are in operation in the western 

 part of this state. These mills were invented in Scotland, 

 and are now said to be brought to great perfection. They 

 are erected in all directions in the principal flax districts in 

 Ireland, and notwithstanding the low price and limited de- 

 mand for labor, are resorted to by the poorer classes of peo- 

 ple, the dressing by hand being mostly abandoned. There 

 are machines in England that dress the flax immediately 

 from the field, without any preparation whatever. An ac- 

 count of them may be found in the fifth volume of the Mas- 

 sachusetts Agricultural Journal. It appears by the report 

 of a conmiittee of the house of commons, that in 1817 they 

 were in successful operation. A man and three children im- 

 pelled the machines, and dressed sixty pounds a day. Should 

 they be susceptible of the application of water or steam pow- 

 er in any degree proportionate, the advantage may be incal- 

 culable ; but in the present inquiry, we place these machines, 

 however desirable, entirely out of the question. 



Product. ' It is not uncommon in Great Britain and Ire- 

 land to obtain eight hundred pounds of flax from an acre ! 



