Agricultural and Technical. 



193 



handfuUs are usually laid across each other, and subsequently 

 bound up into small sheaves ; these are set up in circular stooks, 

 the butts of each being spread out as much as possible, to allow 

 the air to have free access to them ; there they remain until 

 sufficiently dried, they are then either stacked in the field or at 

 the homestead ; or the seed is separated at once, and then merely 

 the stem or straw stacked. Many different modes both of stack- 

 ing- and separating the seeds exist ; probably the cheapest and 

 most efficient is to pass the straw through plain rollers, which 

 crush the capsule, and let the straw pass through uninjured. 

 The seed is separated from the capsule or " boll " by winnowing, 

 and the straw remains to be stacked in the usual way. Under 

 favourable circumstances we may expect an average crop to 

 produce from 30 to 40 cwts. of straw and 16 bushels of seed to 

 the acre. 



The crop now becomes divided ; the one portion is directly 

 serviceable to the farmer as a valuable feeding substance ; the 

 other, the straw, is comparatively of little value until it has 

 undergone certain processes by which its character is entirely 

 changed. These require a series of operations quite different 

 from those of the farm, and, in fact, constitute a distinct branch 

 of the flax industry, intermediate between the grower of the straw 

 and the consumer of its prepared fibre, the spinner. This 

 division of labour greatly benefits the grower, as supplying a 

 constant market for an article which a well-oro^anized establish- 

 ment can dispose of far more beneficially than he could do 

 at home, with imperfect means, and too often, imperfect know- 

 ledge. 



Before describing these various processes let us consider their 

 object, and the nature or composition of the substance they have 

 to treat. The object may be given in a few words, — -the separa- 

 tion of the fibrous from the other portions of the straw. If we 

 take a portion of straw, break it, and carefully examine it, it 

 will be found to consist of three distinct parts : — the centre is 

 occupied by a substance composed of cellular tissue, in appear- 

 ance like wood, this is usually called the shove " or "boon;" 

 round this is a tubular sheath composed of bundles of long and 

 tough fibres, cohering firmly together, the whole structure being 

 cemented together by an azotized compound, and enveloped by 

 a thin and delicate bark and skin. The structural arrangement 

 of the stem of the flax plant is beautifully described by Schacht, 

 from whose admirable treatise. Die Pflanzenzelle,* the accom- 

 panying plate has been obtained. If a piece of the dried 'stravr 

 be rubbed between the fingers the bark is immediately removed. 



* Physiologische Botauik, Die Pflanzenzelle; von Dr. Schacht. Berlin, 1S52. 

 VOL. XIV. O 



