The Cultivation of Flax in Tasmania. 61 
sheaves, about half the size of an ordinary wheat-sheaf, 
allowing the seed end to be as open as possible: each day 
the sheaves are collected and placed in two parallel rows 
about the centre of the ground which has been gone over. 
In four or five days, according to the heat of the weather, 
it is ready for having the seed taken off. Several methods 
of doing this have been adopted :—rippling when pulled, and 
drying the seed pods; allowing the flax to remain in the 
field until dry, and then rippling; carting it to the barn, 
and thrashing; and that adopted this last season, which has 
simplified the labour much ; it is as follows :—Two wooden 
portable thrashing floors, twenty feet long by seven wide, 
with wooden axletrees at each end, on which are low 
wooden wheels, just high enough to carry the floor clear off 
the ground, drawn by a horse, are placed between the rows of 
Flax in the field; two men (one on each side) place a row 
of bundles (sheaves) of Flax on the floor, the seed inwards, 
allowing the root ends to project a few inches over the edge, 
so that any dirt adhering thereto does not mix with the seed: 
with flat wooden mallets having long handles, that they may 
stand upright, the two men gently beat the seed from the inner 
ends of the flax, another man turning the bundles as they 
proceed, and in a few minutes the work is done. The bundles 
are well shaken and piled up until there is sufficient to fill a 
pond, when it is immediately put in. A cloth at the end of 
the floor receives the seed as it accumulates; and it is either 
winnowed in the field at once, or carted home, as may be most 
convenient. This method has been found far superior to any 
other. Rippling is tedious, and wasteful of both seed and 
Flax: carrying to the barn and thrashing cause additional 
cartage, as it has to be carted again to the ponds, and occa- 
sion much loss of seed, the capsules containing it bursting on 
the slightest touch. ; 
