1865.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
Ill 
is hurried away to be rotted as soon as practicable, before 
it has been allowed lo cure. The bolls, seed, and 
chaff aie all spread out on a floor and dried, and mingled 
with oats or barley, and ground into meal for feed. This 
constitutes the diffeience between rippling and threshing. 
Both green and dry bolls may be separated from the 
haulm by rippling, but green ones can not be threshed. 
Rotting or Retting.— After the seed has been sepa- 
rated the stalks are passed into the hands of the 
manufacturer, whose business it is to prepare the fibre 
for market by rotting and dressing it. If the r-roducer 
desires to perform a portion of this labor himself, he 
should understand what to do and how to do the work. 
The stalk straw or hatilm of flax consists of two parts, 
the fibre, which is the inner bark, and the shives, which 
is the woody interior portion, and which is also frequent- 
ly called shoove, shove, boon and hurl. The fibre ad- 
heres firmly to the stalk by means of a glutinous sub- 
stance, and the object of rotting the stalks is to 
dissolve and decompose the mucilage which holds the 
fibre and the woody parts so firmly together ; and when 
the flax is properly rotted, the shives will separate from 
the fibre as readily as bark will peel from a young willow 
sprout in early summer. There are two ways of rot- 
ting flax, preparatory to dressing it. One is called aeri- 
al lotting, and the other water rotting or steeping. 
Aerial or Dew Rotting— This is accomplished by 
spreading the flax on a smooth grass plot in long 
straight swaths, about half an inch thick. A lad goes 
before the man who spreads the flax and divides the 
bundles into handfuls, throwing them down where the 
swath is to be made. The spreader either bends his 
body forward, or squats down with the tops of the stalks 
toward him ; and with a quick motion spreads the 
handfuls as fast as they can be thrown to him. 
There are only two things to be observed when spread- 
ing flax, which are, to keep the butts even, and to spread 
it of a uniform thickness. Some men spread the swaths 
so closely that they touch each other. But I always pre- 
fer to leave a space of a few inches between the 
swalhs to prevent the tops of one being tangled with anoth- 
er. After it has lain a week or ten days, it should all 
be turned upside down, by running a long slim pole, say 
twenty feet long, beneath the swath, near the top ends 
of the flax, and let a man and a boy turn over a section 
of about twenty feet at once. I have always found that 
two hands would perform this part of the work better 
than one man could do it with a short pole; because 
every time a portion of a swath is raised, unless some 
one stands on the swath where the separation is to be 
made, it will be more or less tangled. 
The length of time required for rotting will depend en- 
tirely on the slate of the weather. If alternate rains 
and sunshine prevail, two, three, or four weeks will be 
sufficient. The length of time that flax has been spread 
must never be relied on as a correct guide for determin- 
ing whether or not it is rotted enough. There are cer- 
lain rules which all experienced flax growers understand, 
which will enable a beginner to determine correctly, 
when it is sufilciently rotted. The most reliable rule is, 
the stalks when dry if bent with the fingers, will snap 
like pieces of glass, and the shives separate freely from 
the fibre. Beginners should watch their flax everyday 
and apply this test, lest it be rotted too much, 
which will cause a great waste of good fibre. When 
flax has rotted loo much the fibre will separate from the 
shives at the junction of the main stem and brunches ; 
and sometimes the fibre of the main stems will separate 
from the shive; and portions of the stem will be seen in 
the form of an Indian's bow, when adjusted for the ar- 
row. It needs a Httle experience to determine the point 
at which flax is sufficiently rotted. 
Steeping or Water Rotting.— The true way of rot- 
ting flax is to steep i*. in water, because it cannot be well 
done by dew rotting If the weather be ever so favor- 
able, a good proportion of it will be rotted too much if it 
be kept on the ground until all the stalks are rotted 
enough. But when flax is steeped or water-rotted , there 
is greater uniformity in the process. In case it is kept in 
the water just long enough, it will all be rotted alike, and 
it will be done very much belter than it can possibly be 
accomplished by dew rotting. Moreover, flax can be 
rotted very much sooner by steeping, than by dew rotting, 
the object being simply to dissolve the mucilage that 
holds the fibre and woody parts together, so that they 
will separate readily as soon as the flax has been dried. 
Prepare a pond of water in the same way that a mill 
dam is constructed, with a waste gate in the dam, to let 
the water off at pleasure. A suitable place can be pre- 
pared on almost every farm at a trifling expense. The 
bundles must held in an erect position, a few inches from 
the ground, so that the water may pass both beneath and 
above them. For this purpose a platform may be made 
of rails or boards, and fastened down with stones or 
stakes. Then set up the bundles and drive down stakes, 
and nail strips of boards from one to {he other, ovui the 
tops of the bundles to keep them from rising out of the 
water w hich should be a few inches deep over the flax. 
Then shut the waste gate and let the pond fill. Some- 
times a crate is made, and launched on a mill pond and 
the bundles secured in it, when it is floated into deep 
water and sunk sufficiently with stones placed on 
the crate. Soft rain water is superior to spring water for 
rotting. While it is in the water a partial fermentation 
commences which must be arrested at the proper time, 
or the fibre will be damaged in proportion to the degree 
of fermentation beyond the proper state. 
When to Remove from the Steep.— As the process 
of fermentation will progress very slowly in cool weather 
and rapidly in warm, it is impossible to state any definite 
period of time for keeping it in the water. If the water 
were of the correct temperature, the process of rotting 
would be completed in six or seven days. The cooler 
the water is the longer the flax will be in rottine. After 
it has been steeping about five days it should be examined 
carefully every day, for the purpose of ascertaining when 
it is rotted just enough. Pull a few stalks out of diflfer- 
ent bundles in several places and break into pieces a 
few inches long and pull out the shives. If they separ- 
Fig. 8.— HAND-BRAKE. 
ate very freely from the fibre, the water should be let off 
without delay, and the flax spread out on clean grass to 
dry; and as soon as dry enough, It should be bound 
in large bundles and housed. 
BBEAKmo.— TAe Hajid- Brake, —Tig. 8 is a cheap hand- 
brake. The lower part consists of three slats of hard 
wood, 4 feet long. 5 inches 
wide, \}i inches thick, fas- 
tened firmly into the post of 
a building, at one end, and 
the other ends mortised in- 
to a frame. The upper edges 
of each slat should be dress- 
ed to an edge. Two blades of 
the same form and size are 
bolted in long mortises in 
the post, as shown, and the 
outer ends of these slats are. 
fixed in a block. Set the two 
upper opposite tiie spaces be- 
tween the lower slats ; and the 
edges of all, when shut to- 
gether, should be on the same 
level. A wooden pin in the head above the blades serves 
for a handle. The slats in brakes of this form are some- 
times made to shut betv\een one another, as a knife blade 
into its handle. This is a wrong construction, because 
when the edges of the slats pass by each other, they 
stretch and tear much of the fibre, and break out the 
shives no better. In using such a brake, crush a handful 
of straw between the slats, w^orking the upper p;irt 
up and down, moving the handful along, and turning it 
over, until the shives are well broken from end to end. 
Fig. 9.— GAVEL HOLDER. 
Fig. 10. — POWER BRAKE. 
For convenience in holding a handful while breaking It, 
make two sticks, (fig. 9,) about a foot long, and three- 
fourths of an inch in diameter, and tie them together, 
about 15 inches apart, with a small cord. The cord is 
Fig. 11. — scutching board. 
Fig. 13. SWIHGLE. 
passed around the handful of flax, as shown by the dotted 
line, and the two sticks are grasped with one hand. By this 
means a man can hold the flax firmly and keep it even, 
which he can not do with his hand alone, 
The Horse-Brake.—YX^yMe 10, shows a cheap revolving 
break, which is driven by horse, or water-power. It con 
sists of two fluted, or corrugated rollers between which 
the bunches of flax are passed repeatedly, until the stalks 
are broken so finely that the shives may be readily separ- 
ated by shaking and with the scutcher. The rollers are 
about two feet long, and six inches in diameter. The 
lower roller is stationary, and the bearings of the upper 
one play up and down in slots three inches long. This 
roller is held down to the other by iron rods, or sti'ips of 
band iron, which pass over the gudgeons and beneath a 
stick, which holds a tubful of stones. The weight can 
be increased at pleasure. A large driving pulley on the 
journal of the lower roller, gives them avelocity of about 
one hundred revolutions per minute. The rollers may 
be made of cast iron, or of wood covered with iron ridges, 
screwed firmly to its surface. A handful of flax is placed 
on the inclined feeding table, and a man catches it as 
the rollers bring it through toward him. He then places 
it again on the feeding table, and continues to run it 
through until it is thoroughly broken. After the flax is 
broken, the loose shives are shaken out, and the remain- 
der are scutched out. 
ScuTCHiNO.— Figure 12 represents a hand scutcher, or 
swingling knife. It is of hard wood, 2 feet long, with two 
edges. The hand scutching board is about 3 feet long, and 
one foot wide, with a notch as shown in the cut, and fasten- 
ed securely to a heavy block as shown in fig. 11. The 
length of the scutching board is regulnted by the stature of 
theman whouses it. Ahandfulof flaxisheld by the op- 
erator in one hand in the notch of the scutching board, 
when the knife is 
struck on it as if it 
were to be cut off 
on a line with the 
svirface of the 
board. The hand- 
fuls are turned 
over, and both ends 
are scutched until 
the shives are re- 
moved, A revolving 
power scutcher is 
shown in fig. 13. 
This consists of a 
wooden shaft, with 
a system of scutch- 
ing knives set in it, 
like the spokes of a 
wheel. These knives 
have but one edge ; 
and they must re- 
volve as true as a Fig. 13— power scutcher. 
mill stone. The shaft should make from one hundred 
and fifty to two hundred revolutions per minute ; it may 
be of any desirable length, with scutching knives every 
four feet. The knives revolve close to a scutching board. 
After the bunches have been well scutched, they are 
hatcheled. The teeth of a fine hatchel are about six 
inches long, one eighth of an inch in diameter at the large 
end, and taper to a sharp point. About 10 of these are 
set about one fourth of an inch apart, in a hard board, 
and the fibre is drawn through them until it is sufficiently 
lacerated and combed. The handfuls are fhen twisted a 
little, and packed in a clean box for market. In some 
markets, however, hatcheled fibre will command no 
larger price than the unhatcheled. because the process 
of hatcheling is the business of the spinner, and requires 
skilled labor to do it pioperly. An inexperience hatchel- 
er will waste a large per centage of good fibre. For this 
reason, flax growers should aim simply to remove the 
shives or " boon,'*, and leave the fibre as whole and long 
as possible, and let the spinner perform the hatcheling, 
unless dealers make a great difference in the price be* 
tweien the hatcheled and unhatcheled fibre. 
