386 



On tlie Cultivation of Flax. 



The cost of the machinery of a mill, consisting of the rollers 

 and 12 stands, is about 120Z. to 140/. exclusive of buildings and 

 motive power. A smaller set of rollers to break for 3 stands can 

 be made, but are not so efficient. All the casings of these mills 

 should be made of sheet-iron, ^vhich greatly diminishes the risk 

 from burning; and the handles or scutch-blades should also be 

 constructed of thin plates of iron, which are quite as efficient 

 as wood and do hot require renewal. 



The comparative merits of the two modes of scutching flax 

 must be judged of with relation to the peculiar circumstances 

 of the district in which flax is cultivated. Where labour is 

 superabundant, and it is an object to afibrd productive employ- 

 ment in order to avoid the claims that would otherwise arise for 

 parochial support, hand-scutching is decidedly the most suitable. 

 The comparative amount of employment affiarded by each system 

 may be learned from the follov.ing calculation: — A mill with 

 12 stands will break and scutch 80 stones (16 lbs, each) of flax 

 per diem, giving employment to 12 persons scutching and 2 

 breaking, at 2s. 6d. each, in all 11. 15s. 



The same quantity of flax scutched in the same time, by hand, 

 would require (taking 8 lbs. as the average out-turn of flax from 

 each individual) 160 persons, earning one penny per lb., which is, 

 in all, bl. 6s. 8d. 



One shilling per stone is the usual charge in the mills: but 

 the additional fourpence for hand-work is usually made up by a 

 larger yield of clean fibre, especially from fine flax ; since the 

 labourer can reg-ulate his stroke to the slreng'th of the flax, 

 while, with machinery, it is impossible to save it beyond a certain 

 point, and much of the fibre is often broken away, selling only as 

 "scutching tow," at about a tenth of the value of clean flax. 

 Women and young lads can work as w ell at hand-scutching as 

 men ; and the farmer can arrange the period for dressing his 

 flax according to the time when he has least work of other 

 descriptions for those dependent on him. To the cottier this 

 system is obviously the best, since it enables him to prepare his 

 flax at leisure, by means of the productive labour of himself and 

 the members of his family at periods when they have no other 

 occupation. In Belgium the winter is chosen to dress flax, and 

 the people work at it early and late ; many persons in England 

 pay more than one penny per lb. ; but it is not right to take a 

 higher basis in comparing the merits of the hand and machine 

 systems.* 



When labour is comparatively scarce and the farms large. 



* The farmers and flax dealers in Flanders pay eight to ten sous per 

 diem, and food, to their labourers employed in scutching flax. 



