PREPARATION OF LINT. 



87 



In the latter end of October, 1795, I observed vast fields of 

 lint in all that tract of country between the Seedlaw hills and 

 the Grampians, and not a little in other places, lying spread 

 upon the ground till the grass had almost covered it. If this 

 be the general practice, it is in a high degree prejudicial to 

 the quality of the lint. The excessive rains of that autumn 

 may have prevented the farmers from getting their flax dried, 

 after it was fully grassed and long enough on the field. But 

 why was it not set upon end ? Why were there no attempts 

 made to expose it to the wind during any intervals of dry 

 weather ? In the course of two months there must have been 

 some intermission of the rain. An enterprising farmer will 

 seize every favourable moment to forward the operations ia 

 which he is interested, and not sit, with his hands across, wait- 

 ing for a long tract of serene weather, which may not come, 

 till his all be lost. In the rainy climate of our insular situa- 

 tion, surrounded with high mountains, the business of the 

 husbandman must often, in any season, particularly in harvest, 

 be done in snatches, or not done at all. There are favourable 

 moments in all the business of life, especially in farming, which 

 if once past, a similar opportunity may never recur. I knew 

 a farmer, in such a season as is here alluded to, who saved his 

 crop, while his neighbours lost theirs, by employing his people 

 to work all night, and allowing them to lie by all day, because 

 the nights were fair and clear, with some wind and frost, and 

 the days rainy. 



In watering lint it is not uncommon to give it too little time 

 in the canal, and too much on the field. It were a more sen- 

 sible and safer procedure for securing the crop, and better also 

 for the quality of the lint, to let it lie in the water until it be 

 fully ready, and either not to spread it at all, or to give it only 

 a short time on the grass. It might be set upon end, like the 

 geats of corn, and exposed to the wind as soon as the water had 

 dropped from it, for a short space, on the brink of the canal ; 

 and if there was any doubt of its being fully watered, a little 

 more time might be given it in this situation. This is the 

 practice abroad in the lint-countries, and in some places at home. 

 The lint is thus watered equally, which is hardly possible on a 

 field, where the under part, which is always buried in grass 



