420 [Assembly 



The preparation of flax has been made an unhealthy business, 

 on account of the old practice of steeping it in stagnant waters 

 containing great quantities of vegetable matter rotting in them. 

 One of the methods I have seen tried was soaking the flax in hot 

 water containing soap, which loosens the fibres in a few hours. 

 All the methods tried have for their object only the loosening 

 the fibre of flax from the central core. The next part of the 

 process is to effect the separation. This is done in numerous 

 ways, but in the most complete manner by a mill in which the 

 stalks are crushed beneath a heavy stone. The crushed core is 

 then separated from the fibres. This is called scutching, and 

 there are numerous modes in use for doing this, but it is most 

 commonly done by fixing a number of scutches in the same axle 

 worked by machinery. 



The fibres are at length separated from the central core ; the 

 flax has now become a marketable article ready for the manufac- 

 turer's hand. 



After the flax has been plucked in the field, it is carried off" to 

 be macerated or steeped in water. The object of the maceration 

 (which is performed in every country where flax is produced) 

 for the purpose of manufacturing, is to separate the substance of 

 the stalk from the rind or barky portion, which consists of fibres, 

 the common mode of effecting which is thus : when the flax is 

 gathered it is bound in small bundles and thus deposited in a 

 pond, bundle after bundle, until a solid stratum of flax is formed. 

 When it has been piled to such a thickness that the depth of the 

 water will admit, no more, (generally about five or six feet) the 

 whole mass is loaded with large masses of heavy wood until it is 

 all completely immersed. 



When it has remained in this state from five to eight days^ it is 

 taken out and conveyed to a place of mown grass or clean sward 

 land. The bundles are here untied and carefully spread out 

 stem by stem. Here it remaius^ve or six weeks^ being frequently 

 turned in the interim ; all is then gathered and tied up in large 

 bundles, conveyed to a store and kept dry till wanted. 



The object of this soaking in water, is to render the fibres easily 

 separated from the centre core. The great obstacle in the flax 



