220 MACHINES FOR SEPARATING FLAX. 
extending the provisions of the Land Improvement Act to 
buildings for scutch-mills. Several have been reported on by 
the above Society, and a section of one is given in Mr, Mac- 
Adam’s paper in ‘Journ. Agric. Soc.,’ vol. viii, p. 304. Messrs. 
MacAdam have lately invented a scutching mill which has the 
great advantage of being able to do without skilled 
labour. 
These processes probably form the best introduction to the 
mechanical methods of separating the fibre. 
MECHANICAL PROCESSES BY MACHINERY, 
We have already observed that the intimate union between 
the constituent parts of plants may be dissolved by the action 
of water, by the fermentative process, or by chemical reagents, 
as well as in many instances by the mere absence of moisture. 
Thus we may see the union of the leaves with the parent 
plant ceasing on the approach of winter ; or, more to the point, 
we may see the cuticle of the Birch bark peeling off, as well as 
the bark of other trees; or, if we take a cut branch of the 
Linden or Lime tree, some time after it has been cut, we may 
see the layers of bark separating from the branch and from each 
other. The herbaceous parts of leaves may also be reduced to 
powder, when the fibrous parts still remain; or we may take 
the dried bark of some fibre-yielding plant, and observe 
that, by rubbing it between the hands, the cuticle may 
become separated from the fibres, and these from each other. 
All facts proving that the fibres of plants may be separated, in 
some instances at least, by simple drying and by mechanical 
means. Several machines have of late years been invented for 
this purpose with more or less success. It is generally con- 
sidered that such processes are fitted only for such fibres as are 
required for coarse purposes, such as for rope-making and 
coarse canvass. But the Author has seen some specimens 
lately, which seem to prove that such methods are capable of 
greater perfection than is supposed. They will be of certain 
advantage where nature has produced a good fibre, and the 
carelessness of man is liable to destroy its structure by over- 
retting, or any other inattention. 
The first of these patents was taken out by Mr. James Lee 
