sumption to what is strictly necessary for natural fermentation. 

 (7) Full benefit derived from the water used in retting. (8) 

 Rivers not contaminated. (9) The preparation of the fiber pre- 

 serves its agricultural character. (10) Farmers can themselves 

 continue to prepare the fiber of their crop. (11) May be carrie(J 

 on in establishments of every degree of size or completeness. 

 (12) Suitable for the treatment of textile straw of all values, 

 from the finest flax to the coarsest hemp. (13) Practicable in 

 almost every country in the world where flax or hemp is grown. 



U. S. Patent for Retting of Hemp and Jute; invention of 

 Messrs. Luppens and Deswarte, No. 576,867; issued February 9th, 

 1897; patent gone out of force and now public property for gen- 

 eral use. May be obtained from U. S. Patent Office with full speci- 

 fications and drawings, price five cents. 



The use of tanks with false bottoms for artificial retting was 

 first adopted in America by an American named Schenk. The 

 use of tanks Schenk's system called for the use of hot water, 

 known as the American system. Others were tried, both in 

 America and Europe. The most successful was the above de- 

 scribed Luppens & Deswarte tank, which was a cold water sys- 

 tem. Tank retting in Mr. Brown's Microbe process, and also there 

 was a system called Mr. Boyce's Oliagenous Soap System. None 

 of the tank systems (except the Luppens) stood the practical 

 tests of the spinning machines, and even the plausible use of yeast 

 solutions, to hasten fermentation, also failed to materialize. 



The present fundamental principal concerning water retting 

 is that no river, pond, reservoir or tank will yield satisfactory re- 

 sults, IF THE WATER USED IS UNFITTED FOR THE PUR- 

 POSE, except Dew Retting, and that only utilizes the pure dew of 

 Heaven and the summery showers. Of course dew retting does 

 not secure as good or high priced quality of flax as suitable water 

 retting will produce, and as more than three-fourths of all the flax 

 retted in the United States is dew retted, I cannot exclude it from 

 my distinctively American system of fiber culture, and truly, with 

 all its faults, it occupies too important a place in our system of 

 fiber production to be ignored. Dew retting then is accomplished 

 by spreading the flax straw in thin layers on grass fields or 

 meadows where it is exposed to dew and rain for two or three or 

 more weeks, according to the state of the weather, and turning it 

 from time to time, as required. The turning is accomplished by 

 pushing a long pole under the flax straw as it lies on the grass, 

 turning it clear over. The ordinary test of the completion of the 

 retting is made by taking a few straws in both hands , with hands 

 held about four inches apart, backs of the hands upward, and 

 backs of the thumbs inward, and rubbing the straw up and down 

 between the thumbs to break the woody part of the straw, and if 

 the fiber separates freely from the central core it is sufficiently 

 retted and may be tied into shocks and stood up in the field with 

 the huts spread to facilitate drying. 



That the American system of flax treatment will utilize some 

 form of tank retting, I have no question, probably with arrange- 

 ments to secure a permanent artificial summer temperature, not 



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