So moft of the land in 
defireable to introduce 
the kingdom, there is little doubt but that the produce will at firft be large, and it is very 
a new kind of grain into hulbandry to extend the fucceffion of crops. 
“ For the vie flit udes of various grain 
“ Tend to ptejerve the vigour of the plain.” 
Flax not only fupphes us with cloathing, but its feeds, well known by the name of lin-feed, afford an oil of great 
tile in painting, varnifhing, &c. _ They are alio iifed medicinally. Infufions of lin-feed, like other mucilaginous 
liquors, are uled as emollients, incraflants, and obtunders of acrimony, in heat of urine, ftranguries, thin 
defluxions on the lungs, and other like diforders. A fpoonful of the feeds, unbruifed, is fufficient for a quart of 
water, larger proportions rendering the liquor difagreeably flimy. The mucilage obtained by infpiflating the 
mruuons or decoCtions is an excellent addition for reducing diiguftful powders into the form of an eleduary, 
occalioning the compound to pafs the fauces freely, without flicking or difeovering its tafte in the mouth. The 
exprelied oil is fuppofed to be more of a healing and balfamic nature than the other oils of this clafs, and has been 
particularly recommended in coughs, fpitting of blood, cholics, and conflipations of the belly. The feeds in 
iubitance, or the matter remaining after the expreflion of the oil, are employed externally in emollient and 
maturating cataplafms. In fome places thefe feeds in times of fcarcity have fupplied the place of grain ; but 
appeared to be an umvholefome as well as an unpalatable food. Tragus relates, that thofe who fed on them in 
Zealand had the hypochondres in a fhort time diftended, and the face and other parts fwelled ; and that not a few 
died of thefe complaints. 
The following reflections communicated to me by a friend will, I flatter myfelf, not be unacceptable to my 
readers. Should practice juftify the theory, 1 will venture to fay, they will be golden reflections to the nation. 
Some reflexions relative to the watering of flax by a new method , fo as to Jhorten labour , add to the jlrengtb of the flax , and 
give it a much finer colour , which would render the operation of bleaching fafer and lefs tedious. 
THOUGH the following reflections have for their objeCt an improvement in the very eflential article of watering 
of flax, yet I muft advertile my reader, that they are only theory, and muft depend entirely for their truth and 
juftification upon future experiments, fkilfully and judicioufly made. Should repeated trials prove the advantage of 
the method propofed, we may venture to affirm, it would be an improvement that would increafe the national 
income in the agricultural branch many thoufand pounds annually, would add greatly to the perfection of the linen 
manufacture, and over and above would fupprefs a very difagreeable nuifance, which the prefent method of watering 
flax occafions during fome part of the fummer in every flax-growing country. 
The intention of watering flax is, in my opinion, to make the boon more brittle or friable, and by foaking to 
diflolve that gluey kind of lap that makes the bark of plants and trees adhere, in a fmall degree, to the woody part. The 
bark is called the harle, and produces the flax ; the ufelefs woody part, which remains when the bark is feparated, 
the boon. To effeCt this feparation eafily, the practice has long prevailed of foaking the flax in water to a certain 
degree of fermentation, and afterwards drying it. For this foaking fome prefer rivulets that have a fmall current, 
and others ftagnant water in ponds and lakes. In both thefe ways the water aCts as in all other cafes of infufion and 
maceration. After two or three weeks it extracts a great many juices of a very ftrong quality, which in ponds give 
the water an inky tinge, and offenfive fmell, and in rivulets mix in the ftream, and kill the fifh. 
Nay, if this maceration is too long continued, the extracted and fermented fap will completely kill the flaxitfelf: 
for if, inftead of two or three weeks, the new flax were to lay foaking in the water four or five months, I prelume 
it would be good for nothing but to be thrown upon the dunghill. Both harle and boon would in that time be 
completely rotted; yet the harle or flax, when entirely freed from this fap, and manufactured into linen, or into 
ropes, might be many months under water without being much damaged. As linen, it may be wafhed, fteeped, 
and boiled in fealding water twenty times, without lofing much of its ftrength : and as paper, it acquires a kind 
of incorruptibility. 
It appears then eflential, to the right management of new flax, to get rid of this pernicious.vegetative fap, and to 
macerate the boon ; but from the complaints made agaiuft both the methods of watering now in ufe, there is reafon 
to think, that there is ftill great room for improvement in that article. In rivulets, the vegetative fap, as it is 
diflolved, is carried off by the current, to the deftruCtion of the fiffi. This prevents the flax from being ftained ; 
but the operation is tedious, and, I have been told, often not complete, from the uncertainty of knowing the precife 
times when it is juft enough, and not too much, or perhaps from negleCt. In ponds, the inkv tinge of the water 
often ferves as a kind dye to the flax, which imbibes it fo ftrongly, that double the labour in bleaching will hardly 
bring the linen made of fuoh flax to an equality in whitenefs with linen made of flax untinged. This feems to be 
equally unwife, as though we were to dye cotton black firft, as a means to whiten it afterwards. Thefe ponds 
befides become a great nuifance to the neighbourhood : the impregnated water is often of fuch a pernicious quality, 
that cattle, however thirfty, will not drink of it, and the effluvia of it may perhaps be nearly as infectious as it is 
offiniive. If this effluvia is really attended with any contagious effeCts in our cold climates, a thing worth 
enquiring into, how much more pernicious mult its effeCts have been in the hot climate of Egypt, a country early 
noted for its greSt cultivation of flax ! 
From thefe confiderations I have been led to think, that the procefs of watering might be greatly improved and 
fhortened by plunging the new flax, after it is rippled, into fealding water, which, in regard to extracting the 
vegetative fap, would do in five' minutes more than cold water would do in a fortnight, or perhaps more than cold 
water could do at all, in refpeCt to the clearing the plant of that fap. Rough almonds, when thrown into fealding 
water, are blanched in an inftant ; but perhaps a fortnight macerating thofe almonds in cold water would not make 
them part fo eafily with their ikins, which are the fame to them as the harle to the flax_. Were tea leaves to be 
infufed in cold water a fortnight, perhaps the tea produced by that infufion would not be fq good to the' tafte, nor fo 
ftrongly tinged to the eye, as what is effected by fealding water in five minutes. By the fame analogy, I think, 
flax, or any fmall twig, would be made to part with its bark much eafier and quicker, by being dipped in boiling 
water, than by being fteeped in cold water. T his reflection opens a door for a great variety of new experiments in 
regard to flax. I would therefore recommend to gentlemen cultivators and farmers to make repeated trials upon, 
this new fvftem, which would focn afeertain whether it ought to be adopted in practice or rejected. One tiling, I 
' think. 
