4G0 



On the Cultivation of Flax, 



it is pulled if possible, or the day following at latest, especially 

 if the weather be bright and dry ; for the sun is apt to produce a 

 discoloration of the green flax, which steeping and bleaching 

 will not afterwards remove. 



The process of steeping green flax is in all respects the same 

 as when it has been dried, and the directions already given under 

 this head apply equally to each, as they do likewise to all the 

 subsequent stages of spreading, lifting, breaking, and scutching, 

 and they need not therefore be here repeated. It may however 

 be remarked that the water from the steep-pool, especially if the 

 flax be steeped green, constitutes a valuable manure either for 

 grass or arable land, and should not be allowed to run to waste if 

 it can possibly be prevented. 



Reference has been made to the peculiarly fine flax which 

 the Flemings raise for the purpose of making their fine lace and 

 cambric. This delicacy of fibre is obtained by sowing very thick, 

 pulling early, rippling the seed, and steeping green. The quan- 

 tity of this description of flax required is, however, comparatively 

 trifling, and need not therefore be further dwelt upon, than merely 

 to state, that by similar treatment a fibre of as great fineness and 

 delicacy may be obtained in this country as is now produced in 

 Belgium. Very thick sowing and early pulling, however, neces- 

 sarily involve a sacrifice of the seed, which would be an important 

 consideration if the practice were to obtain to any considerable 

 extent ; but this is not likely, for the reason above given. 



There is yet another way of preparing the flax, much resorted 

 to in the West of England, which ought to be noticed. It is called 



Dew-Retting, or Dew -Ripening. — By this process steeping is 

 altogether dispensed with, instead of which, the flax-stalks are 

 spread thinly on the grass, and allowed to remain (being turned 

 every three or four days) until the moisture from the earth and 

 the action of the atmosphere have decomposed the vegetable 

 matter connecting the fibre and the stalk, and thus allow of their 

 being easily separated. Dew-retting is generally practised by the 

 flax-growers in Somersetshire,* and is in fact equivalent to steep- 

 ing, but the process is slower, and the flax so prepared is gene- 

 rally much stained, and suited only for the coarser purposes, and 

 commands a proportionally low price in the market. 



A meadow is best for the purpose of dew-retting, there being 

 more moisture than on high land. The flax may be spread at any 



* I have inserted in Appendices B and C (pages 470 and 471), two 

 statements of the mode of cultivation pursued in Somersetshire, which I 

 obtained from two intelligent practical farmers resident in that county ; 

 and it will be useful to compare these statements with the directions 

 herein given for the management of the flax crop. 



