Agricultural and Technical. 



189 



factured state as linen ; and on various Egyptian monuments the 

 plant and the preparation of its fibres are represented. 



In the Book of Exodus* it is noted as one of the principal 

 crops grown in Egypt. Being one of the chief sources whence 

 the Egyptians derived articles of comfort and luxury, it was 

 selected by the Almighty for destruction when he sent the 

 plague of hail as a judgment on that people. From the Book of 

 Joshuat we find that fiax was cultivated in Palestine, when it is 

 stated that Rahab used flax to hide the spies sent by Joshua to 

 examine Jericho. 



In the history of Samson,^ also, reference is made to flax as 

 being a well-known crop. Many allusions are made to it in its 

 prepared and manufactured state, both in the Old and in the 

 New Testaments, § all of which refer to the same plant we now 

 term flax, and which is the same as that known by the Hebrew 

 name " Pishtah," and by the Greek name " Linon." 



We have also ample records of its cultivation in the days of 

 Greece and Rome. Columella || speaks of it as a hurtful crop, 

 which exhausts the land, and which he says " should not be 

 grown unless there is reason to expect a very great crop, and one 

 is tempted by a very great price." Virgil \ joins it with oats 

 and poppies, and says " that all these exhaust the soil." 

 Palladius*'^ expresses the same opinion. Pliny,'!'"]" while condemn- 

 ing it as a crop, moralizes over it and asks, " what greater 

 miracle than that there should be a plant which makes Egypt 

 approach nearer to Italy ; that there should grow from so small 

 a seed, and upon so slender and short a stalk, that which, as it 

 were, carries the globe itself to and fro." By this we must 

 infer that its use both in the shape of ropes and sailcloth was 

 well known ; and in the succeeding chapters we are informed 

 that many nations used it when woven into linen as wearing- 

 apparel. Pliny is the only author who enters minutely into the 

 details, both of its cultivation and subsequent preparation. He 

 speaks chiefly of spring-sown flax. According to the other 

 authors flax w^as sown usually in the autumn, in the months of 

 October and November, when 8 modii\\ of seed were sown upon 

 the jugerum^ whereas 10 were required for the spring sown, the 

 land having been previously manured. The harvesting and 



* Ex. ix., V. 31, 32. t Josh, ii,, v. 6. t Judges xv., v. U. 



§ Prov. xxxi., V. 13-19; Is. xix., v. 9; 1 Sam. ii., v. 18; 2 Sam. yL, v. 14; 

 Jer. xiii., v. 1 ; 1 Kings, x., v. 28 ; 2 Chron. i., y. 16 ; Ezek. xiv., v. 3; Hos. ii., 

 y. 5-9, and other places. 



II Columella, lib. ii., cap, x. 



■[I Georg., lib. i,, v. 77. " Urit enim lini canipum scges, urit avenae." 



Palladius, lib. xi., cap. ii. f f Pliny, Nat. Hist., lib. xix, proa}m. 



XX The Roman modus was about the same as the English peck. The jugerum 

 was equal to '618 of an acre. 



