]15 



of grassing- and scutching being such as the unemployed 

 juvenile population could easily perform at home. 



With respect to pulling flax before the seed has arrived at 

 sufficient maturity for preservation, it was in vain that I pro- 

 duced authorities to prove the necessity of sacrificing that 

 important part of the crop in order to secure the finest fibre. 

 The foreigners insisted upon the absurdity of the recommenda- 

 tion, observing, that unless the formation of the seed were 

 completed in the bolls, the flax would be defective: but, if 

 allowed to obtain the proper degree of ripeness, both could, 

 under their treatment, be brought to perfection. I inquired 

 when my flax would be ready for pulling. They replied, " in 

 two weeks." I then directed them to pull some of the ripest 

 and steep it immediately. About a hundred sheaves were 

 accordingly placed in the water; the men declaring that good 

 flax would be found only in the middle, and bad at both ends 

 of the stalks. 



At the expiration of a fortnight some more were pulled, and 

 except being stooked and thrashed were treated like the former. 

 But when scutched it was thirty per cent, better, exclusive of 

 the seed saved, both ends being perfect while those of the other 

 were precisely in the state foretold by the Belgians. The re- 

 mainder of the field was dried in stooks, stacked, and the seed 

 beaten out in the winter. 



From the result of this experiment I ascertained that there 

 were four principal methods of pulling and steeping, as fol- 

 low : — 



1. The flax is pulled, and in a few hours steeped with the 

 seed. 



2. The bolls are rippled on the field, and the stalks steeped 

 immediately. 



I 2 



