10 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



crop grows Short and branchy, it is esteemed more 

 valuable for seed than for its fibrous bark, and then 

 it is not gathered until the seeds are at full maturity. 

 But if the stalks grow straight and long, then all 

 care of the seed becomes a secondary consideration, 

 and the flax is pulled at the most favourable period 

 for obtaining good fibres. Experience has shown 

 that when the bloom has just fallen, when the 

 stalks begin to turn yellow, and before the leaves 

 fall, the fibres are softer and stronger than if left 

 standing until the seed is quite matured. 



It has been found from experience that most seeds, 

 though not quite mature when gathered, ripen suffi- 

 ciently after being plucked, provided they be not 

 detached until dry from the parent plant ; all the sap 

 which this contains contributing towards farther 

 nourishing and perfecting the seed. 



The Dutch avail themselves of this fact with 

 regard to their flax crop. After pulling the plants 

 they stack them. The seed by this means becomes 

 ripe, while the fibres are collected at the most favour- 

 able period of their growth. They thus obtain both 

 of the valuable products from their plants, and supply 

 their less careful neighbours with the seeds. 



The plants which have been sown thickly are 

 liable, if left without, support, to be laid by the wind, 

 and consequently to be spoiled ; provision is therefore 

 made to prevent this accident. Forked sticks, a foot 

 and a half or two feet high, are fixed in the ground 

 in rows three or four feet asunder. Poles from ten 

 to fifteen feet in length are then laid horizontally on 

 the sticks, and long branchy brushwood is placed 

 across these parallel rows of poles : this is laid very 

 thick, and the vacancies are filled up with smaller 

 brush. Oak brushwood is never employed for this 

 purpose, as it is found to tinge the flax. Thus the 

 whole forms a support and shelter to the plants, 



