Sft't. Jr. THE COUNTY OF FIFE. 203 



ed by women, who range themselves in close 

 array across the field, and in a lying posture, 

 and, with great dexterity and expedition, pick 

 out every weed that is to be seen or can be laid 

 hold of. Sometimes, however, much damage 

 is done by careless or inexperienced hands, bruis- 

 ing the stalks with their shoes and elbows, and 

 tearing up plants with the weeds. Grass is not 

 considered as a weed necessary or proper to be 

 pulled. It does little harm to the rlax, though 

 permitted to remain, but, if pulled, as it has a 

 deep and wide-spread root, it seldom fails to 

 bring a considerable number of the plants along 

 with it. 



5//^, Harvest. Flax is pulled from the be- 

 ginning to the end of August. When the seed 

 is intended to be saved, either for sowing or for 

 bruising, it is allowed to stand till the stalk be- 

 comes yellow, the leaves mostly fallen off or wi- 

 thered, and the bolls hard. But if the fineness 

 of the flax is the great object, it is pulled about 

 a fortnight or three weeks earlier. 



When pulled, it is laid in handfuls across each 

 other, and suffered to remain in this situation for 

 some time, perhaps fur two or three days, and 

 rippled. Care is taken to sort the flax, so as not 

 to mix long and short in the same sheaf. The 

 sheaves are bound with stalks of itself, and made 

 of a size that a man can grasp them with both 

 his hands. The bolls are either dried in the 

 sun, if the weather permit, or dried slowly on a 

 kiln, then threshed, and the seed cleaned, and ei- 

 ther put up for sowing, or sold to the oil-mills 

 for bruising. In some cases, where the preser- 

 vation of the seed for sowing is a principal cb- 

 Cc 2 



