80 



the goodness of the crop will depend on its running into long 

 fine stalks, without branches. 



The ground, after sowing, should be well clodded, and then 

 rolled, to prevent its being hurt by drought. When three or 

 four inches long the crop must be carefully weeded, and as 

 little injury as possible done to it by the feet or otherwise. 

 The crop should not be allowed to ripen so much as is com- 

 monly done at present.* It should be pulled when Ihe stalk 

 begins to turn yellow, as soon as it has lost the blossoms, and 

 before any of the bolls are hardened, and approaching to ripe- 

 ness. To allow the seed to ripen would hurt both the crop 

 and the ground. It is owing to the common error in this case, 

 that flax has got the name of being a scouring crop. It is so 

 when allowed to ripen its seed ; but the reverse when pulled 

 as soon as it has lost the bloom ; as it ought to be when the 

 seed is not to be saved. If the flax is fallen, it ought to be 

 pulled the sooner, that it may not rot. The beets should be 

 no larger than a man can gTasp in both hands, and tied very 

 slack with a few dried rushes. 



No circumstance respecting the management of flax requires 

 more attention than to water it properly. We generally keep 

 it too long in the pond, or rather in the stream, which is inju- 

 diciously allowed to run over it. Instead of this, a canal seven 

 or eight feet wide, and two and one half feet deep, and of a 

 length proportioned to the quantity, should be made and filled 

 with soft water, three weeks before it is needed, in order to 

 warm it by the sun; supplying, if necessary, any waste occa- 

 sioned by evaporation. 



The beets should be laid in the canal slope-wa3's, with the 

 root-end uppermost, as the crop end is apt to breed vermin 

 hurtful to the flax. It maybe covered with divots, the green 

 side undermost, and if not heavy enough to keep the lint under 

 water, some stones may be laid above them, but the flax 

 should not be pressed to the bottom. If the flax was 

 pulled in proper time, and the water warm and soft, the rind 



* The finer quality of Irish and foreign lint is ascribed to it* being pulled 

 before it is ripe. This, too, will add to the quantity. A writer in the Sta- 

 tistical Account (XVI. 527), after telling that 71 half stones were got from 

 three lippies of seed, observes, that it was pulled befoj-e it was fully ripened. 



