64 The Cultivation of Flax in Tasmania. 
stones drawn over it, a man tending and pushing the Flax 
backwards and forwards under the wheels: the crop was 
much injured ; the friction of the wheels and grit of the road 
cut and otherwise injured the fibre so much that, when 
scutched, it yielded as much of waste towas Flax. Unfortu- 
nately also the flax happened to have been rather oversteeped, 
by which the fibre had been rendered brittle, and more liable 
to injury from such a primitive mode of breaking. ‘The crop 
was shipped to England. 
This year the Flax straw is broke or bruised by passing it 
between heavy fluted rollers, thus:—three wooden rollers, 
with grooves cut equidistant all round, are placed in a frame 
one above the other running on brasses, and so placed that 
the grooves and teeth run into each other, either quite close 
down, or a little apart, as the Flax straw to be operated on 
may be fine or coarse. A handful is entered between the 
top and middle roller: it is quickly drawn in and met on the 
opposite side by a back of sheet iron, which, conveying it 
round the middle roller, enters it between the middle and 
bottom roller, by which it is delivered on the same side as 
that on which it was first entered. ‘The bundles may of 
course be passed through more than once if necessary. 
Three men and two horses with this machine break from 
three to four tons of Flax straw per day. The Flax straw, 
after being broken, is made up and tied in handfuls of 
10 lbs. each, to be scutched. With the scutching ma- 
chine now in use, two men as scutchers—one driver and 
one horse can scutch from 100]bs. to 150 lbs. of clean 
Flax per day. Lastly, the Flax is straightened, made up in 
parcels of 10 Ibs. each, and packed in bales of 23 cwt., when 
it is ready for market. | 
The two machines are, so far as I can learn, somewhat 
similar to those used for the same purposes in Ireland. They 
