H VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



this manner of steeping, the flax soon gives to the 

 water an inky tinge, and imbibes it again so strongly 

 that much labour is required in its bleaching, and 

 therefore many plans have from time to time been 

 proposed to obviate this objection. It has been 

 recommended as a much better method to subject the 

 flax to the action of boiling water, or even to boil it 

 for an hour or more, by which every advantage 

 would be obtained of macerating the reed or 6oo/z, 

 and separating the juices, while the bad effects at- 

 tending long immersion in stagnant pools would be 

 avoided. 



The water-retting for very fine flax is more care- 

 fully performed, and in this process the advantages 

 of running and still water are endeavoured to be 

 combined. The pit into which the water is intro- 

 duced for this purpose is made three or four month 

 before it is wanted. A pure stream from a soft 

 spring or a small rivulet is always gently running 

 through ; the pit having only two small apertures 

 at opposite sides for the ingress and egress of 

 the water. This receptacle should be about five feei 

 deep, narrow, and of a length proportionate to the 

 quantity of flax under process. Poles with hooks 

 attached to them are driven in along the sides, the 

 hooks being rather below the surface of the water; 

 a long pole the whole length of the pit is fixed into 

 these hooks. The flax is then made into narrow 

 bundles of about two and a half feet long and four 

 feet high, and these being wrapped in straw are im- 

 mersed in the water, where they are kept securely 

 by means of horizontal cross poles, which are then 

 introduced between the long pole and the hooks. 



For many ages it was the universal practice to 

 separate the flax from the useless parts by hand- 

 machinery, either by beating with mallets, or by the 

 use of an instrument called a break. Even now in 



