The Cultivation of Flax in Tasmania. 63 
covered with bubbles, goes on more or less rapidly, according 
to the heat of the weather. When nearly ready, fermentation 
ceases, the mass spontaneously leaves the transverse poles, 
and sinks to the bottom of the pond: it must then be care- 
fully examined at intervals of two or three hours, to hit the 
exact time when it should be taken out. To ascertain 
this, two or three handfuls are taken from different parts 
of the pond, and a stalk of average fineness taken and 
broken across the woody part in two places, three inches 
asunder: if the wood ‘at the lower end, on being laid hold 
of, draws out freely and without dragging any fibre away, 
tt is done; or the handfuls are dried, and if, on rubbing, 
the woody portion leaves the Flax easily, 7¢ 7s done. Be- 
fore being quite done, and zmmediately upon fermentation 
ceasing, a light stream of water is allowed to run through 
the ponds, to carry off all impurities caused, by the fermen- 
tation. The ponds are here connected with the river by 
means of a drain. 
When done, a low-wheeled truck, with lattice-worked 
bottom, is placed close to the edge of the pond: the bun- 
dles of Flax are placed evenly thereon, and it is drawn by 
horses (the bundles of Flax draining as it goes along) to 
a piece of clean grass-land, where men are ready to spread it 
evenly and thinly out in rows. It thus remains (unless rain 
falls, when it is turned) for four or five days without further 
attention : a dry, hot day is, if possible, selected on which to 
tie up and cart it to the barn or stack, where it is left till 
winter sets in, or a wet day occurs, when it is broken or 
bruised to be ready forscutching. This operation for the first 
three years was done by hand here, men with flat wooden 
mallets striking it on a hard floor until it became soft—a pro- 
cess very tedious and expensive. ‘The crop of 1849 was laid 
in rows on a piece of hard ground, and a cart weighted with 
