FLAX. 11 



which, as they grow, find an effectual prop in the 

 hanging brushwood. Another more simple and 

 equally efficacious plan is pursued by some cultiva- 

 tors. Small ropes are extended both across and 

 along the fields intersecting at right angles, and 

 fastened at their points of intersection : the whole is 

 propped up by stakes fixed in the ground, and forms 

 a kind of netting. 



After the plants have been pulled and sorted, they 

 are either laid regularly across the field in handfula 

 raised a little aslant, or are tied loosely in sheaves 

 and set upright upon their roots. The general prac- 

 tice is to leave the plants in the field twelve or four- 

 teen days after they have been gathered in order to 

 dry them. This method does not meet the appro- 

 bation of intelligent cultivators, who consider it most 

 judicious to dispense with the drying altogether. 

 When we come to treat of hemp, sufficient reasons 

 will be given for this opinion. In some parts of 

 France it is the custom to lay the flax on the ground 

 for only a day or two. In Yorkshire the sheaves 

 are immediately taken to the watering place. Flax 

 intended for cambric is never so much dried pre- 

 viously to watering, as that which is employed in 

 the making of lawn, lace, or thread. 



An experienced flax-raiser is careful to sort his 

 plants after pulling them, putting together those 

 only which are of the same size and quality, as each 

 kind requires a different treatment in the subsequent 

 preparation. 



The first operation which flax undergoes is called 

 rippling, and this can be performed equally well 

 whether the plants be green or dry. This is done to 

 free the stalk part from the leaves and seed-pods 

 called bolls. 



The ripple is a kind of comb consisting of six, 

 eight, or ten long triangular teeth, set in a narrow 



