OF FLAX FIBRE. 201 
Spreading.—Select, when possible, clean, short, thick pasture ground for 
this operation; and mow down and remove any weeds that rise above the 
surface of the sward. Lay the Flax evenly on the grass, and spread thin 
and very equally. If the directions under the head of rippling have been 
attended to, the handfuls will come readily asunder, without entangling. 
Turn it two or three times while on the grass (with a rod about eight feet in 
nat and an inch and a half in diameter), that it may not become of 
different shades, by the unequal action of the sun, which is often the case, 
through inattention to this point. Turn it when there is a prospect of rain, 
that the Flax may be beaten down a little, and thus prevented from being 
blown away. 
Lifting —Six to eight days if the weather be showery, or ten to twelve if 
it be dry, should be sufficient on the grass. A good test of its being ready 
to lift is to rub a few stalks from the top to the bottom ; and, when the wood 
breaks easily, and separates from the fibre, leaving it sound, it has had 
enough of the grass. Also, when a large proportion of the stalks are per- 
ceived to form a bow and_ string, from the fibre contracting and separatin 
from the woody stalk. But, the most certain way is, to prove a small 
quantity with the handbreak or in a flax-mill. In lifting, keep the lengths 
straight and the ends even, otherwise great loss will occur in the rolling and 
scutching. Tie it up in small bundles; and, if not taken soon to be 
scutched, it will be much improved by being put up in small stacks, loosely 
built, with stones or brambles in the bottom, to keep it dry, and allow a free 
circulation of air. Stacks built on pillars would be the best. 
Drying, by fire, is always most pernicious. If properly steeped and 
grassed, no such drying is necessary; but, to make it ready for breaking and 
scutching, exposure to the sun is sufficient. In some districts, it is put to 
dry on kilns, ina damp state, and is absolutely burned before it is dry, and 
the rich oily property of the Flax is always greatly impaired. On this point, 
the Society can scarcely speak too strongly, as the Flax is either destroyed, 
or rendered not worth one half of what it would be, if properly dried. 
As success in the above processes depends in a great measure 
upon the quality, as well as on the temperature of the water, 
and this being frequently cold in northern latitudes, led 
to the invention by Schenck, in 1846, of his patented process 
in which the requisite degree of temperature could be obtained, 
and, of course, maintained, as well as increased. This, though 
apparently a new process, has long been adopted in the East ; 
as the natives of Sumatra, and likewise of the district of Rung- 
pore, have employed warm water, as well as some chemicals, 
for the separation of the fibre of different plants, as we shall 
see under the head of Sunn and of Nettles. 
In Schenck’s process the temperature of the steep-water is 
kept at 80° to 90°, but may be increased to that which is 
favorable to the process of fermentation—for the effects depend 
upon the destructive power of fermentation quite as much as 
in the old process. A great saving of time is effected—as not 
more than seventy-two hours is required for the fine, and about 
