Or the Cultivation of Flax. 



377 



ground and admit the air. This mode of drying is generally 

 requisite, but in very dry weather may be dispensed with, the 

 former plan sufficing, and the seed may then be taken off, and the 

 flax steeped. The seed may be thrashed out, or beaten out with 

 a tool made for the purpose {Fig. 2, p. 376). 



On the third system the same plan of drying is adopted, but, 

 instead of steeping the flax in the same season, it is stacked past 

 until the following year. The seed is taken off at leisure during 

 the winter. The most usual mode, in Belgium, of separating the 

 seed, is to spread two rows thinly on a barn floor, the tops meeting 

 in the centre, and tv/o labourers walk along the flax, facing each 

 other, and giving the tops repeated blows, alternately, with the 

 simple wooden instrument formed for the purpose. Jig. 2. By 

 this means all the seed is beaten off without any injury to the fibre 

 of the top- ends, which would be risked by rippling it in this dried 

 state. I have seen the seed taken off here by a thrashing-machine, 

 a bit of wood being inserted between the rollers to keep them 

 open, and the points of the flax inserted, when the beaters knock 

 off the seed. This mode, however, is not so safe, though much 

 more expeditious. 



To resume the operations, after pulling, with flax on the first 

 method, which is that which will be generally practised in this 

 country. The first is the steeping process. 



The stem of flax consists of three parts, the inner part, shove, 

 or wood — the pure fibre — and the gum-resin, which causes the 

 fibres to adhere together. Until the latter be completely sepa- 

 rated, the fibre cannot be obtained in a state fit for manufacture. 

 Mechanical means are quite inadequate for the purpose, as the 

 miion is too intricate. Chemical decomposition is, therefore, the 

 only way in which this end can be accomplished. Various modes 

 of effecting this decomposition have been tried. The use of 

 diluted sulphuric acid, of solutions of caustic-potash and soda, of a 

 strong ley of black soap, of lime, having all been tried, are liable 

 to grave objections, which oblige us to set them aside. The action 

 of water, at a certain temperature, seems as yet the only effectual 

 means of freeing the fibre from this gum, and preserving its inte- 

 grity. There are three modes by which this has been done : — 



1st. The spreading of flax upon the grass, exposed, for several 

 weeks, to the action of the atmosphere, dews, and rains. 



2nd. The steeping in slow currents of water. 



3rd. The steeping in pools or pits filled with water. 



The first of these is practised in the Walloon country and in the 

 United States of America. It is a tedious mode and attended 

 with many disadvctntages. It may, however, be adopted when there 

 is little water to be had for steeping, or when the water is of bad 

 quality. In Hainault, four weeks are considered sufficient for 



