146 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
We would remark that the directions in our 
last under the section “ Saving the Flax,” has 
reference to the patent mode of steeping with 
hot water, or steam, known as Schenk’s method; 
for it must not be inferred that the flax straw 
thus saved is ready for the spinning-mill with¬ 
out such steeping process, previous to scutching 
or separating the bark from the fibre—this is 
not the case,—but we shall speak of this again. 
The following are the portions of the report 
omitted in our last weeks article: 
Pulling — The time when flax should be 
pulled is a point of much nicety to determine. 
Toe fibre is in the best state befot e the seed is 
quite ripe. If pulled too soon, although the fibre 
is fine, the great wa-te in scutching and hack¬ 
ling renders it unprofitable; and if pulled too 
late, the additional weight does nor compensate 
for the coarseness of the fibre. It may b. 
stated, that the best time for (lulling is, when 
the seeds are beginning to change from a green 
to a pile brown cO ; or, and the stalk to b come 
yello v, ('or about two-thirds of its height from 
the ground. 
Rippling —Which should be carried on at 
the same time, and in the same field, with the 
pulling If the only advantage to be derived 
from rippling was the comparative ease with 
which rippled flax is handh d, ihe practice oughi 
always to be adopted; but, besides this, th' 
seed is a most valuable part of the crop, being 
worth, if sold for the oil mill, £3 per acre, and 
if used for feeding stock of ah k.nd-, at lea.-t £l 
per acre. Toe apparatus i- very simple. Th< 
rippie co isists of a row of iron teeth screwed 
into a dock of wood. This can be procured i.. 
Belfast, or may bo made by any bandy black¬ 
smith.* [i is to be taken to the field, where 
tiie fiax is being puiled, and screwed down to 
the center of a nine feet plank, resting on two 
stools. The ripplers may either stand or sit 
astride at oppo ite en Is. They should be a; 
such a distance from the comb as to permit oi 
their striking it properly and alternately. A 
winnowing sheet must be placed under them, to 
receive the bolls as they are rippled off; and 
then the ripplers are ready to receive the flax 
just pulled, the handfuls being placed diagonally, 
and bound up in a sheaf. Tne sheaf is laid 
down at the right hand of the rippler, and un¬ 
tied. He takes a handful with one hand, about 
six inches from the root, and a little nearer the 
top with the other. He spreads the top of the 
handful like a fan, draws the one-half of it 
through the comb, and the other half past trie 
side; and, by a half turn of the wrist, the same 
operation is repeated with the rest of the bunch. 
Some, however, prefer rippling without turning 
the hand, giving the flax one or two pulls through, 
according to the quantity of bolls. The fiax 
can often be rippled without being passed more 
than once through the comb. He then lays the 
handfuls down at his left side, each handful 
crossing the other, when the sheaf should be 
carefully tied up and removed. The object ot 
crossing the handfuls so carefully, after rippling 
when tying up the beets for the steep is, that 
they will part freely from each other when they 
are taken to spread out on the grass, and not 
interlock, and be put out of their even order, as 
would otherwise be the case. If the weather be 
dry, the bolls should be kept in the field, spread 
on winnowcloths, or other contrivance for dry¬ 
ing ; and, if turned from time to time, they will 
win. Passing the bolls first through a coarse 
riddle, and afterwards through fanners, to re¬ 
move straws and leaves, will facilitate the dry¬ 
ing. If the weather be moist, they should be 
taken in-doors, and spread out thinly and evenly 
on a barn floor, or on a loft, leaving windows 
and doors open, to allow a thorough current of 
air, and turned twice a day. When nearly dry, 
* The best ripples are made of half-inch square rods of 
Iron, placed with the angles of iron next the ripplers, 3-l6ths 
of an inch asunder at the bottom, half an inch at the top, 
and 18 inches long, to allow a sufficient spring, and save 
much breaking of flax. The points should begin to taper 3 
inches from the top. 
they may be taken to a corn kiln, (taking care 
not to raise it above summer beat,) and carefully 
turned, until no moisture remains. By the above 
plan of slow drying, the seed has time to imbibe 
all the juices that remain in the husk, and to 
become perfectly ripe. If it be taken at once 
from the field, and dried hurriedly on the kiln, 
these juices will be burned up, and the seed will 
become shrivelled and parched, little nutritious 
matter remaining. In fine seasons, the bolls 
should always be dried in the open air, the seed 
threshed out, and the heaviest and plumpest 
used for sowing or crushing. The light seeds 
and chaff form most wholesome and nutritious 
feeding for cattle. Flax ought not to be allowed 
so stand in the field, if possible, even the seconi 
day; it should be rippled as soon as pulh.d,and 
earned to the water as soon as possible, that it 
may not harden. 
Watering —This process requires the greatest 
care and attention. River water is the be.-t. 
If spring water has to be used, let the pond be 
rilled some weeks, or months, if possible, betorc 
me flax is put in, that the sun and air may 
soften the water. That containing iron or other 
mineral substances should never be used. It 
river water can be had, it need not be let into 
the pond sooner than the day before the flax is 
to be steeped. The best size of a steep pool i.- 
12 to 18 feet broad, and 3^ to 4 leet deep. 
Place the flax loosely in the pool, in one layer, 
-omewhat .-loped, and in regular rows, with the 
loot end underneath; the tie of each row of 
sheaves to reach the roots of the previous one; 
cover with moss sods, or tough old lea sods, cut 
tnin, laid perfectly close, the sheer of each fitted 
o the ottier. Before putting on the sods, a 
layer of rushes or rag-weeds is recommended to 
he placed on the fiax, especially in new ponds. 
As s.ids are not always at hand, a light cover¬ 
ing of straw may do, with stones laid on it, so 
as to keep the flax just under the water; and 
as the fermentation proceeds, additional weight 
should be laid on—to be removed as soon as the 
fermentation ceases, so as not to sink the flax 
too much in the pool. Thus covered, it never 
si.iks to the bottom, nor is affected by air or 
light. A small stream of water, allowed to run 
through a pool, has been found to improve its 
color. In this case, if the pools are in a line, the 
stream should be conducted along the one side, 
and run into each pool separately, and the water 
of each pool run off, along the opposite side, in 
a similar manner. It will be sufficiently steeped, 
in an average time, from eight to fourteen days, 
according to the beat of the weather and nature 
of the water. Every grower should learn to 
know when the fiax has had enough of the wa¬ 
ter, as a few hours too much may injure it. It 
is, however, much more frequently under-wa.- 
tered than ocer-watered. The best test is the 
following: Try some stalks, of average thick 
ness, by breaking the shove , or woody part, in 
two places, about six or eight inches apart, 
at the middle of the stalk; catch the broken bii 
of wood, and if it will pull freely out, down¬ 
wards, for that leruith, without breaking or 
tearing the fiber , and with none of the fiber ad¬ 
hering to it, it is ready to take out. Make this 
trial every six hours, after fermentation sub¬ 
sides, for sometimes the change is rapid. Never 
lift the flax roughly from the pool, with forks or 
grapes, but have it carefully handed out of the 
flax-drain by men standing in the water. It is 
advantageous to let the flax drain twelve to 
twenty-four hours, after being taken from the 
pool, by placing the bundles on their root ends, 
close together, or on the flat, with the slope; 
but the heaps should not be too large, other¬ 
wise the flax will be injured by heating. 
There are two new systems of steeping or 
retting flax, on a large scale, now in operation. 
The one is by hot water, or what is called 
Schenck’s method; and the other by steam, or 
Watt’s method. In both cases they are carried 
on, on a large scale, by persons who purchase 
the flax straw from the farmers, as pulled and 
dried on the Courtrai system described at page 
133, under caption “Saving the Flax.” 
Spreading — Select, when possible, clean, 
short, thick- pasture ground for this operation ; 
and mow down and remove any weeds that rise 
above the surface of the sward. Lay the flax 
evenly on (he grass, and spread thin and very 
equally. If the directions under the head of 
rippling, have been attended to, the handfulls 
will come readily asunder, without entangling. 
Turn it two or three times while on the grass 
(with a rod about eight feet in length, and an 
inch and a half in diameter,) that it may not 
become of different shades, by the unequal ac¬ 
tion of the sun, which is often the case, through 
inattention to this point. Turn it when there 
is a prospect of rain, that the flax may be 
beaten down a little, and thus prevented from 
being blown away. 
Lifting —Six to eight days if the weather be 
showery, or ten to twelve if it be dry, should be 
sufficient on the grass. A good test of its be- 
ng ready to lift is, to rub a few stalks from the 
top to the bottom; and, when the wood breaks 
easily, and separates from the fibre, leaving it 
sound, it has had enough of the grass. Also, 
when a large pronortion of the sta’ks are per¬ 
ceived to form a bozo and string from the fibre 
contracting and separating from tile woody stalk. 
But, the most certain way is, to prove a small 
quantity with the hand-break or in a flax mill. 
In lifting, keep the lengths straight and the 
ends even, otherwise great loss will occur in the 
rolling and scutching. Let it be set up to dry 
for a few hours, and afterwards tie it up in 
small bundles; and, if not taken soon to be 
scutched, it will be much improved by being 
put up in small stacks loosely built, with stones 
>r brambles in the bottom to keep it dry, and 
alio v a free circulation of air. Stacks built on 
pd ars would be the best. 
Diyiug —By fire, is always most pernicious. 
If properly steeded and grassed no such drying 
is necessary; but, to make it ready for break- 
rig and scutching, exposure to the sun is suffi¬ 
cient. In some districts it is put to dry on kilns, 
n a damp state, and is absolutely burned before 
it is dry, and the rich oily appearance of the 
flax is always greatly impaired. On this point 
the Society can scarcely speak too strongly, as 
the flax is either destroyed or rendered not worth 
one-half of what it would be if properly pre¬ 
pared. 
Breaking and Scutching —If done by hand, 
should be on the Belgian sys em, which is less 
wasteful than that practised in Ireland. If by 
milling, the farmer will do well to select those 
mills in which the improved machinery has 
been introduced. The Society would also re¬ 
commend that the farmer should endeavor to 
nave bis flax scutched by a mill-owner who 
pays his men by the day, and not by the stone, 
even if it should cost him higher in proportion ; 
ihe system of paying the scutchers by ttie stone 
rendering them more anxious to do a large 
quantity in the day than to produce a good 
yield from the straw. 
This mode of watering and drying is adopted 
by farmers in Ireland who grow flax in limited 
quantities, and are not within reach of what is 
now called the improved steeping process. 
(Schenck’s or Watt’s. 
In our next we purpose giving some hints as 
to the value of flax seeds for oil and for feed. 
Lucky Yield from Plowing. —A colored man, 
while plowing on the larrn of Mr. S. Hulster, 
about a mile from Richmond, Va., struck an old 
iron pot containing a number of Mexican dollars, 
amounting, it is said, to $150 or $200. Tne 
deposit of this treasure was said to have been 
made by an old man named James Housen, a 
Creole, who was posse.-sor of this farm for sev¬ 
eral years previous to 1816. 
——»♦♦-— 
Flax. —Great Britain has imported from Rus¬ 
sia $26,000,000, worth of flax every year, and 
as the ports ot that nation are now closed by 
ihe war, the demand will be greater than it haa 
previously been. 
