not be cut in the field by machinery if the land is perfectly free 

 from weeds and THE KNIVES VERY SHARP, nor will the flax 

 be injured in anyway by cutting." Now as the keynote of this 

 system is WEEDS ARE DEATH ON FLAX, we should have our 

 land clean and smooth and then cutting would meet the re- 

 quirements without any objection. A thought here occurs, a 

 point worthy of consideration. There are weeds and weeds, some 

 are of a fibrous construction upon which retting has the same 

 action, as on the flax itself and if any such become mixed with 

 the flax it will reduce the value of the fiber, being hard to sep- 

 arate one fiber from the other. Of this class of weeds are bind- 

 weed, milk-weed, nettle and others. There are also weeds of a 

 celular or herbacaeous character that dissolve in the retting tank 

 and are separated from the flax in the form of dust in the 

 scutching. Mares-tail (Equisetum) is one of that class, they are 

 no injury to flax fiber. On one occasion I had a field of flax 

 so overrun with this weed that I dispaired of any return, but to 

 my surprise, after retting and scutching, not a trace of mares- 

 tail was to be found. The point of interest is, that some weeds 

 are injurious to both straw and fiber, but ALL WEEDS are in- 

 jurious to the crop of flax by robbing it of its proper nutriment 

 and stunting its growth. Another expert informed me "you can- 

 not cut flax for the reason that the square cut ends of the fiber 

 will not work well in the machines, and will show in the finished 

 goods." At this place I will mention a fact I do not think I have 

 referred to previously. One of the fundamental principles we 

 meet with in flax culture that for one or one and one-half inch 

 above the crown of the root of the flax fiber does not exist and 

 consequently with American harvester or fairly level land can 

 be made to cut the straw at one and one-half inch above the root 

 and consequently without any waste whatever of fiber. 



This argument against cutting is entirely imaginary, it is 

 an established fact that in Belgium, THEY DO CUT TIJE BUTTS 

 OFF BEFORE SCUTCHING without any such results. Not only 

 so, but Mr. Frank Barbour of the Hilden Flax Mills in Ireland, 

 informed me that in their mills they cut the flax fiber into three 

 lengths with a machine resembling a circular saw, they are called 

 "butts," "middles" and "tops" and the middles are used for the 

 finer grades of yarn," though cut at both ends. 



Another says, "that cutting the straw will allow the water 

 to enter the hollow at the butt and allow the butts to ret more 

 rapidly than the rest of the straw, causing uneven retting. This 

 argument might have some force if flax was like wheat or oats 

 with nodes, forming a separate chamber in the straw which 

 obstructs the passage of fluids but the hollow in the flax straw 

 runs the whole length of the straw without obstruction. The ef- 

 fect of this would be to allow the water to enter and flow the 

 whole length of the straw and act simultaneously upon the inside 

 as well as the outside of the straw, thus cutting short by one or 

 two days the process of retting, a most desirable result. 



Having considered the argument opposed to cutting flax by 

 machinery, I will refer briefly to some arguments in favor of this 



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