Agricultural and Tecluiical. 



107 



in 1848 ; now there are upwards of 20 at work in the different 

 provinces of Ireland, besides several in this country ; consuming 

 between 30,000 and 40,000 tons of straw annually. In this 

 the principle of fermentation is the same as in the old process, 

 but is now placed under the control of the operator, who can 

 regulate the action of the steep according to the quantity of the 

 flax, or the article he wishes to produce. An important saving 

 in time is effected ; from 72 hours for the fine qualities to 96 

 hours for the coarse only being required, instead of from 2 to 3 

 weeks ; and a more regular and certain fibre is obtained. 



The temperature of the steep is kept between 80° and 90% 

 and regulated at will by the attendant. Here, however, we have 

 the same destructive fermentation at work as in the ordinary 

 steeping ; under a certain control, it is true, but generating the 

 same foul and offensive gases. These gaseous exhalations, which 

 far and near stamp the unpleasant proximity of a rettery, have 

 been examined by various chemists, and have been found to 

 consist chiefly of carbonic acid and hydrogen in nearly equal 

 parts, with combinations of both sulphur and phosphorus with 

 hydrogen. The fermentation appears to be of a peculiar cha- 

 racter, merely traces of acetic acid being found, while butyric 

 acid is generated in large quantities. In fact, the fragrant butyric 

 ether, so extensively used as a flavouring substance, especially 

 in the preparation of " pine-apple rum," might readily be col- 

 lected in considerable quantities from the stinking water of the 

 steeping pools. 



At the Belfast Meeting of the British Association last year 

 an interesting paper was read by Professor Allman (Trin. Coll., 

 Dublin), ' On the Development of the Fermentation Fungus in 

 the Fluid of the Warm-Water Flax Steeps ;' in which he gave 

 the details of his examinations of the process of steeping by 

 Schenck's patent. The various phases in the development of 

 the minute organism constituting the fermentation fungus were 

 described, and which he found to be analogous with those 

 noticed in the fermenting state of other albuminous liquids. By 

 putting some of them into flax-vats where the fermentation was 

 not commenced it is very much accelerated ; and he suggested 

 the question as to whether or not it would be advantageous to 

 apply the principle practically to the process of steeping. In 

 new vats it is always found that the fermentation is not set up 

 so readily as in old ones, which may be accounted for by the 

 fact that some of these cells formed previously adhere to the 

 wood, and thus act at once upon the fluid when placed in the 

 vat. This suggestion of Prof. Allman has been adopted, and 

 found to succeed. Some years ago a method of accelerating 

 the steeping process was in operation on the Continent, where 



