44 
Report on the Agriculture of Behjium. 
crate for steeping, and 9 francs for drying, getting out the dust, 
(Sec, or nearly IU5. 6rf. for the whole operation. Formerly it was 
the custom to steep the flax only once, and then to bleach it in 
the sun by spreading it out on the grass ; but this mode, although 
still in vogue in small-farm districts, such as the Pays de Waes, 
is no longer practised on the banks of the Lys, for there the land 
is too valuable, and the quantity to be bleached in a given time is 
too great. Tlie flax is, therefore, now steeped a second time, in 
exactly the same manner, and at precisely the same cost as before, 
so that the total cost is one guinea per crate for preparation. 
The water of the Lys is found to be exceptionally well adapted 
for steeping flax, on account, it is supposed, of its extreme purity. 
The river has a tolerably rapid current, but not so rapid as to 
make the water turbid. At the slightest indication of a flood, all 
the crates are got ashore as soon as possible, to prevent mud, 
sand, or other impurities, being washed into the flax, as they 
would break the staple. 
Flax-steeping in still water as practised in the Polder districts 
in essentially the same manner as in the running water of the 
Lys, except that it is steeped once only, for a period of from 
12 to 14 days, and is afterwards dried and bleached in the sun, 
the latter process occupying about a fortnight in fine weather. 
As no stones of any description can be found in the Polder 
district, the crates are sunk by means of barrels filled with water. 
In the small-farm districts flax is steeped in flax-pits, and as the 
quantity which each farmer has to prepare is very small, he, or 
his wife, is able to give each sheaf, and almost each stalk, indi- 
vidually, a certain amount of attention. 
Another method of steeping flax, more primitive than any of 
these, is still practised extensively on very small holdings. The 
stalks are spread on the grass with wonderful neatness and regu- 
larity, and left there until dew, rain, and sunshine, have sufficiently 
decomposed the connecting tissue and bleached the flax-fibres. 
We thus have a water-system of steeping, an atmospheric system, 
and a combination of both. 
In all flax-steeping districts the smell of the decaying fibre is 
positively sickening ; but we are not aware whether it exercises 
any very injurious effect upon the inhabitants.* To us it seemed 
more like a smell of tallow than any other ordinary stench. 
The following extract from a Report on ' Flax Cultivation,' 
■from Mr. Lumley, Her Ma,jesty's Representative at Brussels, to 
the Earl of Clarendon, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 
received as these pages were being put into type, may also serve 
to illustrate this important subject : — 
* Compare the statements -which follow on pp. 45 and 46. 
