It is obvious that the fermentation must stop at the proper time. This is observed to be just when the fiber separates easily and freely from the woody stalks. The straw should then be removed from the water and spread out thinly and allowed thoroughly to dry. When dry, the straw goes to the " break." The hand-break was a large wooden mallet which fitted into a V-shaped bed-piece and was worked up and down by hand. The power-breaks vary in style, but consist essentially of corrugated rollers which dra'iv the straw through and at the same time crinkle the fiber and break the shives into small pieces. From the break the broken straw is scutched and hackled, i. e., pounded by hand or pulled over a series of rapidly revolving fingered rollers to remove the chives.
In scutching, the broken straw is held in hand fuls against revolving paddles which beat off the shives. In hackling, the scutched fiber is drawn by hand across sets of fixed upright steel pins to comb, separate and straighten the fibers. Machine hackles are used for cheaper grades in some mills.
In the early days the fiber went to the loom with out further preparation or treatment. But the latter-day American must have his linen immacu late and uncolored by threads of natural color. For this reason the fiber goes through a boiling and bleaching before it is made into cloth. This practice, to a certain degree, is detrimental to the lasting quality of the cloth.
This, however, does not apply to American-grown flax, as this flax is not used for fine linens. Shoe thread, carpet-yarns, fishing-lines and seine-twines are products of the best American flax, and buck tsweling or crash from the tow. (Tow is the coarse nod broken material resulting from scutching.) As vet. manufacturers use the American-grown t' ix fiber only for making the coarse grade of cloth icrash, so-called "Russian linen," toweling). All of the fiber for making the finer linens is im ported from Europe. The American farmer must soon learn the necessity of producing flax with a long-line fiber. In this work the various experi ment stations will prove a valuable source of aid.
Binding twine.—The making of binding twine from flax is a new industry. For this the flax does not require retting. It is bought from the farmer and delivered unthreshed, as it was cut and cured, from the field to a baling station. The company bales it and ships it to a warehouse to become thor oughly dry. When dry, the straw is passed through a tempering tunnel, on an endless moving apron. Here it is heated to drive off any excess moisture. It next passes sidewise through a heading and break machine. The straw comes ont fluted,with the shives broken, and falls on a moving platform which con veys it into a slowly revolving spiked apron. On the
moving apron a small quantity of heavy, coarse fiber (similar to sisal) is added to give the twine sta bility. From the spiked apron it is removed by a very rapidly revolving spiked apron which draws the strand out and brings it to a common center, where it is delivered into a tall, cylindrical basket. These baskets of fiber are fed into other machines which draw the strands out more and aid in remov ing the last of the shives, and which again deliver the strands to baskets. From these the fiber is fed into the twiner and skeiner, a machine which twists the twine and reels it on large wooden spools. These spools are taken to the bailers, where the twine is reeled off and wound into balls. The balls are then baled the same as other binding twine. A tester takes an occasional ball and tests its strength and length to see that the output is held up to a good average.
As yet, there is no cordage but binding twine being manufactured. It is but a question of time when American flax will be manufactured into all grades of cord and thread and rope.
Miscellaneous uses.—For upholstering and similar purposes, flax fiber is being used extensively in the Northwest. The so-called tow mills receive the straw from the farmers just as it comes from the threshing machine, and put it up in bales and ship it to the central market or factory. One extensive industry is located in Minnesota. At this place the fiber is chemically prepared and passed into layers of different thicknesses. The thinner ones are sewed between two pieces of building paper. Such mate rial is used for insulating, cold storage, refrigerator cars, ice-boxes, and the like.
Exhibiting.
There has been as yet no attempt, so far as the writer is aware, to gather the flax and its various products (in process of manufacturing) for exhibition purposes. At the Minnesota Experiment Station the writer is gathering samples of mate rial illustrative of the various steps in the develop ment of flax from the seed to the manufactured products, with a view to having a connected museum history of flax. Such an exhibit will be of immense value from an educational standpoint, and would very properly occupy museum space in any educa tional institution, at agricultural expositions and fairs. It is seldom that anything but the seed is exhibited. A few bundles of the mature straw are often used for decoration. These are not generally so labeled that the average visitor knows what they are. Managers of expositions and fairs, as well as exhibitors, have much to learn in improving the manner of display.