260 THE FLAX CROP. 



and November, when 8 " modi " l of seed were sown upon 

 the "jugerum" of land, whereas 10 were required for the 

 spring-sown flax. In both cases the land was previously 

 well manured. The harvesting and ''steeping" appear 

 to have been carried on much the same as at the present 

 time; the "breaking" and "scutching" were performed 

 by beating the steeped stems upon a stone with a mallet of 

 a peculiar shape, and then drawing them through iron 

 heckles. The tow was considered of little use except as 

 wicks for candles. The "boon" or "shove" was used as 

 fuel, and the cleaned fibre was bleached by being watered 

 and exposed to the air and light in the usual manner. 2 He 

 describes the Spanish flax as being of very fine quality, 

 and mentions another sort, which was cultivated in Cam- 

 pania, whose fibres were so fine and so tough that nets 

 were made of them to entangle wild boars, and so hard 

 and strong as to resist the stroke of a sword. I have 

 seen, he says, "these snares of such fineness as to pass 

 with the ropes at the upper and under side through the 

 ring of a man's finger; one man being able to carry as 

 many of them as would encircle the hunting-ground. 

 Nor is this the most extraordinary part, for each strand 

 of them consisted of 150 threads." He relates also that 

 in the temple of Minerva, at Lindas, in the isle of Rhodes, 

 the breastplate of Amasis, a king of Egypt, was found 

 made of this net, in which each strand consisted of 365 

 threads. This was taken by the consul Mutianus to 

 Rome, where it was exhibited at the time Pliny wrote, as 

 a specimen both of fineness and strength of fibre, and also 

 of skill in preparing and spinning yarn. Certainly 

 modern times have nothing to compare with it. 



The absence of all agricultural records after the fall of the 



1 The Roman "modus" was. about the same as the English "peck." The 

 " jugerum" was equal to "618 of an acre, or 9S| poles. 

 * Plin. Wat. Hist., lib. xix. c. 1 , 



