PROCESS OF BREAKING AND SCUTCHING. 303 



wards and forwards, washed out the extractive matter, 

 and the pressure of the rollers left it comparatively dry. 



Having thus given the principal working details of the 

 different processes of steeping flax straw preparatory to 

 the separation of the fibre, which part of the operation 

 is very commonly performed by the grower, we need 

 only briefly allude to the mode by which the separa- 

 tion is effected, and the flax rendered fit for the use of 

 the spinner and weaver, which indeed usually forms 

 a distinct branch of the industry. In the countries or 

 districts where the old system of cold steeping is practised, 

 the "breaking" and "scutching" are generally performed 

 by hand labour; the introduction of the new processes 

 was, as might be expected, accompanied by new mechanical 

 modes of effecting the same object with a rapidity, precision, 

 and economy of price, quite unattainable by hand labour. 



The ordinary mode of " breaking" may be readily 

 understood by a glance at the accompanying woodcut 

 of the machine generally used for the purpose. It con- 



sists of two '.principal parts a moveable sparred frame 

 (a 5), hinging into a corresponding fixed horizontal 

 framework, the spars of which fit into the intervals of 

 the moveable one. The fixed framework is supported on 



