88 
THE farmer’s HANCAL. 
pull when the blossoms begin to turn, and fall off, al- 
ter the Irish method, and rot it in the water, after the 
manner prescribed for rotting hemp ; {see hemp pro- 
cess.) 11^ you let it stand for seed, observe when the 
stalk begins to turn, and the under leaves fall off, then 
pull your flax, and, in both methods, bind up as you 
pull, in small bundles, and set up your bundles in small 
bunches, to dry ; or spread it upon the ground for se- 
veral days, if the weather is good, and then bind, and 
stack against the rains, in long stacks, with the buts, 
or roots out, and cover your stacks carefully with loose 
flax, that will shed off the rains, or your flax will be 
injured : the better way is to house your flax as soon 
as dried, as carefully as you have done your har- 
vest. Yoii may rot it in the water, or dew rot it, 
by spreading it upon your grass grounds, in Sep- 
tember, after the seed is carefully beat off by the 
flail, in the usual way of threshing, or beat ofl’ by 
hand, by whipping each sheaf across a barrel, or 
some other permanent body, such as a flax, or hemp 
brake, &c. The seed when cleaned is valuable^ 
either for the home, or foreign market, and commands 
a fair price, and good pay. No time can be fixed for 
rotting your flax, either in the water, or on the grass, 
both depend upon the warmth of the weather, and the 
latter upon the moisture of the season*. The success 
of your crop depends very much upon a suii^Je rot ; 
to obtain this, you must frequently dry a hand^l, and 
try it in your brake, and when the rot is perfect, lose 
no time in turning again your flax, to dry and take up ; 
and when dried, lose no time in housing it ; the least 
delay may expose it to a rain, at this season of the 
year ; this, if the weather is warm, or if cold and long, 
will injure, if not ruin your crop ; the same is equally 
true with your hemp. 
Next to your flax, your hemp claims your at- 
tention ; this requires a process somewhat dif- 
* When you rot flax'in the water, a ponJ or pit answers best; this 
confined water renders the flax soft, but will not answer for hemp. 
