MODE OF HARVESTING. 277 



time the fibre is at its best condition. If left until the 

 seeds are quite matured, the stem gets hard and woody, 

 and the fibre is apt to get much broken in the subsequent 

 process of separation. Long experience has proved that 

 this is the most profitable time to pull the flax; for 

 although the seeds are not at that time fully ripe, yet if 

 allowed to remain in the sheaf, they will absorb from their 

 integument a quantity of sap to render them sufficiently 

 mature for the purpose of vegetation, though perhaps for 

 commercial purposes their market value may not be so 

 high as if allowed to stand a little longer in the field. 

 These points should all be duly weighed by the grower 

 before he gives directions for pulling the crop, as some- 

 times the markets or the requirements of the farm may 

 render one portion of the crop more valuable than the 

 other, and he would of course arrange his time of har- 

 vesting it accordingly. 



The mode of harvesting flax differs from that of any of 

 our other crops, as for the sake of obtaining the fibre as 

 long as possible, the plants are pulled up by the hand, 

 roots and all, instead of being cut in the ordinary way. 

 This is both a tedious and an expensive process, and is 

 a great obstacle to the introduction of the crop into 

 districts where it has not been grown, as unless the 

 people have had a little practice at the work, they are 

 generally very slow at it at first, do it badly, and if 

 paid by day-work, dissatisfy the grower, and if by piece 

 work, are dissatisfied themselves at the little they have 

 earned. The flax is pulled by the labourer, each hand 

 singly grasping a small handful carefully by the neck, 

 just below the seed-vessels, and drawing it up out of 

 the soil, and laying it in rows across each other. These 

 are allowed to remain lying open on the ground for a 

 certain time, generally one or two days ; they are then 

 collected together, and bound into small -sized sheaves 



