L I N 
7CG 
cofts about s 61 . If, however, the crop on an acre be 
worth 50I. and upwards, when an acre cultivated in the 
common way is worth no more than from iol. to 15I. the 
expense and trouble are well paid ; and the wood, when 
the crop is. gathered, is Hill good for fomething. This 
culture is- probably adopted with a view of drawing up 
the flax tall and (lender, for the purpofe of having the 
fibres finer, for the delicate fabrics of that country. 
It has been ftrongly recommended, iuftead of Keeping 
the flax in ponds or other cold-water, to feparate the boon, 
or pulp of the ftalk, from the bark, or fibrous part, which 
conftitutes the flax, by boiling it in water. If this pro- 
cefs fhonld be found to anf'wer as well as the common 
one, much time and labour would be laved, and the air 
and waters would not be poifoned as they now are where 
flax and hemp are fteeped. The flax would alfo probably 
be of a finer colour ; and the operation of bleaching would 
be fafer, and lefs tedious. Whether the lfrength of the 
thread would be improved or diminiihed, mult depend 
upon experience. We have one inftance of its fuccefsful 
application noticed in the Letters on Agriculture pub¬ 
lished by the Bath Society, vol. v. 1790. The mode, we 
believe, was firft recommended in the Gentleman’s Ma¬ 
gazine for June 1787. 
The culture of flax is very general in Perthfhire, but 
is not Carried to a great extent in any one place. The 
foot of every brook in the Highlands, where the water 
runs flowly, and plenty of fine l'ediment is depofited, car¬ 
ries amazing crops of lint. On the banks of large rivers, 
where the land is flooded by back-water, the lint is ge¬ 
nerally a good crop; and lint is raifed fuccefsfully, the 
fecond crop, after good clover-lay, which laves weeding; 
but this ought to be fparingly praclil'ed, becaufe it is a 
bad rotation. If perfons were at pains to preferve the 
feed, an inirnenfe fum would be faved annually. For this 
purpofe the Ihraves might be flacked till fpring ; and the 
feed might then be ealily rubbed elf by a roller, without 
injury to the rind ; the fheaves being laid head to head 
during the operation. The people have the whole hum¬ 
mer before them to water and drel's their lint. Or, if this 
procefs be thought tedious, or they think that they lie too 
long out of their money, the lint may be rippled a few 
days after it is pulled ; the capfules dried in the fun, or 
on a kiln, and the lint watered immediately, and dreffed. 
The feed ought to be changed annually from one foil to 
another. It mult be acknowledged that this crop makes 
no return of manure, and impoveriflies the foil to a great 
degree. But, when it is managed with judgment, it can 
purchafe manure, and bring a conliderabie profit befides ; 
nor does it rob the ground more than wheat, provided the 
land be fallowed whenever the crop is taken off. Clover 
and other artificial graffes grow, when fown with flax, 
better than with any other crop. 
In Ayrfhire, about feven pecks of flax-feed are ufually 
fown upon a Scotch acre, and, when the land is well pul¬ 
verized and duly weeded, produces at an average twenty 
Ifone of 241b. Englifh weight, worth about 12s. the 
ffone, or 12I, per acre. Two-pence a pound is paid for 
fcutching; id. for heckling or hatcheling; and, when the 
flax fpins into forty-eight cuts per lb. it will colt i6d. for 
fpinnjng. One cut is equal to five fcore threads, or turns 
of the reel; two cuts make one hear; twelve cuts one 
hank,-hafp, or (lip; four hanks, or forty-eight cuts, one 
fpindle. Flax worth is. per lb. ufually fpins from thirty- 
fix to forty-eight cuts per pound. Tow, or hards, is fold 
as low as sd. Flax capable of fpinning to feven fpindles 
per lb. is worth 7s. Linen cloth for home-confumption, 
worked in what is called a 1400 reed, colts about 7d. 
a-yard for weaving, and is worth 2s. 4d. or half a crown 
the yard. 
In Ireland, on mountain-lands they prefer American 
flax-feed ; upon heavy or cla.y-lands they fow Riga, Dutch, 
or Flanders, feed ; the quantity they get is more and bet¬ 
ter in quality than from the American, and will halt twen¬ 
ty years. For fine linens they never lave feed, pulling it 
U M. 
green; but for coarfe linens they fave a i much feed a* 
they can. The produce of the flax depends on its oili- 
nefs; and the goodnefs of the linen, on not being too 
much bleached. They plough their potatoe-land or har- 
ley-ftubble, once at the end of March or April, and then 
fow it. They weed the flax very carefully. They gene¬ 
rally pull it at the end of July, or beginning of Auguft, 
and immediately ripple it to get the feeds off; and then 
lay it into water from fix or feven to twelve days, accord¬ 
ing to the foftnefs of the water, trying it before they take 
it out. They generally lay it in bogs or pools, but rec¬ 
kon the bogs beft. When they take it out, they fpread 
it on meadow-ground from ten to fifteen days, according 
to the weather; if that be bad, much of it is loft. They 
dry it by laying it in heaps on a hurdle fixed upon pofts, 
and making a fire of turf under it. As fall as it dries, 
they beat it on flones with a beetle; then they fcutch it 
to feparate the heart, or the Jhovcs, from the reft. Mills 
are invented for this; and, if they ufethefe, they pay 13d. 
a-ftone for it. They next fend it to the flax-heckler, 
who gives it a fort of combing, and feparates it into two 
or three forts. In this (fate it is faleable. The crop is- 
from eighteen to forty-eight ftone per acre of flax, rough 
after fcutching; the medium thirty ftone, and it fells from 
6s. Sd. to 9s. the ftone. Much Dutch flax is imported ; 
alfo from Riga, Konigfberg, and Peterfburg. The flax 
may be flacked like corn, and threfhed in the fpring. 
From the foregoing accounts, and the refult of general 
experience concerning this crop, the following obferva- 
tions may be made. 1. That flax requires a rich dry foil, 
or fat Tandy loam, particularly that which is formed from 
the Pediment of great rivers; and that old grafs-land of 
this defcription is its molt proper matrix. It is, however, 
not unfrequently fown on arable land; and, when tbs 
foil is in heart, dry, friable, and clean, with good fuccefs. 
2. Much depends on the date of the foil at the time of 
fowii><r. It fhould be neither wet nor dry ; and the fur- 
face ought to be made as fine as that of a garden-bed ; 
for the crop fhould all rife together, and the furface fhouici 
be evenly feeded. If the plants come up at feveral times, 
or if by accident or mifmanagement they are thin upon 
the ground, the crop is irreparably injured. This will be 
the cafe in a feafon of drought ; or when fpring-frofts are 
fevere ; or when the crop is attacked by a fmall white ilug 5 
or when, the ground being full of clods, the feeds are not 
evenly difperfed, but, not being able to pierce the clods, 
come up in circles round them, leaving vacancies in the 
centre favouring their early branching; than which no¬ 
thing is more detrimental to the crop ; the goodnefs of it 
depending much on its running up with a Angle ftalk ; 
for, wherever it branches, the fibres terminate, and they 
are worked off in drefling. 3. If the crop be intended for 
thread of the firft quality, the time of pulling is when the 
feeds are formed ; but, if they be buffered to ripen, the 
advantage gained by the feed is balanced by the inferior 
quality of the-flax; the filaments being harfh, and the 
cloth made from them not taking a good colour in whiten¬ 
ing. It is alfo a great exhaufter of the foil, when it Hands 
for the feed to ripen. 4. The flax-crop interferes with 
harveft; and therefore ought to be confined to rich grafs- 
land diftrifls, where barvelt is a fecondary objeff, and. 
where exhauftion may be rather favourable than hurtful 
to fucceeding arable crops, by checking the too-great 
ranknefs of rich fiefh-broken ground. See Gypsophila, 
Lysimachia, and Polypremum. 
LI NUS. This name is common to different perfons 
whofe hiftory is confounded, and who are often taken one 
for the other.—One was fon of Urania, and Ampbimarus 
the Ion of Neptune.—Another was fon of Apollo by 
Pfammathe daughter of Crotopus king of Argos. Mar¬ 
tial mentions him in his 78th Ep. 1 . 9.—The third,- the fon 
of Ifmenius, and born at Thebes, in Boeotia ; or the fon 
of Mercury and Urania, according to Diogenes, who 
mentions fome of his philofophical compofitions, in which 
lie afferted that the world had been, created in an inftant. 
This- 
