Studies on Flax Retting. 
By 
T. Tadokoro, Nögalcushi. 
Introduction. 
The cultivation of flax in Japan is chiefly confined to Hokkaido and its 
fiber manufacture is performed solely by a joint-stock company, Teikoku 
Seima Kabushiki Kaisha at Sapporo. 
The quality of the product depends largely upon the proper management 
of the retting process, though other mechanical treatments bear an important 
relation to it. The retting method followed in Japan at present is a cold 
water process. An opportunity was given us by the said company to 
examine this management thoroughly and the necessary materials were placed 
at our disposal for the present study. 
Investigations concerning the nature of the changes involved in flax retting 
are numerous in Europe and America but as yet no study has ever been made 
here. The conditions and the methods of retting under which the foreign in- 
vestigations have been made, differ naturally from those in Japan. Besides, 
the investigations already made seem to us to be of a partial and incomplete 
nature. All of the reported microscopical investigations are confined to the 
fiber bundles and their cementing materials. Such is the case also with 
chemical studies. So far as we can find, no study has been made which 
covers the whole extent of the retting phenomena or the changes in different 
stages of retting. 
