432 
Flax- Farming in the Netherlands. 
burning the " chaff" from previous scutchings, namely, the out- 
side skin and the core of the straw, which are useless for any 
other purpose. This is burnt in a trough, and the flax-straw 
being placed in a layer just a safe distance above it, becomes 
practically dried. A more recent and less dangerous system is 
to place the straw on iron rods, about 2 feet above some large 
hot-air pipes, heated by an oven. After one or other of these 
processes, the sheaves are placed in a hot-air chamber, where 
the drying process is completed. 
Scutchinff. — The next step is the scutching, and this must be 
divided into two parts ; the first is a kind of crushing or break- 
ing between fluted rollers, either by the old hand-machine, 
through which the straw is passed two or three times until the 
skin is sufficiently broken, or by a power-machine of more per- 
fect construction. The latter is worked by a four-horse power 
horizontal donkey engine ; and by means of an eccentric 
actuating a cog-wheel the straw is worked to and fro between 
the fluted rollers until it gradually finds its way out on the 
other side. 
The second part of the scutching operation is generally per- 
formed by hand, but recently steam-power machinery has been 
devised and is already largely in use, for this purpose also. 
The process by hand may be thus described : — A bundle of 
flax prepared for the operation as already described is put into 
a notch in an upright board, so that by degrees more and more 
of the straw is made to hang over on the other side of the 
board. This overhanging portion is chopped at by the scutcher 
with a large, flat, and nearly square-bladed, walnut-wood chopper. 
He chops close to the notch in the upright board, and as he 
thinks that the straw is sufficiently decorticated, he pushes 
through an additional portion. Great skill is required to per- 
form this operation properly, and without destroying a large 
quantity of fibre. Men and women, boys and girls, are all 
employed at it during the winter ; they work by the piece and 
earn from 6s. Gd. to 10s. per week, but some few men can earn 
as much as 12s. per week. 
Machinery for Scutching. — Scutching by machinery is on the 
same principle — rotating wheels, armed with projecting choppers 
of wood or iron, taking the place of the hand-worked chopper. 
The operation is precisely the same as that just described, but 
it requires even more care, both on the part of the operator and 
on that of the manager. Experience alone seems to be a safe 
guide as to the speed at which the wheels ought to rotate. In 
one case I was told that for some kinds of flax 60 revolutions per 
minute were sufficient, while other kinds required as many as 150 
revolutions per minute. Although some of the samples of flax 
