MACHINE FOE, PULLING FLAX -MOWING, &c. 279 



" The machine is propelled by a horse harnessed' in the 

 centre of the back part, and the flax operated upon is left 

 lying in iwo parallel lines on the ground, intermediate be- 

 tween the track of the horse and of the wheels. In the 

 forward movement of the machine in the field, the stand- 

 ing flax is separated and gathered up between long wedge- 

 shaped projections, forming a breast or front near to the 

 ground, and is then pulled by means of vertical rollers, fur- 

 nished with arms reaching forward underneath the branch- 

 ing top of the plant, which is thus at each revolution bent 

 over at nearly right angles with its growth, bringing up 

 the lower part of the stem into the bite of the vertical 

 rollers, and by them delivered on the ground in regular 

 layers. The rollers are driven by gear-wheels, on a shaft 

 receiving motion from the two large carrying wheels, to 

 which the whole machine is adjusted. This machine, 1 

 was informed, would with one horse enable the grower 

 to lay eight acres of flax on the ground in one working 

 day. The cost of hand-pulling is with us from 10s. to 20s. 

 per acre : by this machine, if the inventor's statement be 

 correct, it could be done for certainly less than Is., thus 

 effecting a reduction of fully nine-tenths of the cost of 

 labour, an equal saving in the time required, and relieving, 

 in fact, the farmer from all anxiety about the work." 



The flax-pulling machine would, if its performance in 

 the field be equal to what was said of it, be a most bene- 

 ficial introduction in our own flax-growing districts, where 

 hand-pulling is the universal mode by which the flax 

 crop is harvested. At the same time, we may reasonably 

 question whether this mode of harvesting, by hand 

 or by machine, is the most advantageous after all, 

 either for the farmer who produces the straw, or for the 

 manufacturer who has to convert it into fibre. If the 

 tillage operations of the farm have been properly car- 

 ried out, and the directions given as regards tilth of 



