practice. Rapidity of work, this is an important consideration. 

 Flax very rapidly deteriorates by over ripening and the shortness 

 of the season for pulling necessitates quick work. One good flax 

 puller may pull one acre of flax in three days (thirty hours) 

 while an American (Deering) self-binding harvester will cut and 

 tie five to ten acres or more per diem, consequently a much more 

 expanded area of flax can be harvested by machinery. It follows 

 from the above that the saving in cost by this practice will be 

 considerable. In Canada and Minnesota five dollars per acre was 

 paid for hand-pulling flax and on the Pacific coast the wages are 

 much higher. While with an American harvester the work can 

 be done for one dollar per acre or less. 



While I have no doubt that in the near future a practicable 

 flax puller will be on the market until that time arrives, I would 

 recommend the practice of cutting flax with a suitable machine 

 and if the cutters are kept sharp enough it will be found more 

 economical, more rapid and more distinctively American. 



DOMESTIC. SEED GRADER 



RIPPLING. 



Rippling or removing the seed bols may be accomplished in 

 the field or barn, according to circumstances, in the field when 

 the farmer is desirous or retting his flax green, and fresh from 

 pulling, if the weather is favorable (which it generally is at 

 this season), a good wagon sheet may be spread on the ground 

 or on a wagon bed and the ripple placed in the center. There 

 are several kinds of ripples, some are elaborate machines, others 

 are so simple any man handy with farm tools, a saw, hammer, 

 draw-knife and few twenty penny spikes and gimlet were all I 

 required to make my own ripple in old pioneer days, and a sim- 

 ple way to overcome this difficulty, is to ignore the rippling al- 

 together and sell your flax straw to the scutch mills with the 

 seed on. The farmer's ripple can be operated by one or two 



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